I've never thought of myself as being particularly "gritty" in anything; for me personally, mediocrity is good enough. I'm boring in that I get up and go to bed at reasonable times, in that I play video games for a couple hours at most, then I think I've had enough. I'm not trying to humblebrag, it's not something I do conscientiously, my main point here is that not excelling, not "doing your best" is also fine.
In agile methodologies the phrase "sustainable pace" is a recurring theme. You'll be in this life for 80 years if you're lucky, no need to burn through all that in a few years.
I've worked for nearly ten years at my previous company (consultancy), the most dedicated, hardworking people all ended up with burnout. I mean sure, I guess they earned a bit more money and stuff, but they also spent at least six months up to a year completely out of action, some went straight back into it and had to be put out of action again. And I hope they ask themselves "was it worth it".
This sort of "marathon" thinking isn't appreciated enough. You'll learn and do more with 10 hours/week of something for 10 years than 60 hours/week of something for 6 months. The latter severely underestimates the long term cognitive and sheer physical burden of intense effort.
Unless you are pursuing something that has an age or time factor (say, professional sports), I truly believe it's better to be a "marathon runner" than a "sprinter" when it comes to learning
Most professional athletes have about 20 years of practice before peaking (maybe around 15 in sports where the athletes peak younger such as gymnastics). When you see Eliud Kipchoge or Alex Honnold's achievements in their 30s being celebrated, you don't see them at 15 years old at regional competitions being average-among-the-decent.
Truth be told, you hit the nail on the head for me, at all the different levels of the issue that you covered. As the years go by I feel more and more grateful that I'm still alive, and though I didn't do as much as I should have in nurturing my relationships as a young man, I'm really grateful I either did just enough - or am plain lucky - to have relationships to which I can now give my time and attention.
In agile methodologies the phrase "sustainable pace" is a recurring theme. You'll be in this life for 80 years if you're lucky, no need to burn through all that in a few years.
I've worked for nearly ten years at my previous company (consultancy), the most dedicated, hardworking people all ended up with burnout. I mean sure, I guess they earned a bit more money and stuff, but they also spent at least six months up to a year completely out of action, some went straight back into it and had to be put out of action again. And I hope they ask themselves "was it worth it".