“How do I stop striving without feeling dead inside?”

Another soul answered...

when you realize that doing nothing is always an option and often the best choice. things tend to work out just fine when your goals are aligned with everyone else's

Another soul answered...

I think it comes down to balancing both your mental and physical health. I get what you mean when you say "feeling dead inside" so I would suggest taking a break from things for a week and thinking everything through you know. Once you get it figured out I would suggest making an proper schedule where you are taking care of both your mental and physcial health, I think its very important that those two are well balanced or else you will be all jumbled up and left dead from the inside like you said. My suggestion, sleep early, wake up and exercise, take care of yourself, go out with people, meet new people, stay close to family, keep doing your work, and most important love yourself. Good luck mate.

Another soul answered...

Maybe the goal isn’t to stop striving completely, but to stop believing that you have to constantly achieve something to deserve rest, happiness, or a sense of worth. You can still have goals and ambitions while allowing yourself to exist without always improving, producing, or proving yourself. Try making space for things that have no outcome attached to them—watching something you love, spending time with someone, making something just because it’s fun, or having a completely unproductive day without turning it into a failure. Rest might feel uncomfortable at first if you’re used to measuring your value by what you accomplish, but that discomfort doesn’t mean you’re doing life wrong. You’re allowed to want more from life without treating who you are right now as something that needs fixing.

Another soul answered...

There are things in life that you cannot not do. You can’t be yourself without doing them. Is this one of those? Is this part of the person you see in the mirror? If it is the case, you need to pace your strive. Get distracted, touch grass from time to time. If it’s something you really really want, but don’t actually need just realizing it may help