A thing I read a long time ago that really encapsulates this recently came up in my mind again. If you want to get better, work on your B-game, not your A-game

A thing I read a long time ago that really encapsulates this recently came up in my mind again. If you want to get better, work on your B-game, not your A-game. The goal is not to excel even harder on days that are good. The goal is to move up the baseline performance. This will probably lift up your A-game as well. But more importantly it gives you a base to build on. It stops me from over-reaching. It stops me from being disappointment most of the time because I don't reach my lofty goal. Instead, it gives meaningful improvement, and many small successes.