This is not a deeper goal, it's a surface level reaction to generalized anxiety.

The writer tries to connect together unrelated aspects of their life in a common thread but I got the sense that they simply never took the time to appropriately understand themselves.

Running away into more challenges simply perpetuates worry.

The more money and security I made, the less beholden I felt to the workplace and things that weren't personal to me. Less anxiety, less need to appeal to others for survival/success (of course still try to be nice)

I've also always had tons of ideas and things I wanted to pursue outside of work. So never lacked for motivation or sense of purpose.

My dad recently retired and seems to not have much direction now, so it must be a somewhat individualistic response.

Always interesting to see others reactions!

What is the ultimate good for humans? Specifically what does the good for us, and thus our well-being or happiness, ultimately consist?

It cannot be wealth, because wealth exists only for the sake of something else which we might acquire with it (ST I-II.2.1).

It cannot be honor, because honor accrues to someone only as a consequence of realizing some good, and thus cannot itself be an ultimate good (ST I-II.2.2).

For similar reasons, it cannot be fame or glory either, which are in any case often achieved for things that are not really good in the first place (ST I-II.2.3).

Nor can it be power, for power is a means rather than an end and might be used to bring about evil rather than genuine good (ST I-II.2.4).

It cannot be pleasure, because pleasure is also a consequence of realizing a good rather than the realization of a good itself; even less likely is it to be bodily pleasure specifically, since the body exists for the sake of the soul, which is immaterial (ST I-II.2.6).

Aquinas identifies three general categories of goods inherent in our nature.

First are those we share in common with all living things, such as the preservation of our existence,

Second are those common to animals specifically, such as sexual intercourse and the child-rearing activities that naturally follow upon it.

Third are those peculiar to us as rational animals, such as "to know the truth about God, and to live in society," "to shun ignorance," and "to avoid offending those among whom one has to live" (ST I-II.94.2).

These goods are ordered in a hierarchy corresponding to the hierarchy of living things (i.e. those with vege-tative, sensory, and rational souls respectively).

The higher goods presuppose the lower ones; for example, one cannot pursue truth if one is not able to conserve oneself in existence. But the lower goods are subordinate to the higher ones in the sense that they exist for the sake of the higher ones.

Edit: Just skimmed the article: Linkedin tier content.