The most dangerous moment is right after you win.
You did it. You made the money. You quit your job. You built the physique. You got the girl. Now what? Most people let themselves decline into misery because their driving force has now vanished.
You need another mountain to climb. You need to understand that it is a gift, not a curse, to always be in the pursuit of your potential - the constant balance of challenge and skill is what makes life meaningful. There is no final top of the mountain.
The ultimate goal is getting paid to be yourself. To solve problems you can't help but solve. To study what you can't pull yourself away from. To eliminate any work that does not challenge you creatively.
Patterns I've noticed in people who aren't necessarily unhappy, but aren't going anywhere with their lives:
- Never learn anything new unless they're forced to
- Don't set goals unless their survival / finances make them insecure
- Talk about what's happening in the world rather than what they're working on
- Aren't aware of any of this, and making them aware doesn't hurts more than it helps
Hard place to be.
There will be 3 types of people in the future:
The Purists - reject AI and become new-age hippies
The Automatons - outsource every decision and become machines
The New Renaissance Man - maintains humanity and leverages tech to do what used to be impossible