Virtually all of us are not doing extraordinary work. We’re just not. In 500 years you and I will be as well known as the random farmer in ancient Egypt.
Our work is the stuff we need to do to get by and pay our bills, but it doesn’t change the world and the people around us couldn’t care less about what our day-to-day work is.
We convince ourselves that every job, project, deadline, or audience is an end-of-the-world scenario. We tell ourselves that everyone will look at us differently or examines all the tiny particulars of everything we do.
Much like the teenager who is paralyzed by fear while attending High School because “everyone” is going to see that pimple, we repeat this process and neuter ourselves when we make our work more important than it is.
It reminds me of the Latin saying, Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat “Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first deprives of reason.”
Don’t become a madman by inflating the importance of what you’re doing and the importance of the audience who’s watching.