"I'm 24, and my life is in shambles, compared to what it could be." That you think this is one positive step toward your idea of "life...what it could be". A

"I'm 24, and my life is in shambles, compared to what it could be." That you think this is one positive step toward your idea of "life...what it could be". A lot of 24 year olds do not have such aspirations. So just aspiring to something is helpful. "I seriously struggle with motivation to do just about anything. I have a midterm tomorrow in Dynamics (a mech engr course), and I have pretty much neglected the class entirely, and I am most certainly going to fail it, and I'll have to withdraw. This isn't surprising, because I've been in this situation many, many times before." You were discussing how you think people on HN are smart. I think people on HN are limited. Not only do I think that, I am right, people on HN are limited. Including myself. Gnothi seauton. Know your limitations. Why do even the best coders say people shouldn't put more than, say, seven objects or variables in a function? The truth is, many functions would be better with a couple of dozen variables in them. Why do the best coders not do this? Because they are limited. They can only keep seven or eight objects in their head at once, they can't keep track of two hundred objects in their head at once. So they write code that their limited brains can understand. Bad coders write long functions with hundreds of variables, to where they can't keep the whole function in their head any more, and their code fails. Good coders write functions that their tiny 1.5kg, 1 cubic decimeter brains can handle. You said you know you're going to fail the course you mention. Did you know before you started you would? I don't know the answer, but it seems like you did, or you should have. So why take the course? Why set yourself up to fail? You talk about motivation - nothing is more DE-motivating than setting yourself up to fail like that. Or trying to get that great Apple job you're not yet qualified for. Just like big code has to be "broken up" into small functions, you have to "break up" your big goals. Set small, realistic, achievable goals and go from step to step. If you can't achieve these new goals, then obviously they're not small, realistic and/or achievable enough, so make them smaller, more realistic and more achievale. Nothing is more demotivating than this cycle of "going for the gold" and failing every time. Things go incremently. There are setbacks, maybe small, achievable, realistic goal #4 will have some setback. So just deal with it and go on. If you can only concentrate for five minutes, your goal should be to concentrate for five minutes and thirty seconds. And go from there. Iterative and incremental are popular philosophies here.