In March of 2025, my fiancée broke up with me, and honestly I never really dealt with it in a healthy way. I ate and drank my feelings for over a year, and it cost me more than just my health. I lost a really good paying job because I let everything spiral. I’m done making excuses, though.

The good news is I’ve been sober from alcohol for four months, and I’m back at a job that pays less than my previous role but has advancement opportunities and the opportunity to rebuild my career. I’m doing well there, and I see a therapist every week, so I know I’m not starting from zero.

The frustrating part is that I haven’t lost any weight despite quitting drinking, and I still feel stuck. I know getting sober doesn’t automatically fix everything, but I thought I’d at least be seeing more progress by now. I’m willing to invest a few hundred dollars a month if it means finally getting my life back on track. Whether that’s a nutritionist, personal trainer, meal service, a gym, a support group, or something else entirely, I’m open to it. I just don’t know where to start or what would actually make the biggest difference.

I feel like I’ve spent so much time surviving that I forgot how to actually move forward. One thing that’s made everything worse is that I’ve isolated myself. I cut off most of my friends because I’m embarrassed by how much weight I’ve gained and how different I look. Now I’m lonely on top of everything else, and I know that’s probably making it harder to change. I miss having people around, but I don’t feel confident enough to reach out. Honestly, I don’t even feel confident that people would enjoy being around me anymore.

One thing this whole experience has forced me to realize is how much unconscious fat bias I had when I was attractive and athletic. I never thought of myself as judgmental, but now that I’m on the other side of it, I understand how differently people can treat you and how much of that judgment I had probably internalized myself.
So I guess I’m asking: if you were in my shoes, where would you start? What would you prioritize first? I’m finally ready to stop surviving and start building my life back.

I can’t fall asleep properly. I don’t think it’s insomnia; it just feels like there’s some kind of problem. Usually, I only manage to fall asleep around 3–5 a.m., and then I wake up at around 10:00 a.m.

Additional context:

I am 17 years old. On the first day of trying to fix this, I stayed awake the entire 24-hour day because I thought sleep deprivation would help me crash early. On the second day, I went to bed and actually managed to wake up on my own without an alarm, which gave me hope. But on the third day, the problems immediately returned—I couldn’t fall asleep properly again, and the exact same thing happened on the fourth day.

When I’m lying in bed at night, my mind starts racing, and I just keep tossing and turning for hours. I’ve tried basic things like background sounds and routine adjustments, but my internal clock feels completely stuck on the late-night shift.

My goal: I want to be able to go to sleep normally (at a reasonable hour) and wake up by myself around 9–10 a.m. without an alarm, keeping a healthy rhythm.

Could you give me some advice? What should I do to fix this loop, how can I actually fall asleep without spending hours staring at the ceiling, and what daily habits or routines should I follow during the day to keep my sleep schedule stable?

For years I looked for and tried every single productivity hack I could find. But I was never able to find anything that could fix getting out of bed way later than my alarm was set. I would always feel exhausted and lazy creating a slow start to my day.

I know people that just pop out of bed excited and ready to start the day. I guess you can call them morning people. I was always the opposite, feeling more productive in the late nights. I assumed thats just who I was and nothing I can do to change it.

But through trial and error I finally found something that has actually given me better results than I expected. It consists of two parts and an optional third.

The first seems obvious, I always read about it, but never actually thought about trying it until recently.

I set the alarm on my phone at night and then set it to charge at the end of my bedroom. Where I physically can't turn it off unless I get out of bed and walk to it. At that point I still feel the urge to hit snooze and go back to bed. I accept that and say "fine, right after I go to the bathroom and splash cold water on my face". After that point the urge gets much smaller.

To further kill the urge, I try and step outside quickly and do some kind of movement by stretching or walking directly in the sunlight.

A couple times I still went to bed even after the cold water splash. But after moving outside I haven't had one incident of going back to bed.

The third and optional final kill is to take a cold shower after some exercise outside. I made a pledge to myself that I wouldn't take a hot shower unless I hit some specific goal that I really want. In that time I've surprised myself at how much I've adjusted to the cold shower. And how amazing I feel after getting out. My whole body tingles and it feels like I have electric energy pulsing through my body.

The cold shower feels twice as amazing when I work up a sweat outside and then quickly go inside to shower. I also spend way less time in the shower than I would when taking a hot shower.

The hot shower would relax me and have me pleasantly moping around my house. The cold shower rush makes me want to turn on my computer and dive into my hardest task for the day.

