Where do you find your motivation?

At 53, getting divorced, one kid working as a nurse, the other established at university, business rolling along quite nicely, reasonably fit and healthy...If I won the lotto tomorrow, I'm afraid I'd happily sit down in front of the TV and gradually become one with the couch.

I have not really ever been like that before, and its got me wondering where my motivation to do new and exciting things came from. Fear of failure, or of disappointing someone has, I think, maybe been one of the driving forces of my life, although that doesn't explain the racing thing, at which I've had some local success. Even there, the idea of spending a bunch of time and money to move up to a more challenging level of racing doesn't really appeal.

Meh. Gotta go work on somebody elses stuff now.

Boredom does it for me. When I'm busy with anything it's very hard to generate motivation for something else. That has been a problem over the last decade taking care of babies/kids. I simply didn't have enough down time to get bored. Consequently, lots of projects didn't get finished. Now that the kids are all in school I have a massive surge of motivation, or what feels like motivation.

impending death does it for me.

Booze helps.

I lost most of my motivation a few years ago. Simple chores around the house feel like major productions.

What little motivation I have to do anything is usually fueled by ADD and gets me in trouble with SWMBO.

The quest to learn things is my motivation. Things I know, don't really interest me. Things I don't know is what drives me out into the shop.

Saturday I took a A/C compressor apart. I knew the theory behind one, but had never been into one. Now I know. They are really pretty cool devices and amazingly complicated. That got me going and then I started a project that has been in the planing stages for years. Build thread here.

The other thing that gets me going is, I'm cheap. I hate paying someone to do things I can learn to do myself.

Jaxmadine wrote: Booze helps.

That kills it for me. When I have time off and drink a lot, my motivation goes away completely. I could fritter the days away doing nothing and it doesn't even bother me. When I take it easy on the alcohol, I wake up in the morning looking forward to my next project. I'm almost 52 and that's new for me.

I have to be excited about something. My car projects are taking a backseat right now because I'm going hard on the bikes and having a great time with it. As long as the excitement is there, it gets the priority. When it goes away (like circle track) I stop doing it.

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

Just remember that.

coolusername wrote: ......IS THIS IT? IS THIS AS GOOD AS IT GETS???

It is if you think it is.

Sounds like depression guys. Maybe join a gym, or do something pampering that's just for you.

I find my motivation in the challenges and obstacles that are in my path. I don't have a berkeleying clue where I'm going, but I'll conquer anything that gets in my damn way.

One step closer, just one little step at a time.

At the end of the day, satisfaction counts

I don't find it. It finds me. It comes in fits and starts - but then when I get going it consumes my life until it gets done. I'm in fits and starts mode right now on 3 different projects and hoping one gets to point-of-no-return status soon. I need to get some of this stuff out of the way for a new project :)

I found this blog today, about a chap terminally ill with cancer, making the most of his last 6 months: http://www.teachingcancertocry.com/?p=1840

Dude has a fantastic attitude. It might provide at least a temporary spurt of motivation. If nothing else, it's a good read.

Wish I knew. I have three little kids that are growing up in a house always being worked on/ built on, just like I did, because their mom and dad can’t get it together enough to work on the place in any kind of structured, regular fashion. It’s fits and starts. Sometimes some major work gets done, but sometimes (honestly probably most times) it’s really a hassle just to keep the grass lower than a foot tall, people fed and the kitchen somewhat cleared up, and the kids wearing clothes that are clean and presentable. Generally speaking, once I get home at night and get everything squared away there, it’s 8-9PM, and after that I’m vegetating for a couple hours before bed, usually while feeling guilty for the stuff that I should be doing but can’t seem to get psyched up for.

I haven’t grassroots motorsport’ed anything in a couple of years, just been too busy with the kids and living life. My last project car got sold off, not for lack of desire to fool with it, but for lack of time. These days, if I have time to tinker, I need to be tinkering on my house and finishing the projects that we have going.

