When Fixing Yourself Becomes the Blocker.
Your side project is not a referendum on who you are. On what happens when the goal gets quietly swapped for fixing yourself first.
You started out wanting to build the thing. Somewhere along the way, the goal shifted.
Now you’re trying to be the kind of person who finishes a side project. Or the kind of engineer who has a clean morning routine. Or the kind of leader who doesn’t feel this kind of resistance.
The original goal is still there technically, but it’s become a referendum on your worth. And once the goal is about your worth, you can’t risk starting badly — because starting badly is now evidence about you. So you don’t start.
The way out isn’t to push harder. Pushing harder pours fuel on the moral framing. The way out is to notice the framing has changed and try to put the original goal back in the slot it came out of.