The Hidden Cost of Always Getting It Right

Hi friend,

How much effort should you put into perfecting your life?

How often should you be looking for ways to improve?

How much should you actually care about everything?

For many people, maybe even most, the answer to all of these is more.

The world tends to favor the relentless optimizers, not the laid-back guy who hit snooze three times this morning and is still swaying in a hammock.

Telling people to push harder is usually solid advice. Most folks need more discipline, more structure, more focus. A little extra obsession often leads to greater success.

Most motivational advice assumes people need to be more intentional, more strategic, more hardworking.

But what happens when this advice lands in the wrong inbox?

What happens when the message reaches the chronic over-optimizers, the ones who already analyze, refine, and optimize every detail of their lives?

Instead of helping, it convinces overthinkers to think even more. These people don’t need to tighten the screws, they need to loosen them. And since you're reading this, I’m guessing you might be in that group.

I’m not saying you should abandon your attention to detail or your drive for excellence.

But the real challenge comes when you can’t separate the few things that truly deserve your obsessive focus from everything else.

If you have a handful of core priorities, you’ve probably learned that a structured, optimized approach works. But that same mindset has a way of spilling over into every part of life.

Soon, everything starts feeling like a puzzle to be solved, a system to be improved, a process to be fine-tuned.

Your brain starts whispering: Look how much this mindset has helped you in your career. Why not apply it to your sleep schedule, your gym routine, your diet, your relationships, your home, your wardrobe, your finances, your freaking toenails? 

At some point, optimization stops being productive and starts being exhausting.

That’s why I love the idea of Deliberate Deoptimization—the act of intentionally letting go of some things so you have the energy to focus on what truly matters.

Prioritizing your big wins instead of sweating the small stuff.

Sure, you could manage five different credit cards for maximum rewards, but if your mental load is already maxed out, is that really a smart use of your energy?

Sure, you could fine-tune your intra-workout nutrition with pre-digested, grass-fed whey and dextrose, but wouldn’t that energy be better spent just making sure you get to the gym five times this week?

Sure, you could spend hours tracking the stock market instead of just investing in an index fund, but is that really worth the added stress?

Oliver Burkeman posed an interesting question recently.

“How much should you care about things?”

His answer: “I don’t know exactly, but I do know that the correct answer isn’t ‘the absolute maximum amount, all the time, for everything.’”

Not everything is life or death. And even if you know that logically, you still need to start acting like it.

Letting go of certain things on purpose can give overthinkers like us the space to focus on what truly moves the needle and maybe, just maybe, find a little more peace along the way.

If you’re someone who naturally optimizes everything, consider giving yourself permission to let go in a few areas.

Not because you’re lazy. Not because you don’t care. But because your time, energy, and focus are limited—and the more wisely you use them, the better your life will be.

Until next time!

Lorenc - Founder of Success Skill