I think everyone finds themselves with those thoughts and feelings.
I think that the lack of drive and focus is a symptom of something, in rare cases perhaps ADD/ADHD. However from personal experience I usually discover a core problem that was causing these symptoms. Resolving that problem takes care of the lack of motivation and focus.
Perhaps the specific work environment isn't for you. One job I worked directly out of university crushed my soul as a developer. As an intern I had vast responsibility and did a lot of interesting projects. Once I joined on fulltime, they were going through a restructuring period and I ended up doing trivial work putting out fires. Luckily they downsized a third of the company a few months later and I was fired - a blessing in disguise there. A week later I was running a small team doing innovative new projects at a large corp.
Often it can be outside factors in life that strangle your productivity. When my father was very sick and hospitalized, my work drastically suffered. I'd like to consider myself a strong individual whose outlook on life would allow me to deal with such events with ease. However, in the situation without knowing it at the time it was impacting my life. Instead of taking a few weeks off and dealing with the issues at hand, I threw myself into my work while my progress continued slowing exponentially. Eventually I was working 16 hours a day and writing 0 lines of code. I ended up quitting that job, and taking time to deal with my life.
Anyways, the moral of the story was stepping back and discovering the root cause of these symptoms can be very beneficial. Don't block it out with meds unless that is really the cause.
>Anyways, the moral of the story was stepping back and discovering the root cause of these symptoms can be very beneficial. Don't block it out with meds unless that is really the cause.
If the meds fix the problem, and they have proven fairly safe, why not use them? (I mean, they aren't absolutely safe, but they are very safe compared to, say, driving to work every day.)
It's not a lifetime choice, either. You can decide that you need some help, and get it for the next six months, then stop and work on your personal issues. This is actually what I'm doing now (though, I'm nearing the end of my rest... it's time to get some work done.)
I agree with everything you say. Often there are other factors. It sounds like this is a consistent problem with OP though, and regardless of environment or lifestyle, he's still having issues.
I think that the lack of drive and focus is a symptom of something, in rare cases perhaps ADD/ADHD. However from personal experience I usually discover a core problem that was causing these symptoms. Resolving that problem takes care of the lack of motivation and focus.
Perhaps the specific work environment isn't for you. One job I worked directly out of university crushed my soul as a developer. As an intern I had vast responsibility and did a lot of interesting projects. Once I joined on fulltime, they were going through a restructuring period and I ended up doing trivial work putting out fires. Luckily they downsized a third of the company a few months later and I was fired - a blessing in disguise there. A week later I was running a small team doing innovative new projects at a large corp.
Often it can be outside factors in life that strangle your productivity. When my father was very sick and hospitalized, my work drastically suffered. I'd like to consider myself a strong individual whose outlook on life would allow me to deal with such events with ease. However, in the situation without knowing it at the time it was impacting my life. Instead of taking a few weeks off and dealing with the issues at hand, I threw myself into my work while my progress continued slowing exponentially. Eventually I was working 16 hours a day and writing 0 lines of code. I ended up quitting that job, and taking time to deal with my life.
Anyways, the moral of the story was stepping back and discovering the root cause of these symptoms can be very beneficial. Don't block it out with meds unless that is really the cause.