Spend your years building something time cannot easily erase.

Some things you build are fragile, and some outlast you without needing maintenance: what you taught someone, a habit you passed on, a way of treating people that others learned from you. Those are not usually the things that feel impressive while you are doing them. But they persist in ways that possessions and positions generally do not. It is worth knowing which sort of building you are doing.

Ask what you are making that would still exist if you stopped tending it. Put a little more of your effort there. It rarely comes with recognition, which is part of why it lasts.