The Unwritten Word

Someone is exhausted, clearly. Mentally and physically.
They needed to accomplish something specific by a certain date?
Succeeding in (or committing to) this has come at some cost.
Workaholism?
Procrastination?
OCD?
The costs of ambition.
That THING that won’t ever let you be content with a normal life.
What is that thing? Where does it come from?
When can you stop chasing it?
Can you ever?
You eventually succeed because you make it your life’s work; you never relent.
But what kind of life is that?
And when you do finally succeed, how will you continue without the need for urgency?
Will the work still be vital to you when it’s banal?
“Familiarity breeds contempt.” Does success?
Once the work isn’t everything, how will you learn balance?
Maybe this is a story about someone who unknowingly (or knowingly) self-sabotages so that the chase is always the single most urgent thing—in this way, they will never have to contend with themselves.