i want to do a whole bunch of things, but there is a very challenging thing that i could do first that would give me much more opportunity to do the other things. the problem is said thing to do first could take a very, very long time (potentially on the order of decades) and if i screw it up im in big fucking trouble. should i prioritize the first thing anyway?
that all depends on which things they are, which is a detail you have conveniently left out of your story