I’ve been told that I’m successful, I’m an authority for what I do, an inspiration…
Personally, I think I'm not a smart person (I fail a lot), but I now have enough dedication for what I do, and I gained more by meeting similar people and slowly stepping up.
(Especially if you're having trouble to wake up) do something only for yourself first in the morning. Even if it means waking up early, but something really for you only... maybe not for your colleagues, not for your family, just for you. Then you can give the rest of your day for others, but that moment is for you. Think about it: if you don't care about yourself, how can you care about someone else? After all, no one is more important to you than you ;)
Also, doing something for yourself last, before sleep also helps: it gives you a great day conclusion.
FTR the only goal of my website was for me to remember things and try to organise my knowledge, nothing else: don't hesitate to release stuff (ie, organise your knowledge to a ‘decent’ point) even if it doesn't seem important for anyone: it's not for the others, it's for you so that you can reuse your knowledge later -- because you will forget if not -- and build on it.
By sharing your knowledge publicly, you can get feedback -- cherish it: it can be inspiring, unlocking, etc… it’s very powerful! Very few people will give feedback, don’t blame others if they don’t give you any. And expect trolls and haters eventually...
What may seem trivial and useless now may later enable an entire unexplored class of tools/research... So don't be afraid to do unusual stuff that others look down on -- it's just the Dunning-Kruger effect when they do: politely “defuse” them, don’t let them waste your time.
External deadlines (set in stone by applying to presentations or articles) is a great way to force yourself to get things done: I would have done maybe 1% of what I did without them.
Meeting other people in real life is always great -- my progress is due to a chain of 'I met X, who made me meet Y, who made me...' -- being introduced online is good of course, but we're still biological beings, so don't hesitate to waste hours (of driving, etc...) to go and meet new people: it might change your life.
Not knowing or failing is entirely normal. I start projects by shouting “Let's fail [a lot] !”: I am extremely clumsy, but I get over it: failing only means “I didn't know it yet by then, and I had to learn it the hard way so that I know why I should try differently afterwards”.
If you spend time watching the same thing or playing the same games like anybody else, then you can’t use this time to make something new or different. Mainstream or creative? I hardly ever watch movies or series or play videogames anymore (even if I used to, a lot) If you can clearly recall how long you've been working on something then maybe you could have done more ;) If you're afraid to estimate how much time you've spent on something, then you probably did well.
You don’t owe anything to anyone. Feel free to take breaks, to try something (totally) different [specialization is for insects!] Completely stopping a project temporarily may be a very good thing -- as long as you organized your knowledge enough before your break -- when you’ll come back fresh, you’ll have even more fun.
Buying some new hardware can enable you to make great things, however being restricted and frustrated by some limits makes you overcome them, so it’s a double-edged sword. Just don’t be too hasty to buy new stuff, and get advices from your peers.
Everybody has ideas. Everybody has unique ideas that no one else had in his world:
it’s not because you have an idea that you can expect someone else to have the same idea and do it better: maybe only you have this idea!
The big difference is, even if everybody has ideas, few spend the time to experiment with them. If you have a great idea but you’re not willing to spend time on it, why would someone else waste time for you?
Planning is hard: you need to avoid miserable failure, but it’s difficult to plan before knowing where you can fail. Over-planning is a danger: being stuck in a “I’m not ready yet” infinite loop is bad. Plan, be ready to fail, get started. See “deadlines”.
The death of someone can unwillingly “unlock” the life of acquaintances, friends or family: that’s because of their opposite relation: death exists to make the living ones appreciate life. And by unlocking others, we might be useful even via our death. Now, before that, you can think of your death just as ‘the last thing you’ll ever do’, and you don’t control it. So what will be the last thing you’ll do BEFORE that? And all the other 99.9% things done in your life until that point? If you die tomorrow, then have you done anything that makes a difference today? It’s up to you to be a nop sled (a sequence of “do nothing” instructions) or a beautiful algorithm.
Don’t be afraid! Be honest with yourself and with the others, be ready to fail, have fun, and eventually you’ll meet your project’s soulmate, and it will be awesome!