The terror of professional decline

I suspect that my own terror of professional decline is rooted in a fear of death—a fear that, even if it is not conscious, motivates me to act as if death will never come by denying any degradation in my résumé virtues. This denial is destructive, because it leads me to ignore the eulogy virtues that bring me the greatest joy.  The biggest mistake professionally successful people make is attempting to sustain peak accomplishment indefinitely.

Arthur C. Brooks writing in The Atlantic