My initial response was to listen to a song lyric in my head "...it's all a dream we dreamed, one afternoon long ago..." "Box of Rain" Grateful Dead

I have not read the first two parts to this so apologies if I am jumping the gun but I have thought and I "desire" to express it.

Meditation is the key to this imho. And much easier said than done. Different times in your life you need different types of stimuli. My zen in the past has been sitting cross legged "anywhere" and watching my internal dialogue flow like a river, striving for a dried up crick! But the thoughts keep coming and the river of thought continues. Other times in my life, I found my Zen with coffee in tow, and an hour ride through the dawn on my way to work, clearing my head. The point being there are different ways to get into a meditative state. And if you can let all those thoughts disappear, without the fear your will forget something important for later, then you can begin to step back.

Ultimately we all need varying degrees of perspective whether on our life or individual project. And what you have hit upon (for me anyway), is how we sometimes move on auto-pilot without thinking certain things through! Like ok you want to be involved in crypto-currency! Great and what exactly does that mean to you? What does it mean to the people you interact with? If we assume we are all on the same page we may find out eventually, we are in different chapters or perhaps different books altogether.

Very thought provoking post thanks!