[danShumway]

On the other hand, the darker side of flight/fight/stress responses being such a hugely effective motivator is that long-term over-reliance on them can lead you to burnout as you age and will take years off of your lifespan.

Stress can be a healthy motivator, but it's generally unhealthy for stress and immediate survival to be your only motivator. Be very careful about over-relying on stress. Besides the physical effects, stress can also sometimes lead to sacrificing long-term habits that aren't immediately necessary but that are still important to build (exercise, career building, relationships, sleep, etc...).

There are two pieces of advice here that (in my opinion) are kind of contradictory:

- form habits (good advice)

- "no one used to care about whether they wanted to do stuff because if they didn't they would die" (this is a recipe for burnout, regardless of how well it might work for someone in the short term).

A good habit usually should not be stressful, it shouldn't be something you do out of persistent fear. There is something to the idea of having stimuli/motivators around chores that are difficult to ignore, lots of people benefit from that kind of setup. But... not because you're worried about dying if you don't do them.