A lifeguard’s best shift is the one where nothing happens because she never stopped watching.

Prevention leaves no evidence, which means the best version of some work is indistinguishable from an easy day. Nothing happened because somebody was watching, and from outside that looks the same as nothing happening anyway. You have to be able to value work that produces no story, in yourself and in other people. Quiet competence is the most under-recognised kind there is.

Give yourself credit this week for something that did not go wrong. Ask who else is quietly preventing problems around you and thank one of them. Then keep doing the unremarkable work that produces the uneventful day.