Where to begin?

I'm a born procrastinator in that I have immense difficulties when it comes to starting new projects. Once begun, I have no trouble throwing myself into the task at hand, often to the point that I'll look up from what I'm doing and realise that hours have passed without my noticing. But getting over that initial hurdle is a serious problem for me.

It must come down to motivation in the end. I was about to state that I'm not terribly self-motivated, but I don't think that's true. I'm perfectly capable of achieving the things I want to, it's just I suffer from an absence of things I really want to achieve (for myself). No vision - that's my problem :) However, I as I've made clear in recent days, I've rather jarringly found myself with a very distinct goal in mind, and much to my surprise, I've discovered a new found relish for self-improvement.

I used to love learning at school. I was one of those annoying children who just absorbed knowledge without having to put much effort into it (I know I'm not the only one - hands up all of you out there). I did well in nearly all of my exams (I still don't like to talk about French though) with minimal amounts of revision, and I think I expected to fare just as well at university. I'll spare my dignity and cut a long story short by saying that I didn't do as well as I once thought I might. My performance was marginal at best, and disastrous at worse. I scraped away with a degree, but I left without much respect for it or myself - particularly my academic abilities.

Looking back at the whole affair now, my explanation is that I simply talked myself into failing, but that's little more than a comfortable excuse. Ultimately the end result is that I've had a fairly low opinion of my ability to learn since then. I do learn, of course (at least I hope so!), but I have avoided challenging myself. My current appetite for information may not last long, but I hope I can spin it out for a while yet (before creeping procrastination takes it's toll).

I've a lot to learn, after all...