Avoiding All or Nothing Thoughts

  I have been reflecting today, after editing my final paper and finding a lot of flaws in the arguments, that sometimes I have a tendency to go into an all or nothing mode of thinking. Either things are "very hard" or "very easy", and there isn't any leeway in between. But actually, there is nearly always a middle ground. I am quite fond of an analogy that David Burns, the psychologist who wrote Feeling Good, wrote years ago, about the floor never being either totally dirty or totally clean. If it were totally dirty, would the floor not then be "totally" clean? Put it this way: would a floor covered in dirt from top to bottom not just be a ground of dirt?  Isn't purity and impurity relative ? I believe so, but it requires a sense of detachment from the terms "pure", "impure", "good" and "bad".
   Sometimes, I have noticed that when I am believing that I cannot perform something competently or correctly, that belief in itself will affect my performance tremendously. Why is that so? I think it has everything to do with the observer effect, or the way in which trying to "see" ourselves and evaluate how we are doing while or before we do it, sets up an artificial looker who fails to really involve itself in the process of doing.It is as though the witness were trying to step outside of the world of action and mediate, only to find that one's performance becomes gravely affected by that mediation. Having a softer view helps to mitigate all or nothing thinking, and allows people to see that the term "difficult" is just a concept. There is no such thing as an absolutely "hard"or "easy" task, and one can simply do it to the best of one's ability and see what the result will be.
   Working life can also seem impossible or difficult when it is approached with attachment. Master Sheng Yen comments on a tendency to see work as "difficult" or "overwhelming" which contributes to one's capacity to engage that work wholeheartedly. Does the pace of life affect one's being? Master Sheng Yen remarks:

There is nothing wrong with being busy but if it makes you restless or unstable, you will be filled with vexations. Being busy simply means that you have many things to deal with, one after the other. If your mind is not concerned with getting or losing then there will be no vexation. When dealing with many things leads to restlessness, instability, and tension, then that is vexation (p.22)

The important aspect here, for me, is about the attitude of getting or losing. So far as a person's mind is set on the goal of the task and how it benefits others, one starts to let go of the fear of losing one's reputation if the task is not performed correctly. This changes the attitude away from self-consciousness and toward a more holistic way of doing that focuses on the benefits of the whole not just one person. Such a way of being might mitigate the idea that what I do constitutes a "gain" or a "loss" that is absolute and binding to who I am.

Sheng Yen (2013). Tea Words Volume II Elmhurst: Dharma Drum Publications