Not everything is a light switch.

If you're used to being intense—the kind of person who hockey sticks into every activity—here's a chill pill: ramping up the bell curve is smooth. It feels good. It's more sustainable than rocket shipping your way through life. And I'm not talking about entrepreneurship. I'm talking about your daily habits, your daily life, and more than anything, a frame of mind.

I'm just getting my energy back after being sick for about a week. A younger me would have been frustrated and impatient about this—annoyed. Having had a great streak of regular exercise, the younger me would be ready to go for a one-to-two-hour intensive workout the moment I had just enough energy to complete it.

Here's the thing: it's harsh on the psychology, it's harsh on the body, and if you're not actually fully recovered, you risk a relapse—or just psychological exhaustion.

You know what I prefer? Smoothing into it. Gradually returning.

It builds a trust between my inner self and my body, because physical fitness is not just a physical game. It's a mental game of sustainability. If you start creating a hateful relationship between your inner child and your good health habits, good luck making any of it stick.

When I reentered the gym today: one strength exercise and 15 minutes of jump rope. That's it. Not my usual 30 minutes, not my usual full set of strength exercises. No cold plunge either. Only enough to get my body ramping—and full permission that if I wasn't feeling good, I could stop and leave.

None of the hockey stick moments. No brute forcing. No assuming that just because I'm feeling mostly better, I can flip a switch and be right back to where I was.

Maybe it's a wisdom of getting older—knowing that not everything needs to be rushed into. That a smooth ascent is good for the soul.