2025.5: Enough is enough

This is technically my fifth blog post of the year but I've archived the previous ones as I want to change the tone/format of my blog. I'd like to have smaller, more regular posts in a journaling/stream of consciousness format, and I would like to have an essay type format for topics I'd like to go a bit deeper in. I'll tag each post accordingly moving forward.

One of the themes of the last year for me has been the idea of what is "enough" and when can I give myself permission to depart from the rat race and focus on setting my own rhythm and objectives in life. I'm not talking about quitting my job or anything like that (unfortunately very few of us have the privilege to do this), but rather to shift my relationship with my career. Over the past decade I've focused quite intensely on how to achieve a more productive state, how to accelerate my career, how to build high value skills etc. But recently I feel like I've reached a good state in my professional life. A few months ago I achieved a promotion that has provided me with an increase in salary, and a significant amount of freedom/autonomy. Having participated in the "personal development" culture for a long time, I always thought that I would want to keep pushing in my career until I reached some sort of financial escape velocity where I made millions, and then would sail off into the sunset living life on my own terms. As I get older and have experienced more of the type of sacrifice it takes to reach this level of success, I realise that you need to trade (on average) not only the majority of your youth, but also during this period you need to suppress and funnel your consciousness to tunnel vision yourself into very narrow objectives. The effect of doing such a thing can start to make you become estranged from the things you actually want and how you actually feel in favour of this surrogate purpose. So the reality is when you reach this magical point of financial freedom, in many cases you're returning to a very different person than before the grind.

Of course there are people who truly enjoy immersing themselves in their career and find a lot of purpose in this, and there are also people who are able to turn what they love into a substantial source of income. If you're able to achieve financial freedom without feeling like you need to really suffer or compromise yourself then power to you! However, for many of us I feel like we've been conditioned to keep pushing in our careers with no end in sight.

So all in all, I'd invite you to think about your relationship with your career. To think about what does "enough" look like for you, what might it take you to get to that point, and what do you think you should do after that point. When do you think would be a good time to give yourself permission to stop pushing for more and to bring the energy back into your own life.