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.