By Leo Babauta

There was once a young man who decided that in order to feel good enough, he had to do a bunch of things. And stay on top of those things. And do a good job at each of them.

This, he hoped, would protect him from the dreaded feeling of not being good enough.

And so this young man did his best: he took on tasks and projects and managing his life the best he knew how. He made lists, and set a timeline for himself.

The timeline was fascinating … every time he started doing something, he would start to see a magical future in which he did it really well. From this magical future he could imagine, he’d come up with a timeline for how fast he should progress with a goal or habit or project. Then set his list so he could try to meet that timeline.

But then life would inevitably be messier than his imagined magical future, and he wouldn’t be able to keep up with things the way he’d imagined.

And when this happened, he’d tell himself, “I’m so behind!”

This feeling of being behind … it was a pressure that he always felt. Because he was always behind.

So he rushed through everything that he did, trying to catch up. It mostly felt impossible, even though he kept working into the night. Sometimes, for a brief moment, he’d catch up … then fall behind again.

Then one day, out of desperation, he asked the local wise man about this. “How do I stop being so behind?” he asked.

The wise man asked him, “What would you do if the concept of being behind didn’t exist?”

The young man thought about it, and replied, “Hmm … I guess I would just do what I could? I might even enjoy it, and be able to slow down a bit. I might be able to stop working at a reasonable hour, and not be thinking about it even in my non-work hours. Yeah, I would love that actually.”

The wise man gave him some herbs to mix into his tea. And said, “Once you drink this special tea, you will no longer have the concept of ‘behind’ in your mind.”

And so it happened. The young man drank the tea, and never again thought about being behind.