Often, it seems like one thing is dominating our personal landscapes for one reason or another. Sometimes, it feels like if one immovable thing were out of the way, that everything else would click and flow. It's rarely that simple, but what do you see as your biggest obstacle at the moment?
I guess my biggest obsctacle is lacking a clear sense of what I want. I'm interested in a huge variety of things and I find my mind keeps jumping from one thing to another in a matter of hours. Last Saturday, for example, I woke up fully determined to spend the day learning Arabic, something I've wanted to do for a while now. As it happened, I got on Wikipedia to look something up, and then just kept link hopping till I got off the computer in the evening, having read all about the Thirty Years War. I wouldn't say it wasn't fruitful, but I didn't stick to my goals for the day. I guess it's a combination of a lack of motivation, a lack of discipline, and some really crap planning. It's affected me a lot both in my personal and professional life.
If you "zoom out" and take a look at the where your mind jumps to, do any patterns emerge? Sometimes things that seem random don't seem random at all when looked at from a different perspective. It sounds like you'd like your situation to change. If that's true, what do you think you could reasonably do to begin changing?
I think the situation is pretty neatly summed up here. I basically start up wanting some very specific info on the side, and then find something else I really want to learn, and then something else again! I guess it's not random so much as it is absolutely useless, I end up learning and experiencing a lot of different different things, but am unable to master anything. As a result, I'm not really good at anything, which obviously affects me professionally. My personal relationships suffer a lot too, because I forget to call people and honor commitments because I've suddenly leapt onto something else. I don't quite know how to go about tackling the problem. I think my problem is classified as a mild form of ADD. It's not a full-blown disorder because I still manage to scrape through at work and satisfy the bare minimum criteria for being a well-adjusted adult. The obvious solution would be something like Adderall, but even if I do get a prescription for it I'm too scared to take it because I've seen what it does to some of my friends. I've recently discovered Vipassana Yoga, which is supposed to work wonders, but it requires a tremendous amount of dedication and effort. I'm still a noob, but getting better. Fingers crossed, I guess.
I think a lot of people experience this, especially if they are almost always connected to the internet. I have not heard of that form of yoga (there are so many!) but maybe that warrants an in-depth search (sigh). Well, fingers crossed . . . in lotus position.
Obstacles:
If there's an obstacle in the path, one has to have a path first. I think my biggest obstacle is not having, at the moment, a clear,definable path. Oh, there are projects. Projects are good and each project is moving along in various ways (and I imagine they are on one path or another -- but not THE path). Sometimes a helpful push from someone makes the project larger and cooler! But what's the path? I probably have a path, but I haven't defined it, made it obvious to myself and others. Or maybe I'm on a new path, having gone on so many already, each one opening up to several new paths.... My path today: to make the abstract concrete. Time to hit the pavement.
My biggest obstacle is motivation. I lack motivation to do a lot and I have been this way for the last few years. Maybe it has been that I have gotten myself into the habit of complacency (if that is even possible) but I do know that some days I tell myself, "Get it together," and never seem to do it.
My biggest obstacle at the moment is being in the moment. I feel like I often have too many impending things to take care of to be fully present. I met with mk yesterday and for half of the time we were together I was fretting about something that at that moment I couldn't do anything about anyways. Presence is my biggest obstacle.
I have issues with motivation that lead to me hardly ever finishing things, or, when applicable, finishing them at the very last minute (case in point, I'm currently writing an essay due tomorrow). I'm lucky in the fact that I'm able to do assignments and the like at the last minute and still get really good marks - actually, better marks than I would otherwise. I work a lot better under pressure, and knowing that this is the absolute last chance to do it means I put a lot more effort in, resulting in better work. If I didn't have an affinity for/enjoyment of writing it would be a real problem, as it means I rarely produce drafts or edit work. But, at this very moment, my biggest obstacle is my gender issues. I'm genderqueer, which falls under the trans* umbrella, and essentially means that I don't feel I am either male nor female, but somewhere in between/neither. I'm usually able to live with it, but other times, like the past week or so, the dysphoria (the feeling of not fitting in your body, of looking at yourself and seeing someone else/not how you see yourself at all) is crippling, often leading to bouts of severe depression. As soon as I've got this semester's work out of the way I'm calling my doctor again to go on hormone treatment, but it means encountering a lot of resistance from society/friends/family. Sort of damned if I do, damned if I don't.
This has been a subject I've been thinking about for years now. I'm at the point of being pretty frustrated with myself. I don't know if it is ADHD. I have a ton of ideas and ambition and goals. But I'm finding I get very few things done. What I can't get my head around is that at work, I've either become a person or created "Work-arounds" that allow me get a great many things done. Often in short amounts of time. But when I get home, and want to work on a business idea. Cleaning my office. Flushing out ideas or what have you. I get easily distracted by whatever comes along. Even to the point of putting laundry over stuff that should be my dream goals. Am I depressed? Am I fatally flawed? Cursed? It comes to a point that I can't be the person I want to be, because of "me". I am that obstacle.
It sounds like you have a really good grasp of your situation. It's been my obersvation that most most people do not understand themselves or their weaknesses very well and these are the people that fail. This is why when people are interviewed for a job the question "tell me a weakness of yours" is often asked. If you know what your weakness is, then you are far more likely to overcome it. For this reason, I'd say you are well positioned to achieve your goals, you just need a plan. What is it at work that you do to stay on target? Any chance you could emulate that at home? My wife often gets annoyed because I am far more detail oriented at work than I am at home. I work off of a list that I make every day at work and one-by-one I cross tasks off of the list. I asked my wife to start making me "to-do" lists at home. It works. I have been a part of a number of team projects and what I've found is that some people will self-sabotage themselves just prior to bringing a project to fruition. Why? I think it's because, to them, the idea of trying and failing is worse than simply having a "dream" and never trying. Screw that! Put the laundry aside. Make a list and get it done! Also, welcome to Hubski. If you have any questions about anything feel free to PM me. Otherwise, joelg236 wrote this a while back for new users. Good luck!
Probably myself. The only limit to things I can achieve is myself. This isn't your generic "work hard and you will get what you want" sentiment, because I'm sure we all know it isn't that simple. Truth is however, be it through cunning or hard work or thought or even lack of thought, we can achieve almost anything as we are our only obstacle. I guess the only obstacle that's nipping at me is giving up at perceived obstacles.
I don't know, it's sort of hard to pinpoint specific goals and obstacles because I'm at the point in life where I'm still not quite sure what I even want to do. There's always the constant pressure of school of course, but I'm in no way failing. My life's pretty plain and I just try to fill the void with knowledge :P
My first thought when I read the question was "my biggest obstacle to what exactly?". It's a good question but to answer it i'd first need to know what I wanted to do. I don't have a life plan. I got to where I am now without a plan, I admire people who have a life plan. I know quite a few of them and they say things like "I'm going backpacking around Asia for a few years, then I'm going to work in finance and live in Zurich". I even knew one guy who had his life planned out when he was 18, step 1 involved joining the army, I didn't ask what step 2 was. That's not me, I don't have life plans, I don't have a goal, I don't have obstacles.