Let your work become exceptional while your ego remains ordinary.

The best work usually comes from people who are demanding about the output and unremarkable about themselves. Keeping your ego ordinary is not modesty for its own sake. It is what leaves you able to hear criticism, throw out a version you were attached to, and ask for help without feeling diminished, all of which the work depends on.

Notice which you defend more readily, the standard or your own standing. If it is your standing, that is where the drag on the work is coming from. Try inviting one honest critique this week and doing nothing with it but improving the thing.