[callahanrts]

I've had the same struggle forever, but I finally feel like I've found a pattern that works for me: Find enjoyment in the daily struggle.

For exercise: I've found riding a bicycle to work to be my least hated form of exercise. I force myself to start every Monday riding to work. If I don't ride on Monday, the rest of the week is shot. When I do ride, I try to make it as enjoyable as possible. If I'm feeling unmotivated, I'll glide to work without breathing heavy at all. I just have to lower the bar so much that I'll at least do it. Often, I get motivated half way to work and pedal harder anyway.

For side projects: I've been tying this in with other habits. I get up at 5 every morning and drink coffee, read for a bit, and make at least 1 small contribution to a side project. Maybe it's a meaningless refactor or fixing a typo. At least I see the green activity in Github and continue building a habit of at least looking at and thinking about the projects I'm working on. The end result is that some weeks are vastly productive while others hardly mean anything.

What I've noticed is that motivation and productivity are a cycle and when I enjoy my daily habits enough (with no particular outcome in mind), I stick with things long enough to see compounding results.

TLDR;

Focusing on outcomes makes you aware of how you're not meeting them -> Demotivation

Building daily habits with vague goals and enjoying the ride -> Compounding results and satisfaction in hindsight