I guess it depends on what the case may be. If it's work, I'm driven to survive here in NY and make more money so that we can one day leave NY and buy a house with a driveway and garage and not have to deal with NYC one more day. If it's something like the gym, I'm driven by the fact that I don't ever want to be unhealthy and overweight like I was most of my adolescent life, if it's anything else it's honestly driven by either boredom, or a desire for change and to try something new. Everyone falls into a rut at some point and nothing seems to appeal, but you need to just force yourself out of it sometimes. A lot of times it may be not be a lack of motivation, but perhaps a bought out depression, as I am sure most folks can attest to.

My motivation (at almost 29) is that despite having the rest of my life to screw up, I've also got the rest of my life to fix whatever mistakes I may make tomorrow.

I'd rather do something stupid like move out west for a few years, get married, and blow all my time/money meeting people, riding mountain bike, and going on adventures than make the mistake of spending the rest of my life doing "safe" things.

At 49 and more than half of that in a wheelchair, due to that early 20s invincibility complex, my motivation is knowing that the 'ability' may soon be gone. It is definitely harder on the days waking up in pain or feeling like E36 M3...but one little internal reminder that 'today I can, tomorrow maybe not' gets me going to whatever needs to be done, or wants to be enjoyed.

My motivation comes from others who don't want me to succeed.

I can't really say my Dad doesn't want me to succeed, but he always compares himself to me. Probably the reason why we do not speak to eachother anymore. I just like to think in my head: "yea, I have a house, two paid off cars (that arn't worth much, but hey, no car payment!) and I am doing what I love."

Other portion of my motivation comes from seeing others I went to highschool with and what they are doing. There was one kid in particular, always comparing himself to me. If I got a cool car, he went the following weekend and try to get one to out-do me. I just like seeing his Facebook page, saying he works a bar, lives at home and still thinks partying like a highschooler is cool.

Maybe comparing isn't good, but it works for me.

My motivations: curiosity, makes me want to try stuff. Sometimes it's a little on the 'hey y'all watch this' side, though.

I'm also a tinkerer of the worst kind. I love seeing if I can make stuff work or if it works make it work better. That goes hand in hand with curiosity.

I'm a bit of an adrenaline junkie, I can't just sit around and do nothing all the time. Even if it's just planning I have to be working on something constructive. The feeling of accomplishment when it's done is a big motivator as well.

And sort of like Duke, the sure fire way to get me to do something is to tell me I can't do it. I was told by three or four different attorneys I'd never get custody of my daughter, well they were dead wrong.

DukeOfUndersteer wrote: ...saying he works a bar, lives at home and still thinks partying like a highschooler is cool.

That actually sounds ok, in fact, that is my retirement plan.

hahahaha... who the berkeley am I kidding. I'll never be able to retire.

I find mine in boredom. The more i work on things, the less bored i become, and the less motivated i become.

Long builds are berkeleying TORTURE for me.

I think I last had serious motivation around 1994. After that the word became 'patience', a lie I like tell myself that it's beyond my control for not getting automotive/ project things done due to community college, social life, excessive OT, a plant closing and lost job, spending quality time w/ aging parents and their ills and my own health issues etc.

I used to have project anxiety issues to the point I couldn't fall asleep at night till I accomplished X amount of work, not anymore.... it gets done when it gets done.

..... patience

Not that this will help you is I look at my kids. My oldest is Autistic and his little brother is NT. I know I must help them as much as humanly possible to be successful and in the case of my oldest one, understand I may be responsible for him for his entire life.

Motivates the E36 M3 out of you knowing you may let your kids down.

I don't think it matters where we find our motivation. You need to figure out where you find your's. It sounds like there were things that used to motivate you, and you haven't lost them, but other stuff has gotten in the way. It sounds like your motivation is trapped behind a giant wall of 'meh'.

I'd say if your current routine is sapping your motivation and you want to find more motivation, you need a big shakeup to your routine. Maybe not necessarily throw everything out the window, but why not take a vacation? Could you cut out and run away for a month or two? Go travel for a while. Get away. Do something you have never done before. Take a bit of a chance. Reset a few things. Better yet, can you take a 6-month sabbatical? The best thing I ever did for myself was to live in another country for half a year.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

DukeOfUndersteer wrote: ...saying he works a bar, lives at home and still thinks partying like a highschooler is cool.

That actually sounds ok, in fact, that is my retirement plan.

It's worked out pretty good for my dad.