Irene pointed out last year that I was somewhat fixated on becoming the ideal applicant before I could even consider applying to graduate school, which I concede has a lot of truth to it. I am quite risk-averse and prone to perfectionism, which together mean I tend to spend a lot of time obsessively polishing things in secrecy before showing them to anyone (e.g. hobby projects, music recordings).
It's hard to think about all the holes in my knowledge--which become all the more obvious as I consider professors and their research groups--and not feel anxious about my application... even though learning, of course, is the entire point of the PhD, and trying to learn everything myself before applying defeats the purpose. But I still feel like I need to do more: read papers, do projects, work textbooks. Stress.