Aim at the work, not the clapping

Once applause feels good, it starts to steer. A line cook begins plating for the photo instead of the palate. A trainer chases the clients who gush and dodges the ones who'd actually push them. A driver picks the routes that earn five stars over the routes that earn a living. Slowly the question shifts from did I do this well to did they love me for it — and the second question is a worse master than it looks.

Seneca pulls the aim back where it belongs. "To live happily, then, is the same thing as to live according to Nature" (Of a Happy Life VIII, Stewart). Live according to your nature, he means: do the work that's actually in front of you, well, because that's what a reasoning person is for. The praise may come or it may not. It was never the target. Aim at the applause and you'll bend the work to chase it; aim at the work and the applause, when it shows up, costs you nothing.

This is the week's move again: keep your standard inside the task, not in the room's reaction. Reactions swing. The good day's roar and the quiet day's silence are the same weather over the same steady ground.

Do it right whether or not anyone claps.