There's something truly beautiful about doing great work for the sake of doing great work. Without any regard for how many eyes will see it or how it will influence my personal stature or whether or not the results have any material impact whatsoever on the world around me. Doing truly great work that makes me proud is one of the few things I can always control about my life, and that's not a freedom I take for granted.
Whenever I ask myself, "How hard do I have to try on this?" it means I'm sitting down with a project already fixated on serving myself rather than serving that body of work, whatever that is. A chore. An assignment. A painting. A meal. Anything. So I just avoid that question.
Sure, final exams during the second semester of my senior year have virtually no impact on my GPA. But I've never done well in school because I get turned on by As. I do well in school because I know I'm capable of doing well in school. I have been incredibly blessed with all the talents I have, so I sure as hell better use them. No one looking at my GPA will know whether or not I tried hard on those finals. But I'll know. I'll know I was given a chance to do great work and whether or not I consciously chose to take those talents for granted and do crap work. I don't want to do that.
Every time you work hard on something, you're creating something. Every time you work hard on something, you're serving it. Doing great work is an act of service, and a valuable one at that.
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