I have so many things in my backlog, from launching a startup, writing some app, blogging, producing some music, getting into amateur filmmaking, picking on padel, learning many new things in programming, contributing to OSS more, learning more vegetarian dishes, making more time for friends and family, I could go with this list for on and on.
Till my early 30s this had given me anxiety and sadness.
After 35 I accepted that I have more ambitions and interests than time and energy, and shifted instead of living more day by day and doing things at my pace and according to my mood.
Slowly I sometimes do some of the things I wanted to, I feel fulfilled and definitely less stressed.
The feeling of not doing enough was sometimes itself paralyzing, now I just don't care and enjoy and end up doing more.
I also have a similar struggle right now with similar ambitions. I’ve been finding that while I want to do many of these things idealistically, in reality I didn’t end up actually doing them and just idealizing in a sort of paralysis of getting to my end goal.
I’ve been learning the balance of pursuing these things when I’m interested and to not stress about simply watching television. I’m not probably going to be the next hot shot OSS contributor or project creator, but a few patches and features here and there is actually more than enough.
Day by day is great advice for long term happiness (and productivity), and as Bruce Lee says: “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who had practiced one kick 10,000 times”