One of the things I find myself doing all the time is working with a bunch of distractions. This could be as large as being near someone who is noisy and as small as fiddling with my choice of music every few minutes. The possibilities for distraction are practically infinite.

This phrase sounds like a failure. If you tell someone that what you did was “good enough”, the reaction might be that you didn’t try very much. We can be hard on ourselves for only doing something that is passable instead of great.

When I was an undergraduate, my instinct with every class was to give all that I had. I would put in massive efforts, making sure that I could honestly say that I did my best in everything. This strategy worked well for my academics, but the problem was that it neglected the need for rest, or modulation.

Deciding to take action and embark on a project is scary. After all, it feels like you have to be perfect in every moment, or else it will reflect badly on the work. This is even more true when you’re working on a project that’s very important to you. There’s a perfect, idealized version of it in your mind, and then there’s the reality. It’s almost always a disappointment. As a result, we become conditioned to avoid doing difficult work.