> You will not "make it" some day and suddenly reverse course. There's a bunch of ways this effect shows up all across life: "How things start is generally ho

> You will not "make it" some day and suddenly reverse course. There's a bunch of ways this effect shows up all across life: "How things start is generally how they continue" (rails feels like rails in basically every part, from the stuff a rank beginner does to diving into the guts for advanced usage) "This was my last job. Every job was 'my last job'." https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OneLastJob https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OneLastJob "A hippy in motion stays in motion, a hippy at rest stays at rest." (the mindset with which you start a thing tends to persist) And, I don't know if there's a name for it, but the game of Go is legendary for players being able to replay games exactly as long as they can remember the first few moves. If the conditions and players remain the same, why would the game go any differently? > live in prisons of their own making I have found nothing more painful or exhausting than fighting oneself; when we hold ourselves back - put ourselves in prisons of our own making - we're both the occupant fighting the bars and the bars fighting the occupant. IMO something like RSI also shows up if you do that long enough. One way I've found out of it is - and this might sound a little weird - apply a bit of Flatland. A circle is only a wall while you're in 2d; add a dimension (a direction orthogonal to the current ones) and walk around it. (another way is talk therapy; and meditation trains the "muscles" (and more) that you use for any of this)