A conditioning coach once showed a graph of continuous improvement through training. Then how much the drop is after a few days off compared to the slow and gradual improvement of continuous training. It takes a lot of effort to get back up. A few more days off and the effort and time looks almost insurmountable.

This theory however seems to apply to other areas also. My development environment has been neglected somewhat for a few months. It took some time to get a development environment going again this weekend for me. A lot of updates were needed and my skills degraded severely. So I have to be careful to avoid falling behind and to keep my developer skills current.

The work doesn't stop there though. Just as in sports you have to keep pushing the limit to improve yourself, and this is a slow, continuous process. Also try to continuously be better at everything not just career related. Be a better parent, better member of community etc. Otherwise when the years pass by quickly you'll find that it's all too late to start again.