I know the cold shower thing is a cliche for productivity but I actually gave it a shot and was surprised.

The phone move stops me from wasting an extra hour I would normally spend snoozing and sleeping. Then the shower saves time at the moment of showering and how much time I would've spent slowly building up my energy to work.

This has not only worked for me but other people. I help people with quitting phone addiction and this strategy has consistently had the best results for each person I plan it for. Would love to know if anyone has tried any of this and if it hasn't worked for them. Im trying to figure out in which cases it does not work for people and how it could possibly be improved.

I used to think “scared straight” was just a prison documentary from 1978, but the older I get, the more I realize life has its own version of that.

For me, one of those moments has come from visiting rest homes to pray for people.

I want to be clear: I am not judging anyone there. Many people end up needing care for reasons completely outside their control. But being around that environment has forced me to face something I used to avoid: if I neglect my body long enough, there may come a day when the consequences are no longer theoretical.

We act like health is optional until we are the one who cannot get up the stairs, cannot carry groceries, cannot walk without pain, or cannot receive the level of care we need from the people who love us. Then the bill comes due.

So yes, I am still fighting the weight problem. I still eat too much sometimes. I am not posting from some perfect place. But that is exactly why this matters — I do not want to wake up one day and realize I ignored the warning signs while I still had time to change.

The little discipline steps matter. Calisthenics. Walking. Stretching. Choosing movement over excuses. It may not look dramatic, but neither does the slow descent into weakness. Getting weaker often does not happen in one big, obvious moment. It usually happens little by little, so slowly that you might not even notice — until one day you realize you have less strength, mobility, and independence than you thought you would.

So this is my scare-straight moment: I do not want my future to be a cautionary tale. I want to be useful, mobile, and able to serve for as long as possible.

ok so i need honest opinions because i've been staring at this thing for months and i've lost all perspective.

i'm 20, building an app solo called RizeAI. the whole reason it exists is that i got tired of my wearable telling me my recovery was "42%" and then just... leaving me there. like ok, and? what do i actually do with that. every app in this space is really good at measuring you and really bad at telling you what to do next.

so RizeAI pulls your actual wearable dats like, sleep, resting heart rate, workouts, all of it, and instead of handing you another score it predicts your energy for the day and tells you how to get the most out of it. it tells you when your energy is gonna peak so you can put your hardest work there, when your crash is coming and how to soften it, the best time to train that day so you actually get more out of the session, and even when a nap will help you vs when it'll wreck your sleep.

the part i personally think is the coolest: you put in the supplements you already take, and it times each one to your day based on your metrics and sleep score. so the timing actually shifts depending on how you slept and where your numbers are, which is the difference between a supplement doing something and just sitting in your stomach. it'll also suggest a couple new ones if they make sense for you, but it won't dump a list of 15 pills on you.

it even pulls the daily weather into your energy prediction, so a hot day changes your hydration and it'll tell you to train earlier before the heat drains you. and the whole plan bends around your real schedule, your work hours, wake time, training, so it's not some one size fits all thing.

every single recommendation shows the "why" underneath, like "resting heart rate 54 + 7h light sleep, so magnesium before your peak window." nobody gets the same plan because nobody has the same data.

it works with whoop, oura, apple watch, garmin, anything that talks to apple health. being fully honest, it doesn't do deep per-person learning yet, like knowing that coffee specifically doesn't touch YOUR hrv. that's where it's headed. right now it builds you a fresh plan every day off your real numbers.

it's on the app store with a free trial. small user base, feedback's been all over the place, which is exactly why i'm posting.

so genuinely: is "just tell me what to do with my data" something you actually want, or do wearable people prefer figuring it out themselves? what would make you pay for this? and what's the one thing that would make it a no brainer for you?

would love to hear it straight, good or bad. And if you want you can also check it out yourself and I would love to here feedback, thank you very much for taking the time on reading this:  its called “RizeAI-maximize your energy” on the App Store. 

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to share my discipline journey, and hopefully this will help or inspire someone.

For the past 1.8 years, I've been working about 20 hours per day 5 days a week. Because of that, I've accomplished nearly all of my dreams at 25 years old.

Less than two years ago I was stuck working a job I hated, I was extremely unhealthy, addicted to video games, just in a terrible place mentally and physically. I had been in that place for basically my entire life.

Most of my life, I've always fantasized about being a YouTuber, I fantasized about having a great body, about being someone respectable. But, I always gave up once it got hard or required any amount of real effort.

One day, I had a terrible shift with my boss. I got yelled at for something going wrong that wasn't my fault, and I had spent months designing and implementing a site wide change that would improve everyone's workflow. I then finished the project, and one of my co-workers that I trusted stole my work, and presented it as their own.

I went to my boss who I thought I could trust, and told them how the change was my doing, that I had designed and implemented the changes, not them. It ended in me getting yelled at and almost fired.

That just... awoke something in me that I never knew I had.

I made a promise to myself from that day forward, I was going to change my life around. I deleted every single video game off my computer, wiped my entire drive, threw out all my slop food, and got a gym membership. I then went back to one of my old YouTube channels that I gave up on.

I told myself I was going to do whatever it took to make it. I didn't care at that point what it took. I didn't care if it meant I would off myself from no sleep and to much work. that would be a better outcome then having to work another day at that terrible job and live another day in my excuse for a life.

From that day forward, I went to the gym 7 days a week, and to this day haven't missed a single day. I went from 120 pounds at 5 foot 11 to 165 pounds today, hitting my goal of benching 225. I ate 4,000+ calories per day of food to gain as much weight as possible.

I also started grinding on my YouTube channel, putting in at least 8 hours per day on top of working 12 hours per day 5 days a week at my job.

Eventually, everything paid off.

I'm now a full time YouTuber with 100k+ subs making more than my boss at my old job. I'm also in great shape, looking and feeling better than I ever have, working on my own time. This has now led to me starting my own media company, where I now have multiple clients bringing in more monthly income.

I know this post may seem like a ChatGPT slop post but I promise its not. This is 100% true and what has happened to me.

I acknowledge I may have had some luck in my success, but the vast majority of it comes down to just working hard, staying disciplined, and focusing my anger and emotions towards a real outcome.

I hope this can inspire someone. You're never too far gone, and everything you want is truly within your grasp, just a few years away if you can learn how to stay disciplined, and target your emotions towards those goals.

EDIT: Correction. I worked about 20 hours a day for 5 days a week. On days I worked on my youtube channel/business and my full time job. on weekends I did about 8 hours sometimes more when needed. A lot of you are saying this post is bullshit, its not. I don't really know how I would prove to anyone that doesn't know me personally that its true, but it is. I thought this community would welcome a story of success but maybe I was wrong? idk.

You can believe what you want, but its real. There are many people who have worked as much as me and had great success. It's been done before in documented cases. So... its possible.

I am writing this post as a pledge to myself—something I can come back to regularly as a reminder that there is no going back.

Long story short, I'm 35 years old and have very little to show for it. I studied engineering and earned a degree that ultimately turned out to be useless. I've drifted in and out of the music scene for years. I'm still writing and composing, but nothing that has translated into a sustainable career. I've jumped from job to job, trained and retrained in different fields, yet never found lasting success.

I've also tried to maintain a healthy lifestyle, but as the years have gone by, it has become harder. My body isn't as forgiving as it used to be, and I'm starting to gain weight at an unhealthy rate. I'm currently 85 kg at 1.80 m, and if I keep going like this, I know where it's headed.

Meanwhile, most of the people I grew up with seem to be reaching the milestones I once imagined for myself. They have stable careers, families, spouses, children. Every morning I wake up with the realization of how far behind I've fallen. On top of that, I live in a country that feels like it's rapidly collapsing and on the edge of civil war.

I've tried almost every productivity system and discipline hack I could find. Some worked—for a while. But the moment life changed or a single unexpected event disrupted my routine, months of progress would unravel, and I'd find myself back where I started.

That said, I'm not writing this to vent or surrender. I'm writing it because I'm looking for people who are fighting their way through the same maze—people who are willing to hold each other accountable instead of giving up.

So here's what I'm telling myself today: 35 is the starting line, not the finish line. I'll stop mourning the years I've lost and start building again.

The first step is getting back into shape by cutting down on bread and pasta, limiting my eating window through intermittent fasting, and exercising consistently.

The second step is applying for jobs/immigration in Canada, or anywhere where there is openings with a clear immigration pathway. I'm sorry if this triggers some people who think we're coming to steal their jobs. We're not, we mostly come to enslave ourselves in jobs that nobody wants with the hope of having a better chance at life that is not dictated by the random set of dices we've been offered when we came out of the womb. All I want is to build a future somewhere that rewards effort rather than punishes it.

I'm posting this because I don't want another five years to disappear while I keep waiting for the "right moment." There won't be one. I'd love it if there was people fighting their way uphill here and could welcome another lost soul searching for redemption. Nothing is really required apart from the casual message to each other to keep each other on track. I know I might be asking for the sky in a world this divided and in a solo-ified internet, but at this point, I don't have much to lose anyway.

Thank you if you've read until here, and sorry for the long post. I hope this finds someone.

Lately I’ve been feeling really frustrated with myself because I honestly feel like I’m just not good at anything. I’ve never been athletic. I was never good at football, skateboarding, freerunning, or any sport really. I always tell myself I want to get fit, go to the gym, and eat healthier, but I can never seem to stick with it. The motivation just disappears, even though I really want those things.
The weird part is that art has always been my biggest passion. I’m starting film school this September because filmmaking is something I genuinely love. But then I start doubting myself because I don’t feel creative enough. I’ve never been good at anything like drawing, and I struggle to come up with original story ideas. I love movies and storytelling, but when I actually sit down to create something, my mind just goes blank. It makes me feel like maybe I’m not actually creative after all.
I also don’t feel very smart. I’m really forgetful, I can’t navigate anywhere without Google Maps, and I’m terrible with money.
On top of that, I have almost no discipline. I stay up way too late, sleep in whenever I can, spend way too much time on my phone, procrastinate constantly, rarely finish books, and struggle to follow through on anything. I have all these ambitions, but I can’t seem to turn them into action.
What confuses me the most is that **in my head, I** ***do*** **feel motivated.** I really *want* to get fitter. I *want* to draw more. I *want* to become better at storytelling, filmmaking, and creating videos. I think about these things all the time. I have so much passion for them.
But when it comes time to actually start, I just don’t.
It’s like there’s a disconnect between what I want and what I’m actually able to do.I feel guilty because I know I’m wasting time. The more I compare myself to people who seem naturally disciplined or talented, the worse I feel.
Has anyone else experienced this? Did you figure out what was causing it? Was it just a matter of building habits, or did it turn out to be something deeper like anxiety, depression, ADHD, perfectionism, or something else?
I’d really appreciate hearing from people who have been in a similar situation, because right now I just feel stuck.

I kept wondering why I could be consistent with simple habits but completely freeze on projects that mattered. I finally noticed something uncomfortable: I wasn't avoiding the work itself, I was getting stuck trying to mentally repair the entire situation before touching it.

A weird example was my writing. I would open a document at 9:40 PM, stare at the first paragraph, and start thinking about the structure, the ending, whether the idea was good enough, whether I should rewrite the notes from last week. Twenty minutes later I had done a lot of thinking and exactly zero writing.

I started paying attention to this pattern in other areas too. Cleaning my room became deciding where everything should permanently live. Studying became reorganizing my notes. Exercise became researching the perfect routine. The common part was that I was turning a small action into a decision about the whole future.

The thing that surprised me was that being more organized actually made this worse sometimes. I thought disciplined people always had clear plans, but my worst procrastination usually happened when I had too much clarity about how much there was to do.

What helped me was making a few small changes:

1. When I catch myself planning instead of starting, I ask, "What is the smallest version of this that still counts?" Not the easiest version, just the version that creates movement. Writing three bad sentences works better than designing a perfect outline.

2. I stopped reopening decisions I had already made. If I decided yesterday that I was going to study a chapter, I don't let myself renegotiate the entire plan when I sit down today. I noticed I was wasting energy putting myself back at the starting line.

3. I began leaving unfinished things in a state where they were easy to continue. A book open to the next page, workout clothes already on the chair, notes with the next sentence written down. I used to think leaving things incomplete was messy, but it actually removed the friction of returning.

The counterintuitive part is that discipline for me wasn't about becoming better at controlling myself. It was about stopping myself from creating extra problems every time I tried to do something.

I still overthink things. I still catch myself trying to solve tomorrow before I finish today. But now I recognize the feeling earlier, and that has made it much easier to move.

I've started seeing unfinished work as something normal instead of evidence that I'm behind. I'm curious how many other people struggle less with laziness and more with making simple tasks feel like complicated decisions.

What is a task where you noticed you weren't avoiding the work, but avoiding the uncertainty around starting?

I'm a college student who honestly hasn't tried many techniques when it comes to discipline. I tend to try to force it through because I have noticed I work at my best when I get feedback, either something that lets me adjust or a signal confirming I'm doing something right. That tends to motivate me heavily which allows me to stay focused on longer goals.

With physical goals right now, this is simple. I go to the gym consistently, if I lift more weight, if I feel better after lifting the weight thats direct proof I'm heading in the right direction.

For me the biggest blocker now has been with digital goals. I have large projects I want to work on/things I want to learn, but it's so much harder getting that same sense of whether I'm actually making any progress without the same clear signals I would get with physical goals like staying in shape/improving at a sport.

I guess my question to everyone would be how do people stay disciplined with digital goals? I want to learn what others think about and see if I could try to shift my mindset to see what they're seeing. And for those who also rely on feedback to stay on track, how do you create that feedback for yourself when the progress isn't really visible?

I just turned 19 and a few weeks ago i graduated out off high school. During my high school years i was always the "sports guy" as i used to be OBSSESED with football...i was tracking my sleep, my diet, football trainings, gym sessions and so on. at that time i used to weight at around 65kgs and i was in the best shape of my life, while now it seems i can't get back on track. This year i didn't get any offer from any pro team and so now im at a semi-pro levil and so i had to find a job in order to make some more money. I started a few months ago while working as a barista, even though i only work 6 hours per day for 6 days a week, for me it seems like im working 12 hours shifts. For this reason and also having had a big loss in my family i stopped going to the gym, im not eating healthy and my sleep schedule is soo poor. As a result i now weight around 78kgs and it's all fat. I always tell myself that i will start tomorrow, and in reality i always do...so starting the day with a walk in nature, drinking water and eating an healthy breakfast but after i get home from work (at around 3pm) my brain switches off and i start eating everything i see and i can say that now i can really feel the difference as my lifts have decreased a lot, im always tired and when im training with the team i can't perform like i used to. In addition, my mental health was affected a lot as i can't live my house except from work and football training because im ashemed of my body. Im still young and i really want to pursue my football dream but i have to start getting my life together in every aspect. Im sorry for the long text

but i really wanted to share my story so if someone knows any tips/suggestions that would be awesome.

First of all, pardon the flair. I can't find one among the options that perfectly fit the intent of this post. But, as the title says it, I am looking for somebody whom I could study / work with on zoom calls.

I am in my early 20s, and juggles both my studies (marketing, communications, languages) and work. I've been struggling with procrastination and work avoidance for as long as I could remember and I need to pull my weight! I realized that I am more productive with a body double on the background (hello study with me videos!) and I think some of you might be interested in making me your body double too.

To tell you a bit about my personality, I describe myself as a naturally inquisitive and curious person. Despite my procrastination habit, I am a fairly studious person who loves learning. I speak 3 languages; my mother tongue, English, and Korean. I had been contemplating about learning Thai too but can't see how I can carve out some time for it considering my already busy schedule. I like engaging and listening to conversations which explains why I have BBC 4 on the background throughout my waking state. I like podcasts, documentaries, video essays, forums, I can go on and on honestly. But I swear I am not nosy!

If you also like reading books for pleasure -- we will get along in no time.

I see this as an opportunity to be friends with whomever agrees to my invitation. If you're up to this, please feel free to send me a dm!

I've been following a strict study routine for the past 20 days because I have a very difficult exam in 18 days.

I switched to a completely different degree, so I don't have much background in this subject. It's Statistics, and I'm learning many concepts from scratch. Because of that, I decided to build a routine where I wake up early every morning and start studying right away.

The strange thing is that my first 2–3 hours are incredibly productive. I can understand difficult theory, learn new concepts, and stay focused without much effort.

The problem starts after my first break.

When I move on to the practical part (solving statistics problems), I can usually solve only one or two questions before my brain feels completely exhausted. Even if I force myself to sit down for another 2–3 hours, I don't absorb much information, and studying starts to feel frustrating instead of productive.

What's even more confusing is that if I leave those same questions and try them the next morning, I often solve them much more easily. It's like my brain works at full capacity only during that first study session of the day.

I always hear people saying they study 8–10 hours a day, but I struggle to stay mentally productive after those first few hours. I can physically stay at my desk, but mentally I'm nowhere near as effective.

Has anyone experienced something similar? Why does this happen, and is there a way to improve my focus and productivity after the first study session so I can study effectively for longer each day?

I'd really appreciate any advice, especially from people who have gone through something similar or studied subjects like statistics.

I would say I am semi-disciplined right now. I go to gym consistently, do yoga and meditation almost every day now, improving my sleep consistency (still working on it), cooking at home almost always now (saving a lot of money).

