Mastery

Pink explains in his book Drive:

This is the nature of mastery: Mastery is an asymptote. You can approach it. You can home in on it. You can get really, really close to it... The mastery asymptote is a source of frustration. Why reach for something you can never fully attain? But it's also a source of allure. Why not reach for it? The joy is in the pursuit more than the realization. In the end, mastery attracts precisely because mastery eludes.

I love how Pink shows the cons of pursuing mastery is at the same time the very reason mastery is so appealing.

Pink, Godin, Kohn and asymptotes