| Your muses drop inspiration just as your head hits the pillow, but they don't manufacture an irresistible drive to create. In an emotional inspired burst, you leap into your project, only to peter out as the novelty wears off. "Fanatic" implies emotional involvement, but you've noticed that when the ardor cools you've got no impetus. And the thing you so lovingly begun turns into drudgery. Into work. You're not, ex nihilo, going to create within yourself some sort of relentless will to create. Worthwhile endeavors are hard. Becoming more fit. Building a product or company. These goals aren't fully achieved in one inspired surge of energy. And our brains seem to be wired towards amusement after our basic needs are met. Intentionally doing hard things is the evolutionary equivalent of repeatedly touching a hot stove; your brain's going to keep telling you to knock it off. So, you've got to take advantage of what we know about our brains to "trick" them into doing work. Here are a couple things to read that might help you figure out what "hack" will work for you: 1) http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.h... is an article about shopping habits, that contains a couple of interesting gems about how companies actually do the same thing ("hack" your habits) in order to bring about desired consumer behaviour. It's adapted from the book: http://charlesduhigg.com/the-power-of-habit/ which I haven't read but suspect just has many more examples. 2) http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/06/ff_feedbackloop/all/. Figure out a positive feedback loop that you can take advantage of. For me, when I was working on a book, one thing I did was build a script that would count the words, make a note of the count in a journal, and post an update of my progress to my Facebook wall. I'd get encouraging comments from my FB friends, presto: positive feedback loop. Related: What gets measured improves. What gets measured and reported improves again. I'm not sure where I'd heard that quote, but its proven true for me. 3) Along those lines: "Don't break the chain". http://lifehacker.com/5886128/how-seinfelds-productivity-sec.... Good luck. It's a lonely lot of work becoming productive. |