Awesome thanks for the book recommendation, just picked it up.
For me, this has been the defining struggle of my adult life. I've only just become truly aware of it though but when I think back to stuff like when I was a kid playing MMORPGs I would utterly struggle to make a character to level 10 before re-rolling for something more appealing.
Now it is almost a pathological issue I have where I just can't seem to choose something that interests me because honestly, everything is just as equally interesting. Painting, guitar, cooking, lifting, game development, ios development, etc. Its like paralysis by analysis to the nth degree. It's easy to say "just try some things and stick with what you enjoy" but eventually the going gets (slightly) tough and i just wimp out and quit. Except for lifting...for whatever reason I've been obsessed with that for almost a decade now.
>Except for lifting...for whatever reason I've been obsessed with that for almost a decade now.
My hypothesis is that exercise, especially weight training, is one of the few activities where the growth curve is front-loaded with improvement. The phenomenon of "noob gains" provides positive feedback much quicker than other activities, and that feedback is much easier to get--just look at how much you lifted this week compared to two weeks ago, or how fast you ran that last mile.
By the time your gains start to slow down--whether that's six months or a year from now--you've already developed a habit.
In my twenties, with no responsibilities and with some money, I thought to get a motorcycle and learn to ride it. I stopped when I looked at my room and saw the vast number of things I was already dabbling with and deep-diving. I knew that if I got a motorcycle it would consume my interest for something like five years as I had to understand how every single part worked down to the bolt.
That could be a great thing. But for me, then, I didn't want to go into suspended animation for half a decade and wake up with deep motorcycle knowledge. So I completely dropped it.
I totally have the same issue. Now that I know this pattern about myself, I pause before doing anything because I know that the n-th state is me stopping the project. But I’m learning to push through and just engage in projects, because the paralysis is way worse for me than the doing and stopping.
Similarly I've managed to stick with lifting, and cooking. The others aforementioned have faltered, but I am finding enjoyment in reading and research, and games. I think when I've reduced the pressure on myself to produce creatively at my leisure, so too has the stress. But I still do want to be creative.
For me, this has been the defining struggle of my adult life. I've only just become truly aware of it though but when I think back to stuff like when I was a kid playing MMORPGs I would utterly struggle to make a character to level 10 before re-rolling for something more appealing.
Now it is almost a pathological issue I have where I just can't seem to choose something that interests me because honestly, everything is just as equally interesting. Painting, guitar, cooking, lifting, game development, ios development, etc. Its like paralysis by analysis to the nth degree. It's easy to say "just try some things and stick with what you enjoy" but eventually the going gets (slightly) tough and i just wimp out and quit. Except for lifting...for whatever reason I've been obsessed with that for almost a decade now.