I often ask myself with what habits,things or whatever other hackers stay motivated throughout the day (and night).<p>For my part, its mostly 3 things.
First one: Having a nice playlist in iTunes with some slow music ("tracing arcs - babydoll" is one of my favs).
Second: A little list written on paper or the whiteboard with some tasks i'm eager to finish today (striking through something on paper or a whiteboard is more "satisfying" than just doing a 'git commit' for me)
And lastly: Going for a walk when i am stuck or just need some time to think more than 2 minutes (and thanks to siri and iCloud i never lose track of good ideas on my way).<p>Any methods you want to share with HN and me?
Fear. The fear of failing. The fear of being ridiculed. The fear of not achieving, of not finishing - of being the back of the pack. The fear of letting my friends and family down. The fear of not making an impact - of living a worthless life. The fear of being looked down on. The fear of not being able to eat, or shelter myself. The fear of not being able to live how I want to live.
Pretty much everything sfrechtling said, but I'd also add "visualization". I don't just think about the things I'm afraid of and want to move <i>away</i> from, I visualize the things I want to move <i>towards</i>.<p>So, visualizing myself tooling around in a shiny new Maserati with a 6' tall redheaded supermodel with a Scottish accent...<p>I also take special glee in proving people wrong who doubt me, so I visualize the opportunity to go visit $JOE_BIGSHOT who could have helped us, but didn't because he didn't believe in us... after he's crashed out of being a $BIGSHOT and is now selling cars at the local "buy here, pay here" car lot.<p>Music is big for me as well. Stuff like this:<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQQcOQsCFnw" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQQcOQsCFnw</a><p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZb3Xya7jQ8" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZb3Xya7jQ8</a><p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FADpsMCe9Cw" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FADpsMCe9Cw</a><p>Stuff like that. :-)
It sounds like you're running from -10 to 0 (-10 being despair and 0 being adequately motivated) instead of starting and 0 and ramping up to +10 (10 being a full blown obsession).<p>If you are just treading water, look for a way to get out or modify your work so you enjoy it more. To get to a +10, I think you need to dream big and set goals to achieve those dreams.<p>I also suggest you do whatever it takes to enjoy your work process. What helps for me is buying great software that removes points of friction from my workflow.<p>For instance, instead of getting annoyed at crappy, slow PDF reader software, I splurged and bought Nitro PDF which is like a Ginsu knife. Now, using and editing PDFs is sheer elation.<p>I'm actually launching a program that reveals how to become obsessed over anything - even stuff you used to hate doing. If you're interested you can sign up here: <a href="http://indoctrinator.com" rel="nofollow">http://indoctrinator.com</a>