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Ask HN: How do you deal with loss of motivation?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with loss of motivation?

#71

Post by hunvreus »

You will rarely get all things on your wish list. More often than not, you'll get one and work your way up on the others.

The way I've dealt with burnouts and demotivation has been to identify the actual root cause and then take a decision;

- Option 1; leave it be (and maybe whine about it).

- Option 2; give up & move on to something else.

- Option 3; bite the bullet and work my way out of it.

9 times out of 10, I pick option 3.

As an example, I've been dealing with business development for a while, but I'm naturally more interested in product development and R&D.

I got stuck on option 1 for a while and tried a couple time (unsuccessfully) to go for option 2.

And for the past 6 months I've been working on option 3.

It's not glamorous and it requires a good deal of patience, but the opportunity to get to a place where I can automate/document/delegate myself out of it has kept me motivated enough.

I'm writing a business playbook [1], created a few sales decks and refined techniques on clients and colleagues to the point that I can train others. I have automated, documented and understood enough [2] that I can finally bring in a BD person and hand over my responsibilities.

I recommend you have a hard look at what really makes you unhappy and list your options.

From the limited understanding of your current situation, I'd say;

- Deal with it. You stay where you are and find a way to be ok with not being passionate about your job.

- Give up. Find another occupation, either now or after a while once you acquired new skills.

- Work your way out of it. Find a way to change your role at your company. Maybe you can automate, document and delegate. Maybe you can make yourself valuable enough to another team to force a promotion or re-assignment.

Additionally, I don't think I would recommend you to go back to school. I'm a lot more likely to trust and respect somebody who went on to learn new things on their own, especially considering you can virtually learn anything online these days.

[1]: http://playbook.wiredcraft.com/business/

[2]: http://playbook.wiredcraft.com/article/tools-methodologies-p...

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with loss of motivation?

#72

Post by deeteecee »

conceptme wrote: post #62

"I need to find something with purpose,big money, and satisfaction." I think you need to be more realistic, sorry but you sound a bit like a child, everybody is dumb and doing useless things except you the little snow flake who comes to save the world and will be a billionaire if only he was recognized.

gotta agree with this one. i feel like OP needs to take a step down and change his perspective on things a bit. take a time to weigh out what you want and not expect EVERYTHING but instead, maybe balance it out.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with loss of motivation?

#74

Post by iopq »

sauronlord wrote: post #67
iopq wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have money and I'm in good health. I don't have a job, though, and I don't really have any motivation to do anything.

This works for me: - Vitamin D... 4000 IU per day - 8 hours sleep - Lift weights 5 days a week. Yoga for 20 mins everyday - low carb/sugar diet - Decided on ambitious purpose in life Saying you have no motivation is making it worse. I started saying something like "I'm imoroving my motivation..."

I get 50,000 IU every week like it says on the bottle. I sleep around 8 hours a day. I lift weights 3 times a week and I play football 1-3 times a week.

Saying I'm improving my motivation would be a lie. I'm not improving it and I can't lie to myself.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with loss of motivation?

#75

Post by cammil »

You should only do things for love OR money, but not both.

Don't spread yourself thin serving two masters. Serving one, often brings the other, but both should not be your goal.

If you do things for love, and also seek out money, your art will suffer. If you do things for money, but try to do more of the things you like doing, you will fail to do the hard things that bring you financial success.

Pick one. Love or money. Commit to that.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with loss of motivation?

#76

Post by dnautics »

you're not motivated because you put a lot of effort into something and your brain had a huge expectation miss; in other words it trained itself that 'effort is pointless'. My suggestion is to do a lot of very small things (that you know will work) that ramp up small successes and retrain your brain to appreciate effort.

I'm currently going through what would probably tear many people apart - out of money (literally had no money last week since I sold the last of my bitcoin to stay afloat and it didn't hit my bank account quickly enough), applied to several jobs in SV, all turned down because "they're looking for someone more senior", tried to start a company, couldn't find funding, can't finish some biochemistry work that I've been doing because I can't pay for the equipment I need... The part time coding job I took on still hasn't paid me for january's work...

But I have a bunch of small projects that keep me going and while it is slightly harder to get up in the morning, I am still productive. (I just wrote a library that transpiles Julia into Verilog)

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with loss of motivation?

#78

Post by koonsolo »

“It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.”

― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with loss of motivation?

#79

Post by cryptozeus »

ne01 wrote: post #34

In my opinion, Complete lack of motivation is the result of mental congestion. Start emptying your mind! Delete all good and bad memories! Don't worry about the past and don't be afraid of the future. What you have right now is not what you really want! That's why you are not happy! Just empty your mind and you'll find what you really want! And we always have motivation for the things we TRULY want!

Any suggestions on how to do this ? Meditation may be ? This is easier said then done.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with loss of motivation?

#80

Post by kabdib »

I had a very long post about humility and emergent leadership that I mercifully just lost to an errant keystroke. I won't attempt to duplicate the deathless prose and deep, though humorous anecdotes from my work history that I dredged up as evidence. Lucky you.

Let's just say that the worst leaders I've worked under have had the certainty that they were Leaders, that they were somehow born to it, and that they were surrounded by idiots.

If you think you are surrounded by idiots, get out fast. This will work out well no matter the true situation:

1. If they are idiots, you'll be pushing a rope. You can't save them. Do your best elsewhere. Unless you're an investor, who the heck cares? Just another ship going down.

2. If they aren't idiots, but you only think they are, it will end badly, and it's best ended early.

The only way that a King of the Idiots gig ends well for you is when they pay you a pile of money to leave because they can't fire you because of bad press or something, and most people won't even be in a room with people who are at that level.

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