In the book Four Thousand Weeks, Oliver Burkeman mentions the concept of “the joy of missing out”—as opposed to the fear of missing out! The joy of missing out is the thrilling recognition that you wouldn’t want to do everything, because the very fact that you have to choose between two (often equally) good options bestows value upon your choice. Giving up something means you’re choosing something else on which to spend a portion of time that you never had any right to expect.

This is similar to the (unfortunately named) concept of having “high counterfactuals”, popular in EA circles. In this case, the high counterfactuals relate to your leisure and personal life, rather than your professional life—I find that if I’m already have some high-quality, constructive activities ready to go (e.g. visiting family, having a hot shower, gardening), then I’m more likely to feel the joy of missing out on some other activity.

This is also similar to the “explore/exploit” paradigm that has been explored (heh) in the academic literature. Early in life, you might explore what types of activities that bring you joy and peace and happiness. Over time, you might gradually shift to “exploit”-ing those activities more frequently. Some amount of exploring is still probably valuable, but less so over time. This applies to both one’s personal life and one’s professional life. (Though I note that an individual might shift towards “exploit” from their own perspective, while the community as a whole remains firmly in the “explore” camp from a community-wide perspective. For example, I think that the animal advocacy movement should certainly be placing a large proportion of its resources in the “explore” bucket, even if individuals within the movement are perfectly happy to “exploit” in both their professional and personal lives.)

Christopher Robin: “You’ll be happy to hear that everyone’s safe and sound. I saved them from a Heffalump which was, in fact, well, me. And Owl’s weather vane.”
Pooh: “I’m sorry I wasn’t there. But I am rather glad that I was here.”
Christopher Robin (2018)