In Asian mythology, there are ghosts known as pretas with insatiable appetites. They have big mouths and thin necks. They can eat all they want and never feel full. 

Spoiler alert: There’s a scene in The Ballad of a Small Player, in which the protagonist is possessed by such a ghost. Together, he wins big, but the superstitious gambling executives ban him from the casinos. On a lucky streak, with nowhere to gamble, he tries to satiate his appetite more literally by gorging on a feast in his room. It leads him to no satisfaction.

Years before I knew about either of these characters, I’d once non-ironically used this metaphor once to describe how I felt about my career: I saw and created a lot of opportunities for myself, and I felt spread incredibly thin across these projects. I felt like I was desperately chewing them all up, but I couldn’t swallow or digest fast enough. It felt horrible. 

This was around the time I experienced problems with my stomach. A coincidence?

I didn’t need to see more opportunities to fruition. I needed to decide which opportunities mattered and by definition, which did not. I needed to practice restraint and balance. I needed to say no. For the ones that I decided were important, I needed to pursue them with less intensity.