In my experience, there are two ways to go through life and the myriad decisions without negative looping: do things perfectly, or do them confidently.

The key is to know when to apply that, and when to change it. I’m a programmer, which requires that I write code as perfectly as possible. So for much of the day, I’m in perfect mode, expecting and demanding that I write perfect code.

But then once my code is out of my control, i.e., released to customers, the self-expectation and self-demand that I’ve written code is futile, and it’s a misapplication to apply that. So then I have to shift my mindset to be confident about my code.

And confident doesn’t mean perfect. It means that I hope that the performance of my code is proper, but whatever shortcomings there are, I can handle personally, in terms of not letting it worsen my self-respect, and that professionally, I can address those flaws. Confidence also comes from having expected the proper amount of effort on a task, and “finishing” it when necessary, even when there are flaws.

So there you have it: do things perfectly when you can, and otherwise, be confident.

And to do those, one must have both knowledge about about what to do, and the discipline to do it.

Discipline is the gap between knowledge and wisdom.

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