The Swedish word lagom means "just the right amount".
Nordic countries occupy half of the first 10 places, 4 of the first 5 places, and all 3 of the top 3 in the ranking of the United Nation’s 2017 World Happiness report. The result is pretty sustainable in the years too. What can we learn from this region of the world where you can have more than 30 days of pure darkness and 50 days of pure daylight? The community of lifestyle minimalists, whose credo is to live a simple, yet long and fulfilling life of minimal physical and emotional clutter, may have come to a possible answer. And this answer is LAGOM.
According to Wikipedia LAGOM is a Swedish word that means “just the right amount”. Other ways that you can find it described in the media and by minimalists is moderate, enough, sufficient, balanced, adequate, just right.
Now imagine what a LAGOM day at work could be like. You wake up at just the right time to go through a just the right morning routine so you can show up at work in just the right state of mind and appearance, do just the right efforts to complete your job just right in line with the expectations of your manager, your colleagues, your clients. You get just the right recognition and remuneration for the achievement of your goals, yet you are not exhausted, nor you give in to complacency, thus keeping up th e motivation to continue delivering in a sustainable manner to the overall plan. You eat a balanced just right lunch in between and you have sufficient just right time to prepare for the next day, thus minimising any stress that might distract you from going to bed at an just the right hour prior to enjoying sufficient and just right free time. You wake up again next the morning, adequately and just right rested and refreshed to enjoy a new day.
Depending on the type of person you are, at first this might sound anywhere between “dream come true” to “zzzzzzz, totally boring”. It is neither. It is just LAGOM — balanced, moderate, enough.
Now imagine a company that always delivers exactly and just right what it promises to their customers, according to their expectations, not exceeding, remunerates exactly and just right what is right to their employees, rewards the shareholders with not too little, but also not too much so just right dividends so it can retain sufficient and just right funds to invest in R&D so it can maintain its market share and competitive advantage. That would also be LAGOM.
“I am so busy”, “I have so much to do these days”, “I am overloaded” — those are the answers you will most likely get these days when you inquire someone how they are doing at work. If only they could bring some LAGOM in their lives, that would make a positive difference to the level of their happiness and the results of their organisation. Just ask the Swedish people.
You can find our more on LAGOM by just googling it, or: