Do any of you also suffer from looking back with fondness but don't have the excitement or belief to make it happen again?
I find it's an interesting balance between 1) the excitement of newness and 2) the discipline of routine.
I tend to gravitate towards 2). Routine serves me well. As long as I'm headed in the right direction, just staying on the path and keeping after it, one step or one day at a time takes me where I want to go. Usually this is enough to keep me satisfied and sustain my progress, but occasionally I recognize that things are getting stale and it's time to look for something new.
When I was 37 years old, in 2005, I finally discovered how to follow 1). I bought a kayak and started paddling. I got excited about it. I wanted to learn more, take lessons, read books/magazines/online articles, do it more often, progress what I was doing. I paid attention to that feeling for one of the first times in my life -- certainly the first time for anything resembling exercise -- and let it carry me deep into the new activity. I got pretty good at paddling and really enjoyed it! In 2008, the same thing happened for cycling (biking), and I followed that feeling again. In 2010, yoga. In 2014, kettlebells. In 2017, barbell strength. In 2019, barbell weightlifting. I'm still on that path and still have that feeling. The cool thing is that I still have most of these, but they don't consume much of my mental attention. I still do a group bike ride every weekend, but I don't spend hours thinking about it during the week like I did in the beginning -- planning equipment upgrades, purchasing accessories, reading articles. I just go ride and enjoy the company and the activity and get the benefits. Same for kayaking, once or twice a month.
I wish I could describe how to attain that healthy balance between 1) and 2), but I don't know how my brain does it. It just seems to work that way, and once I finally discovered (relatively late in life) how to follow 1), I felt like I had what I needed. Maybe people with exercise ADHD only have 1) and haven't found the satisfaction and fulfillment from 2).
I have this life motto of "Ride the Wave" which encompasses many things, but in this context, 1) is catching the wave, and 2) committing to it, getting the most out of it, riding it in as far as it will take you, and enjoying the ride. While you're riding one wave, don't be trying to catch another one. Stay with the one you chose. And when you have gone as far as you can go, you get back out in the water and find another wave to ride.
Yes.... Or hire an experienced coach who has a defined programming approach and can articulate how they can help you progress in your training.