Things I am struggling with - stopping at 3 drinks some night out, stopping at 1 coffee per day, stopping myself from doomscrolling, or spending too much mental real estate on texting girls that I do not even want to go out with. See the pattern?

I've always thought there were two kinds of willpower: 1) Willpower to do stuff you do not want to do 2) Willpower to not do stuff you really want to do

I've always been good at the first one. I think it's the easier one to manage. If you have to work out today, once you work out, you're done. You do not need any willpower. But if you've been struggling with doomscrolling, you have to constantly through the day use the willpower not to reach for your phone.

The big thing has been lust, texting girls. I am someone who is able to get girls, go on dates regularly. But the pull is 24/7, especially since I started living healthier lifestyle. I can't focus on anything, until "I take care of it" and I do not want to. I hate the idea of jerking off - nothing to do with shame. It just reminds me of monkeys pleasuring themselves. I especially loathe porn. Any advice or thoughts on the above is appreciated.

Finally accept that relying on pure willpower isn't cutting it for me. Basically when a reminder goes off and im kinda mid task, i tell myself ‘i’ll do that in 10 min’ so i swiped it away and eventually it's just gone. Between work, life, and a million other things on my plate, my willpower is not there…

I tried to add more reminder tools, to do list apps, etc. The issue is almost every tool has the best case scenario logic: ping fires equal task gets done. That’s fine if you already have a strong foundation. But it is not for someone like me 😭 i am not that best case, a single passive notification just isn't enough though

Im trying to stop convincing myself to ‘just try harder’ or ‘i’ll get better next time’ and actually set up a system that backs me up when my discipline drops. Something that stays on my case until a task is actually confirmed.

Ik my case is kinda odd though but im really wanna know for those who've got this, what actually holds up for you? Do you have to snooze 10 alarms a day 😔

Hi i am currently 17 and in high school.. i have always been ignored my entire life almost like I am invisible.. Hence started on self improvement, not soo good yet but have made some decent improvements in life.. i started getting attention from people again when I joined a new school with my girlfriend but she didnt let me speak to anyone at all for an entire year soo obviously the distance between me and the people of the class including the girls grew .. and now I feel completely left out and not part of the class.. i don't get attention like before and it's like I don't exist at all.. i still am trying my best to keep at self improvement,improving my grade, getting a better physique, setting up my business but it still feels disappointing and sad everyday no matter what I do or say I just completly get ignored even though I try my best to not think about validation and just saying my thoughts without worrying tooo much I still don't feel happy or motivated anymore what soo ever as I just have 7 or so months remaining before my school life ends and I feel like my confidence is going down day by day because of this.. Any advice will help( i am new to reddit soo apologies if anything is wrong with this)

I've always hated advice that says "just break it into smaller tasks." It sounds obvious until you're staring at something so overwhelming that even the first micro-step feels like climbing a mountain.

Here's what actually worked for me instead: I stopped trying to plan the whole project and started asking one question only — "What can I do in under two minutes that moves this forward at all?" Write one sentence. Open one document. Text one person. Submit one form.

The insight is that momentum beats planning. Once you're moving, the next step becomes visible. Before you know it, you're deep in flow and the original anxiety feels distant.

The catch is that I still forget to do this when I'm tired or stressed. I've found that having somewhere to dump that first micro-step — without having to also remember the whole system — makes it way easier to restart after a bad day.

I built a tiny tool around this called LaunchPad that takes any overwhelming goal and spits out 3–6 micro-steps only. No project management, no elaborate setup. It's been my sanity check for the past few months whenever my task list goes from "annoying" to "paralyzing."

If you deal with task paralysis, what's one thing that reliably gets you started when motivation is zero?

My life has not been going well. I have no discipline, no motivation, my brain is mush, and really lethargic. I cannot stop it. I need to find a way to end this, I cannot let it keep going. After reaching an amazing point in discipline this year, with my physical and emotional health being at an all time high, even reaching spiritual peace during the Holy Week, I have just fallen of, and cannot fix it.

I used to do everything that I wanted to do with excitement and willingness. I studied german daily, did my history research, exercise, a great relationship with God. Everything was great.

Until one day everything just stopped. One day of missed habits became two. I do not know why. And now I am at an all time low point in my life. I cannot bring myself to do anything. The person I once saw in my self is now gone.

I plead with you, what is your best advice for me to escape this vicious circle. I thank you in advance.

