How much is enough?

We tend to overestimate how much we can get from an intensive period, like cramming the night before an exam. We tend to underestimate the throughput of small to moderate doses of consistent effort.

Consistency seems to be one of the pillars of progress, of perhaps any effort. Showing up and taking accountability each day. Watering the plants, feeding your dog. Our plants and beasts need to be fed each day to live. They need to be fed enough to live happily.

But be weary to over water or over feed — the plants will drown if the soil is soaked. Animals will grow fat if overfed.

Perhaps our efforts also need to fall within this balance. A daily feeding (or every few days, like my plants — but consistently!) keeps the efforts alive — and overexertion leads to lethargy or death of the activity.

I am playing within a new balance — how to share enough. I want to write something each day, to share something each day. Seth Godin is a great example of this. Beeple's 5000 days is another.

Sure, there's the practical aspect of consistently showing up — you get better. But there's something more personal, perhaps spiritual to it. There's pride in being able to look back and say that each day you showed up. It's the pride of knowing you have showed up, that you have answered your spiritual calling, that you have listened to your dharma.