Have you met someone that was super career focused before? They worked tons of hours, gave up their social life, and sacrificed their health, all for a promotion or fancy title? They were optimizing on their career. If they are lucky, their employer recognized them for it. But by focusing so much on one area they neglected others.

There’s not necessarily a right or wrong thing to focus on, but this is a question we should think about carefully. Neglecting other areas of our life comes with a cost. And you don’t want to be surprised when the plant you never watered finally died, or the person you neglected is no longer in your life.

Can we optimize on several things, and balance our resources between them? Sure. It’s difficult, and you usually end up getting three B’s instead of one A+, but it can be done. Personally, I hate getting B’s. It feels like a failure. But I hate letting the important plants in my life die even more.

So, what are you optimizing on? What is it worth to you? Unless you already optimize carefully on several things, optimizing on one thing takes you farther from everything else. Make sure it’s worth it.