a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by _refugee_
_refugee_  ·  3780 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What motivates people?

A previous thread which may help you. And another.

What motivates me in small projects is their place in the path towards achievement of my long term goals. Even things I don't want to do, (like poetry submissions, which can be pretty brutal,) I still want to do them because I want to achieve greatness in poetry and the submissions process, and the beating up that it can do, is a part of that cycle.

I don't write every day and I want to write every day, but I don't find that a motivation problem. I'm motivated to write. I just don't make enough time for it - so I view that as a prioritization problem. I work on that problem by de-prioritizing other things in order to make more room for my long-term goals.

If I refuse to allow myself to do other things, I invariably find I have enough time to do the things I truly want to do as opposed to those items which are merely space-filler and time-sucking.