Good Habits
I’m reading James Clear's eye-opening Atomic Habits, a masterclass on how daily habits (both good and bad) create outsized effects (both healthy and unhealthy) later on. It's an extremely practical and useful book if you want to create good habits and make time your ally.
Your habits of today are a kind of vote for your future self. Adopting ultrahealthy eating habits today, for example, is a very good idea if you look ahead a few decades.
Same with adopting good sleep habits, good relationship habits, savings habits, cleaning habits ... but it's hard!
You can't really experience the benefits for quite a while, and it's just easier to eat something processed and quick. Nor will you necessarily feel the negative effects of eating poorly right away.
Time is your ally in the first scenario, and time is your enemy in the second.
Habits are a long game.
How successful or unsuccessful you are today really doesn't matter. What matters is whether your habits are putting you on the path toward the results you want. Your current trajectory is far more important than your current state.
You get what you repeat. Everything compounds.