be bop a lu la--reason to feel sad

I just lost interest in creating music with MuseScore. That interest had lasted five days, during which time I had written five new (substandard) pieces of music and even released some of them on internet radio.

Before that I was all hot about learning functional programming languages, mainly Haskell and Ocaml. That lasted about two weeks.

Before that I wanted to become a BSD system administrator, so I installed a BSD partition that was console-only and used their version of Lynx and Nano to read the user manual and system administrator guide and learn how FreeBSD works. That lasted about a week.

Before that I was utterly nuts about playing all the way through the old 1990s games Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Secret of the Silver Blades and Pools of Darkness. I bought them from GoG and started them several times. That lasted about three or four weeks, but I never got past about 1/8th into the first game because I kept starting over from the beginning.

Before that I wanted to learn how to design websites and was taking a free online course in basic web design through Runestone Interactive. That lasted about a week.

Before that I was very interested in computer science and writing systems and achieving a synthesis between computer science and the study of writing systems. Those interests have come and gone for about four years but their latest instance lasted about a week.

You get the idea. I can't stick with anything for very long. And I'm somewhat dispirited about the burning need to find something new to throw myself wholeheartedly into...for all too brief a period of time.

Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any input. Probably you can think of something I haven't thought of.

I know the feeling. No, I don't have adult ADHD, but I just lose interest quickly and it's only been that way for the past few years. Right now, in the garage, I have three fishing poles needing new handles glued on, a small homemade guitar amp that is half way completed, a steam whistle I started making out of brass that I turned on my lathe, but abruptly stopped and a MAME arcade cabinet I just lost interest in completing. It seems to happen when I hit a hard patch that involves a lot of time and redesigning and by then I just don't feel like finishing the project.

Eventually, I do finish them but getting started again in the hard part. Once I start, I get back on track and will see them through. But all of that will be pushed aside as I have to install a new A/C system on my Jeep and that will be my Thanksgiving vacation project.

It's called 'needing to apply yourself'. Or what I would call a lack of a long-term perspective.
I've done stuff like that plenty of times, as well, but the solution is very simple. Decide on one thing you really like and stick with it for the long-term, even if you get bored or frustrated and want to quit. I'm betting that boredom and frustration is what causes you to quit every time. However, once you work through that and accomplish something more you'll probably realize it's merely a matter of perseverance. That you simply have to push through the tough times and enjoy the good ones. It's only a matter of continuing to push, even when you lose sight of what you were doing it for. You just keep pushing through.
Why? Because it is something to do that leads you somewhere and ultimately leads to a feeling of fulfillment and accomplishment rather than everything you feel now.

It's a matter of basic will power. Not a matter of skills, intelligence, or any other such 'natural traits' that most people assume exist. Will-power is simply a matter of decision, of choosing a determined path. Nothing else.
You seem to have the choice part nailed down, but you have yet to choose the determined path, instead you have been choosing the easy routes.

As I said, I've done all of this plenty of times. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say I do this more often than not. I know very well from experience what this is like. So good luck. Easier said than done, of course.

Maybe you'd need to add a social component to all those.

I think we are sorta programmed to only spend our resources on things that matter in our lives. Example:

1. You learn programming. You create something friends use. They care about what you do. You get bored, but then your friends suddenly ask for a new version. Maybe you even do some freelancing and earn some money on your skills. Then what you do has an impact on your life.

2. You learn programming. You create something for yourself. But when you're not programming, you don't have any use for it. It doesn't help win friends, doesn't give you something to eat. It's all on you to keep motivation up. Nothing pulls you back in when you lose interest. It's like a friendship where you always have to take all the initiative. It wears you out in the end.

I think the easiest way to trick your brain into believing something is meaningful is to make it social. (And that could also be online obviously. Join a forum or something)

The same happens to me pretty often.

As Oy says, it surely it's difficult when you're doing something for yourself and motivation goes away. I have left many a project midway for this reason too.

Then of course, some other times I might have stopped going through with it because maybe I had found something more interesting to do. Or I was just in a difficult period in my life.

I also don't believe the only thing you need is willpower. Sure, that matters, but you also need a reason, a why for which you are doing that thing.

Some other times I do it on a whim too. Not sure why XD

This is something that happens to me as well, for as long as i can remember.

Personally i agree with Despicable Me's post for the most part. Especially the part where it can sometimes be tiring to continue, but continueing anyway will be beneficial in the long run. I also agree with Wayfarer, that you need a why to strengthen that willpower. So i think in essence it is still "just" willpower, but there's more to it than that.

I found from my own experience that it helps to share your passion with others, they can challenge you to keep going.

I was implying that the 'why' you're doing it is just so that things get better and to solve multiple problems at once.
You're training on a skill you can use later on and also solving the problem of always quitting things before they're done. Also known as 'general self-improvement'.

I would agree that having more immediate reasons helps you to stay focused, but I would disagree they are absolutely necessary. I've done lots of things for silly or stupid reasons, myself. lol
So for me it's just much more about just forcing myself to just do something, no matter what. The reason why I should seems to be completely interchangeable and doesn't really matter much.

I suppose general self-improvement is in itself a healthy and strong reasong for doing things. Assuming the need for self improvement does not stem from things like perfectionism.

I get what you mean. Or at least i think i do. Considering a person always needs a reason to do anything, it seems that that reason just needs to be stronger than whatever it is that would stop you from doing that thing. Might it be that there was little reason to stop you when you did things for "silly or stupid reasons?" Maybe i'm looking at this too rationally.

You can always go back to things, on and off. I make electronic music in Ableton but I go through periods where I don't do it much. It's good to take breaks.

I am a very motivated, get to the finish line kind of person. I like to finish things. I think there is a certain reward in that and then it becomes an ingrained habit. It has served me well in some ways, but then again, i don't always have the sense to cut my losses if wasting too much time on any one thing.
A couple of weeks ago, i bought a big puzzle to do with a friend. We sat down thinking it wouldn't take that long, well it took a long time. SHe wanted to quit and i was like, no i am going to power through to the end. Once the end was in sight, we got it done, and then having finished it, that was fun.

My advice is set small goals. Get in the habit of accomplishing small goals. Like make a short list of things you can easily accomplish today. Don't overdo it or make a list that is impossible. Keep it simple. Once you see how much you can really accomplish when you set your mind to it, it motivates you to tackle bigger things.

Maybe try downloading the free demo of Ableton and see if you like it more than MuseScore.