The coasting until real work was required part sounds very familiar, and also the getting by in objective terms but being unhappy and struggling mentally part too.
After embarrassingly many years I've learned that there's a little voice inside that says "you can't", "that won't work", "that was shit". Succeeding at anything, for anybody, is stacking a whole lot of little failures and frustration, but crucially, being able to ignore that little voice. I, and I assume many of us, have burned half of my energy and mental health fighting that little voice. To me, it seems that most of those manage-anything people are not just generally gifted intelligence-wise or physically, but have learned to silence that inner voice and just do things until they succeed, while still avoiding to do "stupid" things.
As a distance runner, I've learned a bit of dopamine trickery, but managing that inner voice, and even being aware of it, is turning out to be a life-long project. It becomes a mission of figuring out what you're burning your energy on, and why. You can't strive for happiness or success, but it should be possible to get enough stuff done to find contentment and acceptance.
I have just recently learned that the little voice can be amplified by people around you. Being removed from those re-enforcing that little voice is an amazingly freeing mentally.
After embarrassingly many years I've learned that there's a little voice inside that says "you can't", "that won't work", "that was shit". Succeeding at anything, for anybody, is stacking a whole lot of little failures and frustration, but crucially, being able to ignore that little voice. I, and I assume many of us, have burned half of my energy and mental health fighting that little voice. To me, it seems that most of those manage-anything people are not just generally gifted intelligence-wise or physically, but have learned to silence that inner voice and just do things until they succeed, while still avoiding to do "stupid" things.
As a distance runner, I've learned a bit of dopamine trickery, but managing that inner voice, and even being aware of it, is turning out to be a life-long project. It becomes a mission of figuring out what you're burning your energy on, and why. You can't strive for happiness or success, but it should be possible to get enough stuff done to find contentment and acceptance.