Ever heard of compound interest?
It's when you get more from something that you initially had, and you get even more because the interest compounds on top of your principal and the amount you gained. The thing about compound interest is it works both ways. You start off with your principal amount and then if you have your money in stocks, you gain more because of the amount you made then you gain even more from the principal as well as the amount you made. On the flip side, you start out with a 30 day loan at 10% and then if you don't pay that loan back, the initial amount is due with an additional 10% on the 10% you originally accrued. Now I'm not getting into the nitty-gritty of how compound interest works or whether or not the compounded payable is even a thing, what I'm trying to do is paint a picture of what compounding can do in a materialistic sense.
Now think about what could happen in your life with the intanglibles. Habits are formed this way. You say you want to be healthy so you go to the gym everyday and you eat healthy snacks. You say you want to be wealthy so you spend some time researching stocks or real estate. You say you want to be happy so you go to social gatherings every week to meet new people. And this initial boost of inspiration/motivation helps you kickstart your journey. But you have to remember, each habit affects the rest. A month into your new life and you start to get exhausted, so you say 'I'll skip the gym just today'. And because you do that you say 'I didn't work out today so I don't want new people I meet to see me like this', so you skip your social event. Then you say that you've been spending too much money on these events and going to the gym so to counteract that, you decide to direct some money away from your stock portfolio. And then you feel like since one day doesn't hurt, you feel a second day won't hurt either. And you are correct. The second day won't hurt. And neither will the third or the fourth or the fifth. But eventually, by the time you realize it, you will be on a compounded decline and it will be like starting all over again (and more) to get back to where you once were. Each habit begets the rest. The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.
I write all this as a reminder to myself because today is one of those days that I just don't want to do this. And it's been compounded since yesterday since I made a mistake and that mistake (although not life-changing) has led to other mistakes in judgment, and so today has been littered with a little bit of regret. But I'm not gonna waste too much of today thinking about yesterday. So instead of something that is really "new", I'm probably going to just do some fun effects with this page.