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Some hazy reflections in response to 's "any tips on how to shake the forever feeling of not having done enough"
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Replying to @mayli
I’m terrible at this (I call this feeling “my screaming harpies”), but thinking out loud: Zooming out usually helps. I’m often disappointed with what I did this week but feel great about what I did in the last few months. twitter.com/andy_matuschak
Replying to and
Everyday when I get home, my husband asks how my day was. Everyday I say the same thing: “I didn’t get as much done as I would have liked, but we made some progress.” It’s okay that you didn’t get everything done, but know you made progress.
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Replying to and
For me, the critical shift was to stop believing that this "not enough" feeling was serving me. I used to think it was the root of my drive - that if I felt I'd done enough, I'd stop doing things. Turns out, now that I think I do enough, I accomplish far, far more.
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A few realizations that helped the belief shift: 1. Feeling "behind" activates your sympathetic nervous system. This makes you less creative. 2. Feeling satisfied creates psychological safety, which increases creativity.
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