Personally, I'm lucky that throughout the above, I did keep up on technology. But another discipline I had to learn was not to give into my natural curiosity to try to learn everything that was interesting to me (Ocaml, Vulkan, Elixir, Yggdrasil Network, Rust, IOT, Matrix Protocol, Blender etc etc etc) all at the same time, but to stick to one or two and really persevere on them (I chose Rust). IE stop dreaming and giving in to curiosity, and learn one or two hard skills really well. T-shaped skills basically. No reason not to stay curious - helps you decide on the next vertical bar in the T. But don't waste too much time on breadth - also focus on depth so that at your later age, you'll still feel high confidence in yourself in this area even against the younger guns.

Obviously relationships are hardly the only thing that matters in life, but it amazes me how much more attention I get from women since I got my life together. Turns out a man who's figured things out and is doing reasonably well is very attractive.

If you take care of yourself, stay fit, fix your brain life only gets better. If you're a pissed off 25 year who can't get laid on a constant basis vs a contend 50 year old who has sorted their life, I'd take the latter any day of the week.

Even if I don't reach the goal that is besides the point.

I am also though not acting out a romance novel with a wife, kids and living happily ever after. Disney is not going to make a movie that the prince gets divorced and lives happily ever after being single , no kids, and the freedom to do whatever they want.