As each arrow left for its target, the archers were caught between success (hitting the ten) and mastery (knowing it means nothing if you can’t do it again and again).
-Sarah Lewis, The Rise: Creativity, The Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery
It means nothing if you can’t repeat it.
Understand that you’re not done when you finally sing it in tune; know that the first Superior rating is insignificant; realize that one post going viral is luck, not skill.
We celebrate “overnight success” and the flavor-of-the-week top-40 song so much in our society that it is easy to forget what mastery feels like.