If you had to give advice to someone else with your exact challenge, what would you tell them?

Biggest advice: Envision your dream in terms of things that viscerally make you feel good (sensations rather than abstractions or things you want to want).

I've noticed there are things I know I should want, like money and security and all, but what really matters to me physically on a food/sex-type level is simply enjoyable, appropriate mental challenges and freedom to have fun working on them. That gives me an instant rush, and I know that it feels immediately satisfying, as opposed to the other things which are less tangible.

So I would say - envision your goal in terms of getting more of these enjoyable SENSATIONS rather than abstract benefits. This could help to get rid of some of your blocks to achieving it. Envision it as getting more of what you like.

2) Basically design your plan to achieve it so that you get a lot of enjoyable things along the way.
Rather than approaching it in the way that you think you "should," design the steps so that they are something you want to do.

So for me that means diving into particular questions I have with a maniacal pace. Maybe it is a gifted/Aspie thing, but if I'm interested in a qustion I tend to totally exhaust it in the course of one day and figure out everything there is to know about it from all angles.That is far more fun to me than slowly researching something the way other people do it.
Or when it comes to informational interviews, I have more fun setting up a lot of interviews all at once.
I tend to benefit from economies of scale.

which brings me to my third advice
3) Figure out the 1-3 superpowers you have that will help to give you an edge over other people, and leverage them by DOING THINGS DIFFERENTLY than others.

For me, those are: reading very quickly, doing things very quickly, and being able to conquer certain topics in a matter of days or weeks.
These are skills I enjoy using. Also the more I do them the better I get at them.

4) another advice - recognize your energy drains and stay out of them.
For me these are:
-Slow processes and having to go slow like others do.... I get so burnt out doing less slowly than doing more quickly.
-Feeling that I have to do things I don't like because they are "good to do"
-Mostly, assuming I have to fit into some mold and stop being different. I guess I am actually fairly gifted and Aspie and have always been different, work at a different pace, and have held myself in contempt for not being able to be the way others are, e.g. "if only I could like meetings and make small talk."
-Basically anything that doesn't give me the freedom to somehow feel like I am acting like myself, I will probably sabotage. Even if I am adjusting to the regular workplace, I would have to do it in some analytical way that was fun for me, with a theory and observations and all.

But the main one is to set it up in terms of what is fun.


*** Maybe make a list of ways that you DO want to approach this goal, that you are excited about, and then make a list of ways you are not going to require yourself to approach it, to help your subconscious see it is not getting roped into something it doesn't want.
PRobably a lot of it is just convincing your subconscious that this is in your immediate best interest and it's not just another stupid thing where you are following orders rather than acting in your best interest.