This was great, thank you. It'll take me a bit to give you a strong response. I have done some reading (Atomic Habits, The Power of Habit, Thinking Fast & Slow), but I agree there's more to be done to get a handle on it.

You're right that I didn't touch, at all, on sources of motivation and intrinsic/extrinsic motivators and it's pretty clear that extrinsic motivation would lead to more cyclic behavior. I suppose Atomic Habits touches on it a bit by encouraging less goal-oriented behavior and more identity-driven behavior.

I'll probably update my response here a bit in the morning. Thanks again for taking the time to thoughtfully respond, really appreciate it.