How do some off you have so much energy to do so much?

Something you find as you get older is that people who appear very outwardly productive are not always the ones who most have their shit together. You're probably better at certain things specifically because you don't spend all day on the move and have more time to stop, think, and reflect on the choices you've made and where you want to go.

Think about Doctors. They work like crazy, rake in gobs of money, and are well-respected in society for the good work they do, but they are also notorious for being some of the worst people at personal finance on the planet. Any financial manager will tell you endless stories of doctors and high-powered lawyers bringing in 6-figure salaries every year while still finding new and inventive ways to go broke.

Everyone has their bullshit, and nobody really has it all together in the way we like to pretend we do. And, often the people who succeed real god damn hard in one aspect of their lives do so at the expense of others. And, that's fine. As long as it's what they want, and they aren't harming anyone in the process.

The thing that's affecting you specifically is something that resonates with me. I think that in our culture we revere "hard work" to an obsessive and harmful degree. A lot of people end up getting so focused on the goals society has set for them and what they think of as "success" that it gives them tunnel vision, and they end up missing a lot of what makes life valuable.

It's practically taboo to say that you value leisure time or peace of mind or ordinary pleasurable pursuits as much or more than the amount of money you make or your professional reputation. Or that you simply don't have a singular driving passion and would prefer to meander through many diverse interests at your own pace.

Of course the type of people who are super "productive" also love to talk about just how productive they are, so you're going to hear a lot more about how they've managed to simultaneously do their daily yoga while eating breakfast at 4am followed by getting in a 10 mile run before work at their pharmaceutical/social media app startup, than you'll hear about how they absolutely can't stand their spouse anymore and are pretty sure that she killed the family dog on purpose.

/r/AskMen Thread