I had just finished lunch with my dad, and we were continuing our conversation sitting in the car. I was worked up about how my life had fallen short of my grand expectations, and he was doing his best to reassure me: “Son, take it easy on yourself. You will be alright. You are doing a good job.”

Agitated by him missing the point, I blurted out: “I don’t want to be good. I want to be great.”

Silence hung in the air before we were able to move on. My mental plague had revealed itself: ambition, entitlement, and chronic pressure.

I lament when my obsession with being great distracts me from sustaining and enjoying actual progress toward becoming something greater.