There's a concept in the realm of distributed systems known as eventual consistency. It dictates that the result of writing a value to any one server will, at some point in the future, be reflected across all other servers. In other words, the value provided by this system may not always be consistent across partitions all of them time, but it will eventually be so given enough time. This concept, though techincal at its core, is a fitting analogy for how many of the most successful people in human history have lived their lives.
Think about the like counter on Instagram. You don't care if a post's like count is off by a few hundred out of a million while databases sync in the background. It's better to load the feed fast than to wait for a perfect like count (on popular posts you'd be waiting a long time).
I find it helpful to think about my life this way, despite every self-help book screaming the opposite. We're told we have to balance everything we do – work, diet, fitness, sleep, friends – at all times. If you drop a ball for even a moment, you're failing.
What a terribly exhausting way to live.
Instead, treat your balance as an eventual consistency problem. Accept temporary extremes to actually get things done. Sometimes work completely consumes you. Sometimes a deadline keeps you up until 3AM for a week straight. Other times, you're completely unreachable and spending your time family and friends. That's okay. Work hard to play hard.
Nobody who ever did anything meaningful lived a perfectly balanced life while doing it. Do you think Olympic athletes remember to catch up with every friend they have every week? Or that unicorn startup founders reach a $1B valuation while carefully monitoring their screentime? No. They relentlessly obsess over one thing, let the rest of their life get a little messy, and fix the imbalances later down the line.
This isn't an excuse to permanently ignore your health, your sleep, or your friends. It's just permission to go all-in on what matters right now and pursue excellence in whatever it is you do. You don't have to be perfectly balanced today. You just have to be eventually consistent.