In the last few days, I had the opportunity to engage in various activities such as coding, woodworking, gardening, and working around the house (yes, I call it a holiday). What I realized is that the best moments for me were when I was fully immersed in the task at hand, not thinking about the end result but simply enjoying the process.

Previously, I thought this feeling was exclusive to coding. I was mistaken. It applies to everything. Whether it’s creating a new function, writing a blog posts, cutting a piece of wood, or painting a wall, each incremental step brought a sense of satisfaction and small victory.

Upon seeing the results of my work, I wasn’t necessarily happy – the code could have been better, the wooden item may be a bit ugly (though, I’m secretly proud of it). It turns out, I’m not fixated on the outcome as long as I put my best effort into the process1.

So, here’s a piece of advice to my future self: give your best in every step of the process and find joy in it. The results will follow.

  1. The “best” in this context means more of a good enough, definitely not looking for perfection as it kills the joy of the process. I have a small challenge with this, especially when it comes to sharing something with others (like this blog post) – I feel like I should do more then enough because you deserve the best. On the other hand, maybe it’s better to share something that’s good enough than nothing at all? ↩︎