My default setting has always been work.

I don’t just mean ‘I’m ambitious.’ I mean that, left unchecked, I will choose work over almost anything else: rest, walks, cooking, even making plans for the weekend. For a long time, that felt like drive. Eventually, it became a liability.

When work is both necessity and hobby

When I was younger, work was non-optional. We were scraping by. Earning was how we paid for life, and there wasn’t much slack in the budget. At the same time, I genuinely loved work.

I’d join professional associations, volunteer for committees, and treat those environments almost like hobbies. I’d write, blog at night, throw myself into projects because it felt good. Work was where things made sense. There were goals, feedback loops, and clear wins.

That mix, necessity plus enjoyment, built a deep groove: if something needed doing, I did it; if there was a free hour, my instinct was to fill it with work; if I wanted to feel productive, I opened the laptop. Over years, that became my identity: the person who always works, always has another project, always keeps things moving.