Moments D342: Supererogation

This word came into my life sometime last year from a friend of mine from work. He was surprised at my consistent drive to always do better and/or more. I needed him to explain the word to me with more words.

It is a philosophical term that labels actions “beyond the call of duty”. Today was one of those days that I would have agreed with my co-worker. I went above and beyond the call of duty.

I've been working on this group assignment for what feels like forever. It was originally due last Tuesday which was then pushed out to Thursday, which was then pushed out to this coming Thursday. Great right? No, not really. There were errors in the data supplied for the case study. My group found those errors. Extra time to work on it, means putting more energy and attention into the project and not on my readings. (After all there is only so much time to go around!) Tonight, I worked hard to pull together the assignment so that I could hopefully spare myself a few hours to slide into my readings. I only have 10 days left before I write my 50% final exam. I'm starting to sweat it. Much to do and time is running out.

But back to tonight and going above and beyond. I spent my night working on one portion of the overall project. This section, in its entirety, is 5 pages deep. It’s thorough; it offers charts and tables and much commentary. I really don't think I needed to go into the depth that I did.

But - it’s a case study that we are working on. I put myself in the fictitious client’s shoes and realized that I would want a lot more detail. And so, I gave it to them. Lots and lots of details and information.

It wasn't until I finally handed over my document to my team mates that I realized my friend from work was right. I have a problem with supererogation. I can’t just do the minimum when I know I can offer more.

It was then that I tried to remember this crazy word. I was inspired with it once again and knew that I would write about it in today's blog.  Google failed me when I search for “beyond the call of duty”. And then, surprisingly, my brain kicked in and remembered the word. Isn't that just fitting? I had a good giggle in that moment.

So today’s moment is about supererogation - going beyond the expected and being pleasantly surprised with the results.

I'm also going to tag brain power today as a moment. It’s not very often that my brain supersedes a Google search!

Moments pushing the limits.
Moment to learn a new word!

p.s. if you are interested, I found this philosophical article about supererogation….check it out!