Revisit Your Goals Often - Don't Break Prod
You've spent some time figuring out what you want and why, made a plan for how to reach these goals, and hopefully executed on that plan. Great!
Pay attention to how it feels to get closer to your goals. You now know more about yourself and more about what the realities of your goals. Use this information to make course corrections. Maybe you've been working to move from an IC to management role but it turns out you miss coding more than you thought you did or as part of some performance work you develop a deep interest in database optimization. Take these learnings into account and consider tradeoffs and new interests.
Don't just work hard on something because it was your dream 5 years ago. This is a recipe for a miserable career. As you learn, you grow. Expect to be a different person with different goals as you grow. Revisit your goals and be honest with yourself as you go.
