I naturally get very invested in projects – at home, at work, or otherwise. They feel so important that I begin to identify with them. I can get bitterly disappointed and resentful when they don’t go my way.
So I tell myself I need to get more distance. Ultimately none of these things are truly important. It’s just my ego wanting to control the world. So I detach myself from the work – so much so that I become disinterested and unattuned to what is needed.
I have to continually remind myself: it can’t be an either/or. It’s a both/and. The practice is remaining invested in the work while remembering that it’s ultimately insignificant. It’s holding myself in that middle distance between identification and detachment.
It’s from that place that I am most free to do my best work.
