The Professional Is Ruthless with Himself
The Professional Has Compassion for Herself
Picasso took a palette knife to a whole line of finished paintings the moment he knew they fell short of his own standard. The professional will murder his darlings without hesitation. And yet the great racehorse trainer schools his thoroughbreds like play: “Never train your horse to exhaustion. Leave him wanting more.”
There’s a balance in here — between being ruthless about the quality you know you can produce, and not grinding yourself so hard that the work you loved becomes a hateful thing. We’re building a wall, and all we need to do is lay one brick per day.
1 - Do you have an uncompromising standard for yourself? What is it, and why?
2 - Do you struggle with burning yourself out? How can we create systems where that doesn’t happen — so we can consistently deliver every day?
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Peter’s commentary on these chapters… only watch AFTER YOU HAVE POSTED! 🙂