How old are you and do you need to "believe?" When I was younger, I couldn't really push hard and work really hard unless I believed in the mission. I had to

How old are you and do you need to "believe?" When I was younger, I couldn't really push hard and work really hard unless I believed in the mission. I had to have that passion fuel to do it. It's fun, it feels good when it's there, it's like being in love in a way. And I'd do 'heroic' stuff because of it. I've found, personally, that that passion fuel is more like adrenaline than actual fuel though. It tends to dry up after a while; I think this is do to life changes, if you're in a relationship or having a child or something like that, those things just dramatically outweigh "building some app" or learning some new tech. At this point in my life (married with a couple kids) I get buzzed about startup opportunities and stuff, but I don't think there is any code that will come close to what my family brings me in terms of that passion. You've made it 4 years so I'd guess you're not running on passion alone. For a while, I tried to be really unemotional about work, I just wanted to be a professional and do that job. Honestly, I can do this, I know some people cannot. I enjoy making software, regardless of the project I can usually find aspects to enjoy and just enjoy the craft. You really don't need to give a shit to fix some bugs, at least I don't, they pay me and I do the work. That too tends to result in my relative unhappiness after a while; I feel like certain creative aspects aren't being honored if I'm just doing the job; also when the rest of my life is in disorder it's more difficult to find any satisfaction in just being a professional. It's going to sound cliche but it's really all about balance, at least for me it is. I try to place the passion more directly in the craft and technology. I'm passionate about building great teams. I'm passionate about working with those teams as a team, I really love seeing others grow. I like my current company's mission and it's something I can get really passionate about but I try not to get too bent about the details and specifics. Something else which in ways feels bad to say and it took me a while to really admit it: I'm kind of passionate about financial successes, my company is making money and that cures a lot of the little things for me. I've worked on my priorities a lot and I know that I'd rather be part of something that we build in to success rather than having my product vision completely realized and fail. Boot strapping a start up can be remarkably emotional, you work close with people, you get close, product passions rather than craft passions can make it really difficult. You want some passion and you want to be a pro at the same time and you want to balance those things and it's probably a life long learning exercise to continually tweak them. Take a real vacation, turn off your phones and devices, spend some time away from it all and then look at it again.