[spugody]

Similar story to me. Academically fairly gifted from an early age, testing high IQ later (I know, I know) and was recommended to be placed in an advanced school.

My parents were modest and didn't pursue this, nevertheless, everything was easy until it wasn't. The part I never learned properly was effort=reward. I was also diagnosed with ADHD and was on ritalin for several years.

Later school years were bad for me because it involved a lot of rote learning. I did not have the discipline to do this and my grades slipped back to mediocre. University was better and I did very well again. I've done moderately well in my career, top few % of earners but I am unable to break higher because I'm constantly distracted and struggling to complete mundane work tasks which prevents me from getting to the top where my ego says I belong.

I take full acknowledgement of issues, I know it is my own doing. I don't know if it is too late for me to change but I'm slowly (because even here I lack the focus) trying to learn technique to change my entire approach. I've recently started looking at the power of habit forming as a means to improve discipline. I think I could benefit from a very tightly structured day where one thing naturally leads to another. Otherwise I tend to drift in and out of tasks and end of up the web, like now.

[throwaway98797]

It might be your ego that’s holding you back not your inability to do mundane tasks.

Who wants leadership that’s “too good for this shit”

I feel you though, ego is the enemy, though it’s also the engine.

[zozbot234]

Rote learning and memorization is the kind of thing everyone loves to hate, but it can be important in many fields and people should get good at it. These days we also have spaced-repetition (SRS) software that helps a lot with memorization of many kinds, making it almost game-like.