Constantly think about how you could be doing things better. Keep questioning yourself. — Elon Musk

Constantly think about how you could be doing things better. Keep questioning yourself.

Author: Elon Musk

Insight: Most of us hit a groove with how we do things and then stop looking. We find a system that works—a way of organizing our day, managing a project, relating to someone—and we kind of lock it in. The comfort of "this works" can trap us into thinking it's also "this is optimal," which it almost never is. The tricky part about constantly questioning yourself is that it can feel exhausting or even anxious-making if you're not careful. You can slide from healthy self-reflection into endless second-guessing that paralyzes you. But there's a real difference between that spiral and actual improvement-minded thinking. One asks "What could I do differently?" after noticing real friction; the other just amplifies doubt. The first builds momentum. The second stalls you. What makes this worth taking seriously is that small, incremental better—in how you write an email, structure your thinking, approach a conversation—compounds over years. You don't need revolutionary overhauls. You just need to stay awake to the possibility that your current way isn't your final way. The people who get significantly better at what they do aren't usually the ones with the most raw talent; they're the ones who maintain genuine curiosity about their own process.

Source: Quoted in 'Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future', p. 238, 2015