A large amount of it is managing the delay of gratification; I believe that is what you mean here. It is a discussion in psychology, and you can find a bunch of research on it for instance the marshmallow test.
I would challenge you to do some meditation- like just stopping and relaxing and focus on just your breath, once a thought pops into your head just come back to the focus on your breath. Try it for 2 weeks 5-10 minutes a day record your results.
Thanks for your reply! Yes, the delay of gratification thing is what I've been practicing. Thinking "It will get better" has been keeping me going. However, after repeating that for a couple years one starts thinking "Well, when is it going to get better?"
Meditation seems like flossing to me: something that everyone says you should do more of, but, hardly anyone does it. It seems like a good idea that I will try again. I wonder: do you practice regularly, and, does it work for you?
I am just getting into it, so I am very much still learning but I'd like to explain it as like a loop of thought. Where you focus on your breathing how your body is moving with the breathing then your mind will start to wander. In this wandering you add steps and make the loop larger and larger, so the goal is to catch yourself as you find you are wandering whether its right away or if its 20 seconds later. By catching yourself you shorten the loop, the over all goal is to have to loop as shot as possible.
I am just starting to meditate more regularly. I am only at about 10-20 minutes before I get bored of it. I think it helps my concentration. It was difficult to find time at first for me to think about nothing. It seemed counter intuitive.
I would challenge you to do some meditation- like just stopping and relaxing and focus on just your breath, once a thought pops into your head just come back to the focus on your breath. Try it for 2 weeks 5-10 minutes a day record your results.