These two qualities, the one of recklessness and the other of sloth, cannot be respectively checked or roused unless we remove their causes, which are mistaken admiration and mistaken fear.
Seneca, Letter __:37.
Mistaken admiration: I see something, want it, but do not see the whole picture. Maybe I don’t see the whole picture because I don’t want to see the whole picture. Maybe I am currently incapable of seeing the whole picture. Maybe it just takes a while for the whole picture to appear, just like developing film for an old-style camera.
No matter. Moving too fast means I encounter reality, not just the tantalizing appearance that attracted my attention. Haste.
Mistaken fear is the inverse of this. I see an incomplete picture and rather than focus on what I see, I imagine what I don’t see. Inaction. Sloth.
How do I avoid haste and sloth?
Not by making considered judgments at every step, though that is essential. No, avoid these by having an inner compass that dictates decisions and actions. Then I will be less apt to be pulled off course by the shiny.
In a word, Seneca would say “virtue”. Build an appreciation for virtue first. Unfortunately, that is so vague a concept as to be useless to me at the moment.