The Athlete’s Secret: 100% On, 100% Off

Up until recently, I thought there were only a few ways to live.

I thought you either grind hard, push yourself, and always stay on.

That you get rewarded for how much effort you put in.

Or you go for the second approach, you slow down, let go of goals, and live in the moment.

You try to be present and enjoy your life.

Those who tried to go for a more balanced approach, I would often see as never going all out, but never really resting either.

Yet lately, I’ve started to realise something: there might be a better way to live.

A way that changes everything about how you work, rest, and show up in the world.

Before I share what that looks like, let’s look at how most people actually live — through three very different avatars.

See which one you relate to most.

The Three Avatars

1. The Workaholic

This is the person who’s always on.

They thrive on intensity. They’re driven, ambitious, relentless.

When fatigue hits, they override it with more caffeine, more late nights, more effort.

I lived here for almost a decade as a poker player. I’d wake up, sit down at the computer, and grind until late into the night. Day after day. Ten-hour sessions weren’t the exception, they were the standard. My only form of recovery was sleep, and even that was poor. I’d wake up with my mind already racing about hands from the day before, about the money I could win, about the players I wanted to beat.

On the outside, I looked disciplined. On the inside, I was restless. Gratitude barely entered the picture. I was always chasing the next milestone, the next level, the next bankroll target.

I didn’t know how to switch off — I thought switching off was weakness.

The Workaholic is high agency. They get things done. But they pay for it with burnout, disconnection, and the inability to simply be present.

2. The Drifter

This is the person who’s always off.

They’re easy-going, present in the moment, but with little urgency or intensity. Nothing feels urgent. Everything is in cruise control.

I’ve only touched this state in short seasons of my life, usually after burning out. After years of poker intensity, I remember taking months where I’d do the bare minimum. Sleeping in late. Wandering through days without clear goals. Going to the beach, relaxing with friends, convincing myself I was “enjoying life.”

And part of me was. There was a relief in not pushing. A quiet presence I hadn’t felt before. But it never lasted. Because without a sense of challenge, without a reason to go all out, life began to feel flat. The joy of being present slowly blurred into apathy.

The Drifter is high on gratitude, but low on agency. At best, it looks like spiritual calm. At worst, it slides into stagnation or depression.

3.The Busy Grinder

This is the person who’s always grinding, but never truly switched on or off.

They fill their days with work, calls, training, errands — but it’s all surface-level intensity. They think they’re working harder than anyone else, but in reality, they’re spreading themselves so thin that nothing gets their full attention.

I’ve lived here too. I’d wake up with a packed schedule, tick through task after task, and feel like I’d accomplished a lot. But when I zoomed out, I wasn’t moving forward in any meaningful way. I wasn’t doing the deep, focused work that actually shifts things. And I wasn’t giving myself the downtime that restores energy.

The Busy Grinder spends life in half-effort. They look productive, but the truth is they’re just exhausting themselves with motion.

None of these avatars felt quite right to me.

The Workaholic burnt me out.

The Drifter left me flat.

The Busy Grinder kept me stuck in the middle, spinning my wheels.

But recently, I’ve started to experiment with something different.

What if the real secret isn’t to live always on, always off, or somewhere in between?

What if the real art is knowing how to toggle between the two?

Flipping the The Switch

This is what I’m calling the The Switch: being 100% on or 100% off.

Here’s how it looks for me.

When it’s time to work, I go all in. Ninety minutes of deep, focused effort.

When it’s time to train, I hit the gym or the padel court with full intensity.

When it’s time to compete, I bring everything I’ve got.

And then I switch off. Completely. Evenings, weekends, time with my fiancée, lying on the beach — I let myself rest and enjoy life without guilt.

It feels strange at first, because most of us are conditioned to hover in the middle.

But the more I practice it, the more natural it feels.

Because this is how athletes function.

And it’s how animals live in the wild.

Hunt with everything you’ve got. Then eat, rest, and recover until it’s time to hunt again.

There’s no constant half-effort.

No pretending to be productive.

Just full engagement, then full release.

This means you work a lot less, but when you do work, you go all out.

Why This Matters

Living as The Workaholic, The Drifter, or The Busy Grinder comes with hidden costs.

The Workaholic burns fast but burns out. They achieve a lot, but at the expense of presence, gratitude, and often their health. I know because I lived this way for years — and no milestone ever felt like enough.

The Drifter finds peace, but without urgency, life begins to flatten. Presence turns into passivity. Gratitude without drive can slip quietly into a lull.

The Busy Grinder feels productive, but stays stuck. Always moving, never really progressing. They’re the ones who look back after months of “being busy” and wonder why nothing has actually changed.

Each of these modes leaves something essential on the table. You either sacrifice your energy, your ambition, or your growth.

But when you learn to flip The Switch — to be 100% on or 100% off — everything changes.

• Work becomes sharper because you’re not half-distracted.

• Rest becomes deeper because you’ve given yourself permission to stop.

• Progress becomes faster because you’re channeling full intensity into fewer, more important things.

Presence fuels intensity. Intensity makes presence satisfying.

One without the other is incomplete.

That’s why this matters: because the way you use your energy shapes the quality of your entire life.

Final Reflection

I’ll be honest, this isn’t something I’ve mastered.

It’s something I’m still learning and experimenting with.

As I’ve became more observant, I’ve noticed most people I meet are stuck in one mode.

The Workaholic knows they should relax more, but can’t.

The Drifter knows they should push harder, but can’t.

The Busy Grinder wishes they could work with more intensity, but can’t.

That’s why The Switch isn’t just an idea. It’s something you have to train.

Here’s what it looks like for me when I get it right:

In the morning, I’m fully on. Three hours of deep work — writing, creating, bringing my full energy to the page. Then I switch off. I step away from the desk, leave the work behind, and give myself to the moment.

Later, I’m fully on again. Ninety minutes in the gym. Focused, intentional, pushing myself hard. Then I switch off. I eat, I sauna, I let my body recover.

In the evening, I decide which mode I’m in. If I have coaching calls or I’m hosting a podcast, I’m locked in — fully on. If not, I give myself permission to be fully off — cooking dinner, spending time with my fiancée, walking the dog, no guilt about not “doing more.”

And when the weekend comes, I’m off. Completely. No half-working, no “just checking emails.” Just presence. Fun. Gratitude. Enjoying the moment I’m in.

That’s the rhythm I’m training. Not half in, half out — but fully here, then fully gone.

It’s not easy, and I don’t hit it every day.

But the more I practice it, the more I see: this is how life was meant to be lived.

The same way athletes train and rest.

The same way animals hunt, then recover.

Max effort. Max rest.

That’s The Switch.

Adam