Really fascinating post! I wouldn’t say that I’m a sad person, and now that I’ve gone past the social isolation I suffered as a kid, my happiness set-point is actually quite high, maybe because my occasional episodes of self-hatred spur me to get stuff done (which I seem to be good at). Nevertheless, especially in the past few years I’ve maintained a work and school schedule that leaves me burnt out and exhausted by the end of first semester, with just enough time over the summer (while working 50+ hours per week) to recover my ability to feel motivated before I go back and do it to myself again. Unfortunately for me, I’m good at overriding what I actually want to do in order to do what I feel needs doing, and I’m good at getting the mandatory stuff done regardless of how unmotivated I feel, so it’s never become enough of a problem to actually do anything about it.
This involved working around some neuroses, like my unwillingness to spend money, and overcoming some background reluctance to try new things.
That sounds exactly like me!
“I cannot control the speed of the bus. I caught it, and it will get there when it gets there. There is no point in further fretting about being late until I’m moving under my own power again—so I’ll stop. To manage my strong, intrusive desire to be on time, I will start thinking about how to choose an efficient path to walk once I get off the bus.”
Really fascinating post! I wouldn’t say that I’m a sad person, and now that I’ve gone past the social isolation I suffered as a kid, my happiness set-point is actually quite high, maybe because my occasional episodes of self-hatred spur me to get stuff done (which I seem to be good at). Nevertheless, especially in the past few years I’ve maintained a work and school schedule that leaves me burnt out and exhausted by the end of first semester, with just enough time over the summer (while working 50+ hours per week) to recover my ability to feel motivated before I go back and do it to myself again. Unfortunately for me, I’m good at overriding what I actually want to do in order to do what I feel needs doing, and I’m good at getting the mandatory stuff done regardless of how unmotivated I feel, so it’s never become enough of a problem to actually do anything about it.
That sounds exactly like me!
So I’m not the only one who does this!