Five years ago, I didn’t see “your health is your wealth” as wisdom, I saw it as something people said when they had the luxury of slowing down. I spent years working as a chef in the UK, mostly 100+ hours a week. When I moved into Web3, I carried that same mentality with me. Work until the job is done. Then find something else to work on. For years, I measured my life in output. How much did I build? How much did I earn? What did I accomplish? What came next? How do I get better at it? Health, sleep, family time ? … those things could wait. That mindset didn’t change when life got difficult. If anything, it hardened. I lost my mum. I lost my grandmother. I went through some of the hardest periods of my life, and instead of slowing down, I did what I always did: I slammed the accelerator and worked harder. At one point I was working almost 22 hours a day and sleeping around two hours a night. Looking back, I wasn’t just working hard. I was hiding in work. As long as I was busy, I didn’t have to sit with anything else. Eventually, the body shows up and collects the debt the mind refused to pay. Towards the end of last year, that debt came due. My health began to fall apart. My Crohn’s became increasingly difficult to manage, followed by issues with my stomach, teeth, bones, appendix, ulcers on my spine, constant headaches, and a cycle of specialists, tests, and procedures. For the first time, I couldn’t simply work my way through a problem. And that forced me to confront something I had spent years avoiding: What is the point of building a life if you’re never actually present for it? That question didn’t come out of nowhere. It was tied to something I had already learned the hard way, but never fully processed. My mum was in South Africa. I hadn’t seen her for around ten years. There was always work. Always another deadline. Always another reason to go later. I thought I had more time. We almost always do. Until we don’t. I can’t change that now. But I can change what I do with the time that remains. I’m still in the process of rebuilding. My health. My routine. My sleep. My strength. My work. Mutant Shiba Club. All of it. But I’m trying to build differently this time. Because ambition is a strange thing. It can give your life direction, purpose, and meaning. But left unchecked, it can also convince you that the next achievement is more important than the life you’re actively sacrificing to get there. So this isn’t really advice, in my state I don’t feel right to give it. This is something I’m reminding myself of as much as anyone else: Take care of your body. Make time for the people you love. Go home sometimes. Put the phone down. Take the trip. Sleep. And don’t become so obsessed with building the future that you forget you’re already living your life. Because in the end, the only thing that matters about everything you built is whether you were actually there to experience it. Much love 💚

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Incredible! Is it just me or do you even forget its AI in some moments?