Our culture rewards and admires high achievers. That’s not how all cultures work, but it is how our culture works.
At the same time, we tell each other not to work too hard, and believe that people who do aren’t happy.
Maybe that is true when we are talking about ego and scarcity driven jobs, but always doing your best is different.
The “doing your best work no matter what you are doing” road isn’t busy and it’s too fast paced for a lot of people.
Practicing until you understand the skill, tying up all of the loose ends, working until you have overturned all of the stones, matters if you want to give yourself the very best shot at success
It’s almost always appreciated by others who see it and are on the “do your best work” team.
Give it all you’ve got this time, and then watch for what mattered and what didn’t, search for how you could do a little better next time on the things that matter.
This is all a lot easier if you remain humble and don’t fall into the trap of believing you are in a race against someone else.
You are only ever in a race with yourself.