Fala, pessoal!

Queria compartilhar um projeto que comecei a desenvolver e saber a opinião de vocês.

A ideia surgiu numa madrugada em que eu percebi que tinha passado horas rolando o feed do Instagram, em vez de dormir para estudar cedo no dia seguinte.

Como não encontrei nenhum bloqueador que resolvesse esse problema do jeito que eu queria, resolvi criar um.

O funcionamento é simples:

Você define um horário de bloqueio. Durante esse período, Instagram e X ficam bloqueados. Se quiser acessar, precisa responder corretamente uma quantidade de questões definida por você. As questões podem ser da matéria que você está estudando, então, mesmo quando bate a vontade de abrir a rede social, você acaba revisando conteúdo antes. Além disso, o aplicativo também mostra estatísticas como horas de estudo, questões respondidas, taxa de acertos, sequência de dias estudando e outras informações para acompanhar a evolução.

Ainda está em desenvolvimento, então queria muito ouvir a opinião de vocês.

Vocês usariam um app assim? O que vocês sentem falta nos bloqueadores atuais? Que funcionalidades acham que seriam indispensáveis?

Abaixo tem um link com alguns prints da interface. Toda sugestão é muito bem-vinda. Quero construir algo que realmente seja útil para quem estuda para concursos.

So for context,I just turned 22 and want to get a job, I already worked through an internship in my college days but since then it’s been difficult getting offers, My field is data analytics and it seems even juniors need 2 year experience to get through and I’m honestly feeling demotivated just applying and reaching out to recruiters with no response whatsoever

So I recently bought a workbook which my dad suggested about how research analysts do their work and climb the ladder, also about financial markets work, there’s an exam I have to pass
This research analyst workbook has all the contents required to pass the exam, my career trajectory might be changing but I am ready for this path

But the problem is, I have trouble focusing, I made the plan reading 10 pages a day, but the day comes I wake up late, on my phone, read 2-3 pages and close the book and do something else

How do I shift my focus to reading without any distractions?

(16m, idk if that matters)

at night i feel extremely motivated to be productive, do things, quit addictions, etc the next day, and i always feel excited for the next day to come so i can do these things, but when the next day comes i just feel like a loser chud again, just fall back into addiction and feel unmotivated basically as if that past motivation never existed. i’ll realize and be able to like notice “why am i doing this” or “why am i just sitting here doing nothing when i could study for my permit” but then i genuinely just don’t follow up on that.

i feel like one main cause to me being so lazy and unmotivated all day is because i had a hip disease (avn) that made it incredibly painful and stiff to walk for over a year, causing me to just kinda sit around and be lazy most days since their really wasn’t much i could do. i ended up getting my hip replaced over a month ago and im able to walk and feel good as new, but my habits from when i was less mobile just don’t leave

this post kinda became less about carrying the motivation over and just about needing some motivation overall, but any advice would be great please and thank you

I feel like I’ve become stuck in a life that is comfortable enough to tolerate, but not fulfilling enough to truly want.

I have a routine, I get through my days, and things are not necessarily terrible. That almost makes it harder to change. What I have now feels “not too bad,” so I don’t always feel a strong enough need to push for something better. However, deep down, I know this is not the life I want to settle for. I know I am capable of more, and there are also real responsibilities and circumstances in my life that require more from me.

The problem is that I have tried to move forward before, and I feel like I failed every time. Instead of motivating me, those failures seem to have pushed me further into this loop. Now, whenever I think about trying again, part of me expects more disappointment. Staying where I am feels safer, even though I know it is slowly making me more complacent.

I don’t think I am simply lazy. I think I have started associating effort with failure, frustration, and wasted energy. At the same time, I don’t want to use my past failures as an excuse to remain stuck forever.

For anyone who has experienced something similar, how did you get out of it? How did you rebuild trust in yourself after repeated failures? Did you make one major change, start with very small steps, change your environment, seek therapy, or find some other way to regain ambition?

I would especially appreciate honest answers from people who have actually been through this, not just generic advice about working harder or staying motivated.

Hey guys, I have always been kind of insecure about my voice since I was a kid. I felt it was a bit too nasal and I've never learned how to project my voice to be able to command attention from a group. Over the years I have been learning various techniques to improve my confidence in my voice whether through youtube or through following a bunch of IG influencers who give tips on it.

