You definitely have a point there, looking at some of my previous work I was able to stick to projects for many months if I found the work interesting. I'll have to admit in the past 5 or so years any time I've tried to start a project there was always the thought in the back of my mind of 'will this benefit my career' or 'how can I make money on this in the future'. It seems having such thoughts adds additional anxiety to whenever I try and start to work on something for fun.

Looks like that is what I need to start looking for again, projects which I find interesting or fun to do in my spare time, without thinking about how it would affect my career or trying to find ways to monetize it.