Long horizons punish impulsive identity changes.

Changing direction impulsively resets the clock, and on a long horizon that reset is the most expensive thing you can do. Each new identity feels like progress and costs you the accumulated depth of the last one. Do it a few times and you have decades of beginnings.

Before switching paths, wait out a full cycle of the current one. If the urge survives a few months of boredom passing, it may be real. Most of them do not survive that.