"It is a supremely cruel thing to have your mind conjure a desire which it is functionally unable to realise" ~ Max Barry
This describes a special category of problem that I think about quite often.
Person A has the talent to become successful but doesn't have the resilience to handle the price of success.
A pop star has an amazing voice and generates incredible buzz with her debut album. Immediately she's thrust into the limelight and forced to handle an onslaught of scrutiny, criticism and compliments. Her nervous disposition gets turbocharged until eventually she suffers with so much anxiety that she can't even perform her own songs on stage because of how much pressure she feels. Every failure on stage reinforces her fear of engaging with music. The very art form she once felt liberated by has now become a tormenter.
Other examples: business owners who crack under pressure, sports stars who get the yips, lawyers and traders who need to medicate themselves to deal with the demands of their position.
Person B desperately wants to achieve success but doesn't have the work ethic to be able to make it happen. A young man wants to lift himself out of the life he was born into.
He likes to consume the content of good, effective, inspiring thinkers and advice-givers online. He realises that if he applies himself he can build a life he'll love and feel proud of. But every time he tries to discipline himself into working hard, he fails. He is unable to wake up on time, or focus on reading or studying or creating a plan, he constantly throws himself off-track by going out and partying with his friends when he should be locking in, he's regularly distracted by random side quests.
All of these people have the desire and the capacity to achieve success, but not the constitution to make it happen. And that's a special kind of hell.
"It doesn't make sense to continue wanting something if you're not willing to do what it takes to get it. If you don't want to live the lifestyle, then release yourself from the desire. To crave the result but not the process is to guarantee disappointment" — James Clear
But you only have three options: do what needs to be done, rid yourself of the aspiration, or be tortured in neutral. You can go deeper into the pursuit to achieve your goals, or move on from it altogether. Or there is a third option - stay in purgatory hell, but that's horrendous and actually worse than abandoning everything.
Feel free to choose.