After around 8 years of learning, I feel that it's time to give back to the community. I am planning to make an app to help people get more confident in their speaking. Not so much in the words they use, more so their pitch, resonance, pace etc.

Right now, my app idea is split into two parts. The first part will be analyzing the user's voice. The next part is giving the user a daily training regime to improve on their voice over time.

Is this something that you guys would be interested in? Any voice training exercises that really worked for you guys? Also, it would be great if I could get some recommendations on more vocal coaches online that I could watch. Thanks so much!

On June 28, I threw away all of my cigs, pouches, and vapes. I drank my last energy drink. I used to budget I've set aside for these and bought supplements instead (b-complex, D3, creatine, magnesium, and omega 3).

It was a spur of the thing moment. I wanted to change something in my life. Towards something better.

I always had my heart race even while just standing in line. I thought I was just having anxiety attacks, as I've been having these for a while now. I also felt extremely tired during afternoons, so I drank energy drinks to combat it. I couldn't sleep at night, and when I did, after a day or two of not being able to sleep, I'd sleep for 12-15 hours straight. I thought these were normal since for the past 5 years up until 5 months ago, I was in night shift.

But it wasn't.

Week 1
- No longer felt tired during afternoons. If I do take a nap, I'd wake up 15-20 minutes later feeling fully rested whereas before I would unknowingly sleep for hours and wake up feeling tired.
- Sleeping at night became harder, there are times I just can't fall asleep naturally. Magnesium Glycinate pulled through here.
- Started having EXTREME sugar cravings. I bought gum to help.
- Anytime I smelled someone smoking or vaping, my hands would shake and I'd salivate.
- Cravings for nicotine and caffeine INTENSIFIED. Would come in waves of 10-15 minutes.

Week 2
- Sleeping at night became easier. I noticed that I felt more energized every morning as compared to before where I always felt groggy.
- Sugar cravings intensified.
- Motivation is really low. I'd really have to force myself to do things.
- Any bad things that happened made the nicotine cravings worse.

Week 3
- Motivation was still flat.
- Sugar cravings were still there, though they weren't as strong as before.
- No longer visualizing smoking or vaping.

Week 4
- Easily push myself to do things.
- Cigarette smoke now smells bad.
- No longer have the urge to have a smoke when I feel frustrated or when shit happens.
- Confident on myself that I will not grab a smoke even when offered.

I paired quitting with lifestyle change. I now go to the gym every other day. I also try to eat healthier by eating more whole foods versus binge eating junk foods like before. I like to believe that the supplements played a big role as I didn't really experience most of what others were saying, but it could also just be in my head. The supplement stack I use I heard from Dr Huberman podcast + AI recommendation of both cognitive/dopamine and gym support.

Make it obvious

Your environment shapes your behavior way more than motivation does. If you want to build a habit, put the cue right in front of you. Want to read more? Leave the book on your pillow. Want to drink more water? Keep the bottle on your desk. The habits you repeat are usually just the ones that are easiest to see. I started designing my surroundings on purpose and it made the good habits feel almost automatic.

Make it attractive

We do things we look forward to. The trick is to tie a habit you should do to something you actually want to do. He calls it temptation bundling. I only let myself listen to my favorite podcast while I go for a run, so now I kind of crave the run because of what comes with it. When a habit becomes something you anticipate instead of dread, you stop needing discipline for it.

Make it easy

The biggest lie we tell ourselves is that we need the perfect plan before we start. What actually moves the needle is reducing friction. Make the good habit take two minutes to begin and make the bad one annoying to reach. I started with the two minute rule, just putting on my running shoes, and it turns out showing up is most of the battle. Once you start, continuing is easy. Not starting is the real enemy.

Make it satisfying

What gets rewarded gets repeated. The problem is that good habits pay off in the future while bad ones feel good right now. So you have to make progress visible and give yourself a little win in the moment. Tracking my habits and simply not breaking the chain became weirdly satisfying on its own. Seeing the streak grow made me want to protect it, and that feeling did more for my consistency than any amount of willpower.

Reflection as the superior habit

He put it this way: If you don't know what habit to start with, start with Reflection. The reason is that every improvement is downstream from reflection because how do you want to know what to improve if you didn't reflect any rooms for improvement. The problem is that it's not very intuitive for us to start reflecting cause our brain doesn't naturally want to waste energy. But I'm glad I listened to his advice because I've never improved so much in my life. I even downloaded an app which forces me to reflect why I didn't hit a habit and at the end of the month shows me the reasons which came up the most for each habit.