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Not depressed. Just wired toward the critical and analytical. I notice what is wrong before I notice what is right. Always have. That wiring helped me a lot in corporate life. For my happiness, not so much.
50 years old, spent 25 years running businesses. Here is what actually works.
Just move. Not a 5am gym session or a 10km run. Something you actually like. Walk, swim, dance, whatever. Not for six pack abs. Just move your body because it changes your brain chemistry within minutes. That is the whole point.
Sleep seven to eight hours. This one is critical and most people in corporate life get it completely wrong. When you become senior enough you start believing five hours is enough. It is not. It is causing your burnout. And if you can manage a thirty minute siesta in the afternoon on vacation or at the weekend, do it. Your brain will thank you.
Real human connection. Not scrolling through other people's highlight reels. Not people who benchmark you or talk only about problems and gossip. Actual people you can be honest with. People who are not toxic, not competitive with you, not draining you. That kind of connection is chemically necessary, not just emotionally nice.
Get these three basics consistently right and you are 90% there before you even think about meaning or purpose. Most people spend all their energy on the remaining 10% and neglect the 90%.
Then the harder part.
Replace the goal mindset with directions. Goals make you anxious. The gap between where you are and the goal is a permanent source of stress. Do not bring corporate productivity tools into your personal life. OKRs, SMART goals, personal KPIs, these frameworks were designed for organisations not for human beings trying to figure out how to live. None of them will make you happy.
Instead: move, learn, think, create. Pick directions, not destinations. Do things for the sake of doing them.
Replace your to-do list with a done list. At the end of the day write what you actually did. Not what you planned. You will be surprised how much you actually did. A to-do list only shows you the gap. A done list shows you you are moving.
One last thing. If you are getting happiness advice from someone who is naturally positive and energetic, stop. Their brain chemistry is different. Their advice will make you feel worse, not better. Find the system that works for your actual wiring, not someone else's.
We are not broken. We are just wired differently. And once you stop fighting your wiring and start working with it, things get easier.
If this landed, there is one piece every week at stillnavigating.com — honest writing about the stuck middle, from someone still in it.