He who Grasps Loses...

 Achieving peak performance is like trying to keep a small pile of sand from slipping from your grip. If you hold it too tightly, the sand will be squeezed out between your fingers. Likewise, if you hold it too loosely, the sand will slip through your grip. Holding the sand too tightly is analogous to caring too much about the outcome and trying too hard to achieve a result. Holding it too loosely is akin to caring too little and not being mentally disciplined. Most people would benefit from caring enough but not caring too much about the outcome in major competitions so that they can let their talent be natural and unrestrained. 

So how do you differentiate between caring too much and not caring at all?

For example, when you sit down to do your work, to practice your craft, whether it's coding, swimming at the Olympics, making excel sheets, no matter whatever it is,

when you enter that zone, say to yourself that this is the most important thing  in your life, this inst just a race, this inst just excel sheets, this is a matter of life and death

and when you are done working,

say to yourself, this does not matter anymore, this does not define my life.

This is a great way to care about your craft but not letting the outcome define what type of person you are. so that when you are in that zone, you can care about it just enough that you are motivated to do your work and when you are done with your work session, you can relax and not let the outcome of your craft define other areas of your life.

when you face writing blocks or you lose a race, maybe you couldn't find the solution to that math problem

it is very easy for that small setback to throw you out of rhythm for the whole day and what we want to cultivate is that when you are practicing your craft, you take it very seriously so that you ensure you give it everything you have and then when you have finished your work, the outcome of the race, the  test results, whatever it is it shouldn't determine how you spend the rest of your day

so remember, hold the sand just right

he who grasps loses.