I don't know enough about the OP to talk directly to your problem, so I can only share a few interesting frames of mind that I have picked up along the way that help push me along.
There is a phenomenon from child psychiatry that has shown that parents that say to a successful child, "Wow, you're so smart" undermine that child's ability to muscle through tougher challenges later on in life. These kids believe they are intrinsically better than their peers, so they don't keep putting effort into themselves. Eventually they encounter a challenge that exceeds their initial abilities and they give up since they don't understand their performance is in their control, not baked into their God-given make-up.
Parents who instead say, "Wow, you put in a lot of effort," teach their children that the success is based on factors that you can control, like how much effort you put in and how prepared you are and what you do. These kids do a lot better in life.
Your problem description (high IQ, creative asset, character flaw) is in the wrong frame. Since we're talking about action, it's not about who you are, but what you do.
Anyway, getting things done is surprisingly simple (not easy). You look at the goal, work backwards thinking of all the things that have to get done to get to that goal, and then start doing them.
Another key part of being successful is to delay gratification. People who need constant positive feedback to keep moving forward don't get very far in real situations since most of life is a slog on the way to a better destination.
The final thing that helps motivate action is to know where you want your life to lead. It helps give each smaller project a sense of purpose: does this move my life forward or not? If it does, it's easy to step through things.
Once you have a vision, it's important to continuously repeat in your head all the positive aspects of success. A lot of people focus on the failure or ever the fear of success. As I mentioned above, most real life projects are a grind on your energy and your emotional state. You have to be your own emotional support system.
I liked Steve Jobs commencement speech at Stanford where he acknowledged how death is a motivator. Life is short. It takes a long time to accomplish anything (5 years or more). So, you only get so many chances (maybe 10) to do something meaningful. You have to always ask yourself, "Am I living this day as if it's my last?"
I will say none of these approaches to life are intrinsic to a person. I suspect all successful people have to teach themselves these strategies along the way and they struggle with them the whole way along.
...parents that say to a successful child, "Wow, you're so smart" undermine that child's ability to muscle through tougher challenges later on in life.
This bears repeating. This kind of thinking (the "self-esteem movement") was extremely popular in school systems in the late 80s and much of the 90s, when someone born in 1982[1] would have been in school. This kind of "I'm not living up to my abilities" panic is common as a result. It conditioned smart kids into thinking they succeeded because they had a special power, so when that power fails to deliver the results they desire, many have problems.[2]
I say "they", but I myself spent some of my early 20s thinking I had somehow damaged my brain at some point, and did a lot of fretting about how I needed to find out the "trick" to getting back to the level of success I felt a person of my talents was capable of. And I know I'm not the only one here.
The truth is there is no trick. You just do stuff. You get more of it done if you actually care[3] and if it's stuff worth doing, but beyond that it's just tactics and micro-optimizations. You learn what works for you, and more importantly what doesn't, but it always comes back to actually cranking whatever widget needs cranking. Only then do you get to exercise your talent and intelligence.
[1]: I assume the date in "kksm19820117" is a birthdate.
[2]: These days they call that power "Adderall", but that's another story.
[3]: We all have projects that we start because we think we should care, but that don't get done because we don't actually care. Drop them when you spot them. There's no shame in that. You'll free up your attention for the stuff you do care about.
"People who need constant positive feedback to keep moving forward don't get very far in real situations"
As to this statement... I'm a person that strives when receiving constant positive feedback. My way of addressing this, since the real world doesn't often provide it, is to provide it for myself. For instance, I had to read 2 chapters in my Number Theory book today. I told myself that after each chapter I would let myself read HN for 15 minutes. Now there is positive reinforcement.
Another trick that helps me stay focused is to make lists. I find joy in the simple act of crossing an item off a list.
So to finish a project break it down into simple concrete tasks, and come up with some sort of simple reward for each task finished. Make sure though that your definition of success is actually achievable and dependent on factors you control. After this, get to it, and finish that project!
Yes, I agree and have found that the projects I manage to finish are often the ones that have measurable, visible progress and positive feedback (either from the computer or from people.)
There's a reason TDD and agile are approaches programmers generally enjoy more, and it's because you get positive feedback early. The success of these techniques are only partially due to their inherent ability to adapt to change: it's also the fact that the people using them are inherently happier because they get this re-enforcement they are going down the right path and making progress.
> Parents who instead say, "Wow, you put in a lot of effort," teach their children that the success is based on factors that you can control, like how much effort you put in and how prepared you are and what you do. These kids do a lot better in life.
This is doing the same thing these parents are doing: "I was brought up this way, it's not my fault/I can't do anything about it" ;)
There is a phenomenon from child psychiatry that has shown that parents that say to a successful child, "Wow, you're so smart" undermine that child's ability to muscle through tougher challenges later on in life. These kids believe they are intrinsically better than their peers, so they don't keep putting effort into themselves. Eventually they encounter a challenge that exceeds their initial abilities and they give up since they don't understand their performance is in their control, not baked into their God-given make-up.
Parents who instead say, "Wow, you put in a lot of effort," teach their children that the success is based on factors that you can control, like how much effort you put in and how prepared you are and what you do. These kids do a lot better in life.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-secret-...
Your problem description (high IQ, creative asset, character flaw) is in the wrong frame. Since we're talking about action, it's not about who you are, but what you do.
Anyway, getting things done is surprisingly simple (not easy). You look at the goal, work backwards thinking of all the things that have to get done to get to that goal, and then start doing them.
Another key part of being successful is to delay gratification. People who need constant positive feedback to keep moving forward don't get very far in real situations since most of life is a slog on the way to a better destination.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/18/090518fa_fact_...
The final thing that helps motivate action is to know where you want your life to lead. It helps give each smaller project a sense of purpose: does this move my life forward or not? If it does, it's easy to step through things.
Once you have a vision, it's important to continuously repeat in your head all the positive aspects of success. A lot of people focus on the failure or ever the fear of success. As I mentioned above, most real life projects are a grind on your energy and your emotional state. You have to be your own emotional support system.
I liked Steve Jobs commencement speech at Stanford where he acknowledged how death is a motivator. Life is short. It takes a long time to accomplish anything (5 years or more). So, you only get so many chances (maybe 10) to do something meaningful. You have to always ask yourself, "Am I living this day as if it's my last?"
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html
I will say none of these approaches to life are intrinsic to a person. I suspect all successful people have to teach themselves these strategies along the way and they struggle with them the whole way along.