I expected tonight to be a difficult sleep. Unfortunately, I was not disappointed in that expectation.

Yesterday I made a mistake at work. A bad one. Nothing that couldn’t be repaired, but the repair took time and put an entire film production on hold while that repair was made. A fairly bad mistake in the film biz, and one easily avoided with a little more attention to detail, and being more attentive to a fundamental step in my job.

So, a learning experience. Learn, and move on.

But I tend more to learn and hold on. The holding on tends to stand in the way of learning. So, this morning in my sleeplessness, I look to The Dao for insight, and find two chapters which speak to me.

It’s time to prepare for another day’s work, so perhaps I’ll dig into these passages a little deeper later. For now, I’ll just note that when Laozi says, “do your job” it is without pre-judging how well you do that job. And so, whether you’ve done your job well, or poorly, once it is complete, move on. Let go.

From the Daoist perspective, it is as bad to hold onto a job well done as one that fell short. But, from my perspective, I have to work primarily on a tendency to hold onto the mistakes and poorly completed tasks, displacing in my knowledge of self all the good work I do. One mistake can, for me, erase an entire day’s excellence. I am left, at the end of the day, with an error in my self-perception.

Holding onto the errors, I am distracted from the Dao, making more errors inevitable. I drag myself down.



doesn’t stand firm.

He who rushes ahead

doesn’t go far.

He who tries to shine

dims his own light.

He who defines himself

can’t know who he really is.

He who has power over others

can’t empower himself.

He who clings to his work

will create nothing that endures. He who stands on tiptoedoesn’t stand firm.He who rushes aheaddoesn’t go far.He who tries to shinedims his own light.He who defines himselfcan’t know who he really is.He who has power over otherscan’t empower himself.He who clings to his workwill create nothing that endures. If you want to accord with the Tao,

just do your job, then let go. ~ Laozi, Dao de Jing, Chapter 24

Stephen Mitchell, translator