I don't like to go give advice because, well, it's often just wrong. Not my advice, all advice. But I will do it because I think this could help you: Lower you

I don't like to go give advice because, well, it's often just wrong. Not my advice, all advice. But I will do it because I think this could help you: Lower your expectations, but raise your commitments. What I mean by that is: stop looking at your less-studious friends and thinking how much farther you should be. Stop looking at your life's circumstances and thinking how much better others have it. Strive for something more immediate: a new job, promotion, getting a meeting with someone important to you. Whatever. Then, plan the sequence of actions you need to undertake to make this happen, and commit to executing them. In my personal experience, feeling exactly the way you described, I've found that all of it stems from not actually getting anything done. Expecting to be in such high places, but having such a small inventory of achievement. So I'm reversing that: collecting achievements, committing to completion and expecting only to move on to the next commitment. In my experience the despair came from feeling that I was powerless to change my circumstances. This approach directly affirms that I do. (The particular phrasing of this advice comes from Venkatesh Rao)