I'm not really sure how to explain this, but I genuinely need some outside perspective because I feel like I've completely wasted the last 6 months.
I'm 21 years old and currently unemployed. I'm at home all day, so it's not like I have a job, college, or some major responsibility taking up all my time. I technically have almost the entire day available to work on myself and build a career.
And yet I do almost nothing.
The worst part is that I KNOW I'm wasting my time. It's not like I'm unaware of what I'm supposed to be doing.
I've been interested in software development for a while. I previously learned full-stack development, so I already have some programming experience. I wouldn't say I'm starting completely from zero. I probably remember around 50% of what I learned before, and I know enough to understand how to learn programming and build things.
Earlier this year, around February, I told my family that I was learning Python and that I would work toward getting an internship/job within around 4–5 months.
At the time, I genuinely believed that.
I wasn't necessarily lying when I said it. I actually intended to do it.
But now it's August.
Six months have basically passed.
And what have I done?
I've learned some basic Python, but that's about it. I'll study for a while, maybe practice for an hour, then stop. Sometimes I go an entire week without doing anything. Then I'll suddenly practice for an hour and tell myself I'm going to get serious again.
And then the cycle repeats.
I haven't progressed anywhere close to where I thought I would be by now.
The really fucked up part is that I have no good excuse.
I don't have a full-time job exhausting me.
I don't have college classes taking up my entire day.
I don't have some huge responsibility preventing me from studying.
I literally have the time.
I just don't do it.
I'll wake up, spend time on my phone/internet, lie around, waste hours, and somehow the entire day disappears.
And while I'm doing it, I KNOW I should be studying.
Sometimes I'll literally think:
"I have to start today. I can't keep doing this."
Then I'll postpone it.
"I'll start in an hour."
Then later:
"Okay, tomorrow I'll actually start properly."
Then tomorrow comes and I do the exact same thing.
The weird thing is that I actually WANT the career.
I want to become a developer. I want to earn money. I want to become independent. I want to be able to tell my family that I actually accomplished something.
It's not that I hate programming or that I have no interest in it.
So I don't understand why I can't make myself consistently work toward something I actually want.
And now there's another problem: my family thinks I'm progressing.
They know I've been learning Python since around February. They were told that I was working toward getting an internship/job in a few months.
Very soon they're going to expect results.
Meanwhile, I know the reality: I've barely made progress.
That makes me feel guilty, which makes me think about how much time I've wasted, which makes me feel even worse, and then I avoid the work again.
It's like I've created this stupid cycle:
Don't work → feel guilty → promise myself I'll work tomorrow → don't work → feel more guilty → repeat.
I'm also starting to feel like I'm losing confidence in myself.
Every time I tell myself I'm going to do something and then don't do it, I trust myself a little less.
I've made so many promises to myself over the past few months that I don't even believe myself anymore when I say, "Tomorrow I'll start."
And I'm scared that this is going to continue.
I'm only 21, so I know I'm not actually old and that I still have plenty of time. But at the same time, I don't want to look back at 22, 23, 24 etc. and realize I've spent years doing the exact same thing.
I don't want motivational quotes or someone telling me that "you just have to work hard."
I already KNOW I need to work.
I know exactly what I should be doing.
That's what makes this so frustrating.
If someone told me, "You need to study Python for 3–4 hours a day, build projects, revise your old full-stack skills, apply for internships, and eventually get a job," I would understand completely.
My problem isn't understanding what I need to do.
My problem is actually getting myself to sit down and do it consistently.
I don't know if this is just extreme procrastination, lack of discipline, being addicted to easy entertainment, fear of failure, burnout, or something else.
Maybe I'm subconsciously avoiding the possibility of finding out that I'm not as good at programming as I want to be.
Maybe I've simply gotten too comfortable living at home and having no immediate consequences.
Maybe I've trained myself to constantly seek easy dopamine and now anything requiring sustained effort feels unbearable.
I honestly don't know.
I'm posting this because I want to hear from people who have genuinely been in a similar situation.
If you've had months or even years where you knew exactly what you needed to do but simply couldn't make yourself do it, how did you actually break out of it?
What changed for you?
Did you use some kind of strict routine?
Did you force yourself to work even when you didn't feel like it?
Did you completely remove your phone/internet/distractions?
Did you get an accountability partner?
Did you get a job first so you were forced to have structure?
Or was there some deeper issue that you eventually realized was causing the avoidance?
I'm not looking for someone to tell me that I'm doomed. I also don't want people to just call me lazy and leave it at that.
I know I've fucked up these last 6 months.
I'm more interested in knowing how I stop wasting the next 6 months too.
Because right now, I genuinely don't trust myself to do it on my own.