A rubber band is only useful when it’s stretched. Too much and it snaps. Find your useful tension.

A certain amount of strain is what makes you work. With none at all nothing holds together and nothing improves, and past a point the same force that was making you capable starts taking you apart. The useful range sits between slack and shredded, and where it falls is personal rather than heroic.

Score your current load out of ten and notice whether you are nearer bored or nearer breaking. If you are at nine, drop one commitment this week instead of waiting for it to drop you. If you are at two, add something that scares you slightly.