When there’s so much to do and so little time, so many options, such a huge distance to go until where you want to be, so many issues slowing you down, so many mistakes in your past, so many bad habits built up, and you’re having to witness huge periods of time just disappear…
Getting overwhelmed is easy, because life is honestly overwhelming. But sometimes, a brutal reduction of scope can make things seem much simpler.
There are puzzles in your life, yes. But those are the only things you need to solve. Nothing else actually matters besides fixing them. That’s your life. So treat those issues with respect and approach them properly. Write them down, work on them every day. Don’t worry about all that noise from outside.
You may start to realise that the big issues in your life aren’t actually so challenging for the talented human brain and body. It might be writing some papers. Talking to some people. Picking up a new hobby. There will be challenge, but it just requires some effort.
When you start thinking like this, everything seems a bit simpler. Nothing can go too wrong if you make a to-do list and start now.