Sometimes, you put in a lot of effort to please someone, yet you can’t seem to appreciate what you’ve done. A voice inside you keeps saying, “Yes, I did something – but I could have done more.” On the one hand, you feel that you went above and beyond and that it should be enough to help someone or do them a favor. But later, an inner struggle begins: “Was that really enough? Could I have done better? Or was this all I should have done?”
For example, imagine you stay up all night helping a close friend prepare for an important exam. You patiently explain everything, even sacrificing your own comfort. In the morning, your friend thanks you, but instead of feeling proud of what you did, you find yourself thinking, “Maybe I could have explained it better. Maybe I should have spent more time. Maybe I didn’t do enough.”
This constant tug-of-war shuts you down. You can’t fully celebrate your victories, nor can you feel truly satisfied with your achievements. Instead, you’re left feeling restless, stuck in the middle — not truly happy, yet not exactly sad.
And the irony is that it’s often the small, everyday things — the ones that others don’t even notice or care about. Yet some people quietly spend their most valuable time and energy on. In a way, this is how humans were meant to be: conscious of their actions, mindful of their impact. That carefulness, that inner weighing of “enough” and “not enough” is what sets us apart from other creations—it’s both our burden and our beauty.