If I have a relatively focused task to work on, but I also have meeting in the middle of the day, can be a 30 minute call, I know I will not succeed. I really need that build up and then hold on to that momentum. And after, even when I'm satisfied and happy with my work, its super hard to let go. I will keep looking into improvements during the evening and will linger on it in bed.
I still have to figure out how to deal with this. But then I'm only 29 and just starting my professional career, so enough time to learn and grow.
On the other hand, things that mostly stretch your mind, such as science disciplines, you can do well in your 70s, 80s, or possibly even 90s. If you start at 29 with studying physics, you could get on top of your field by 45-50, leaving you quite some time to enjoy your top of the field.
29 is fine to start with most things I'd guess, especially if you've got experiences you can bring to your new career that others might not have.
But through that all these tasks form a big daunting mountain of stress and effort together and then i keep putting them off and procrastinate.
I keep reading all these words about patience, consistency, how it compounds over time. I believe in all of that. But my own reality is this: I seem to have a very high activation threshold around most of things. For some, this means I'm unable to maintain steady, casual pace. By the time I work up enough energy to move past the potential barrier, the scheduled time is up and I should go do something else. In these cases, I naturally fall back to the pattern of working up the energy and then going non-stop. It tends to make the activation barrier even higher, but over time it seems to integrate to more actual progress.
(On that note, being a husband and a father, forcing me to keep a semblance of regular schedule, made this difficult for me.)
> The only exception to this might be short little events, like sure if you have an exam, a bit of stress and a last all out effort can help. If you're competing in some athletic event similarly. But for most other life goals, I'm not so sure.
I wish I knew how to reach that state, instead of having this natural tendency of turning things into "short little events".