The thing that makes life pleasant need not also become the thing that makes you impressive.

GRATITUDE

WHAT THIS MEANS

A pleasure can survive without being turned into an achievement. Cooking, running, playing an instrument, growing things: each starts as something you enjoy and can quietly acquire a scoreboard, an audience and a standard to defend. Once that happens the enjoyment has to compete with performance, and it usually loses. Not everything you are good at needs to be evidence of anything.

Pick the pleasure you have been quietly professionalising and take one measurement away from it. Do not post it, time it or compare it for a week. See whether it feels lighter without the reporting attached.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

Do you let a pleasure stay private instead of impressive?

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