You must neither be discontented with yourself, and that were poor-spirited, nor self-satisfied, and that is folly... Distrust is wise, and even useful, either to evade mishaps or to afford consolation when they come, for a misfortune cannot surprise a man who has already feared it.
Baltasar Gracián, 1647 (tr. Joseph Jacobs, 1892)
Both ditches are forbidden: self-contempt is poor-spirited, self-satisfaction is folly, and the road between them is a working self-distrust, respectful of your record, suspicious of your next performance. The mechanism is practical, not moral. The satisfied stop checking, and errors enter through unchecked doors; the satisfied stop improving, because improvement begins at a dissatisfaction; and the satisfied read as smug, which converts allies into audiences waiting for the slip. Meanwhile the usefully distrustful arrive prepared, double-checked, and unsurprisable, and the line is a good one, a misfortune cannot ambush a man who already feared it.
Practice
- Institutionalise the second look: re-read the sent-ready email, re-run the final numbers, walk the venue once more; distrust is a checklist, not a mood.
- After every win, ask what nearly went wrong; the honest answer keeps the next performance checked.
- Calibrate the inner voice to that corridor: proud of the record, unproven on the next thing; that sentence, believed, is the whole maxim.
Use this when
- Use this at peak form especially; self-satisfaction arrives dressed as earned confidence, and the wardrobe check is the discipline.
- Use it before repeat performances of past successes; the tenth wedding season, the fortieth audit, is where satisfied hands slip.
Ignore this when
- Don't let distrust curdle into the poor-spirited ditch; the target is your next output, never your worth (maxim 50 holds the floor).
- Don't perform humility while feeling none; this maxim is run inside, and its public face is simply thoroughness.
A picture of it
The state's best badminton coach had one ritual that puzzled every new trainee: after tournaments they won, the video sessions ran longer, not shorter. Wins hide more than losses, she said; a loss shows you the flaw, a win lets it travel. Her rivals celebrated victories and reviewed defeats. She reviewed everything and celebrated briefly. Over fifteen years the difference compounded into the only statistic she valued: her players' second seasons were better than their first, in a sport where the reverse is normal. Satisfaction, she told them, is for retirement.
Be proud on your record and paranoid on your next attempt. That combination is called a professional.