Ask HN: What Motivates you to keep going?

I like living indoors and eating slightly more than I hate my job.

boredom, seriously.

i think i've fried my brain way too much in my early 20s that i got this mild anhedonia from anything external.

but it's nice, these days i get to do and enjoy things out of pure interest and curiosity.

it's now less of a grind, and now more of "given x time, y resources, and z opportunies around me, what is a much more entertaining outcome that i can come up with?"

the bullies, the naysayers, the non-believers! aha

The fact that I, or anyone, is alive and sentient is truly miraculous. I’ve only got one shot to make the most of it.

After a period of extreme burnout I started to explore different meditative techniques and, as part of that exploration, read the Bhagavad-gita.

Greatly paraphrashing for the sake of brevity, but the idea that has guided me since then is that we cannot help but take some action or perform some work. At the very least we need to eat, but to eat we need to get some food and cook it. We need to get shelter from the elements. You know all the basic stuff. Ok, so let's say we have a job in order to satisfy just the basic requirements to stay alive. Do we work just for that reason alone? No! Doing so traps us into this vicious materialistic cycle. A dreary life of working and paying bills and buying things that please our senses but are ultimately unsatisfying.

So, we need to work, but working for even the barest of material benefit is a trap so what to do? The answer is work with detachment. Work because you know you have to and you like what you do, but that's it. Break the connection to the material outcomes of work. Your work needs to transcend materialistic concerns.

If you are so inclined religiously you work for the satisfaction of God, work is itself an offering. Your work transcends, then, the materialistic trap.

If you are more atheistic then perhaps take the attitude that human society as a greater good needs as many of us to Do The Right Thing. Scientific studies show we are social creatures and the good positive contributions we make invariably help others, even if we don't see it. Even if we're just installing POS software at a chain restaurant along a busy freeway. Even such a mundane endeavor is a glorious celebration of simply Being!