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Here's my take from having gone through a similar problem, it may or may not be relevant to you. A few years ago I had a great idea for a product and would pit

Here's my take from having gone through a similar problem, it may or may not be relevant to you. A few years ago I had a great idea for a product and would pitch it to whoever would listen. I had the domain, had a plan, just had to execute. I'd barely gotten started when I ran into a wall, instead of working I would just stare blankly at my computer. I had zero motivation to do any actual work. And yet, I was still passionate and believed in the idea, which led me to a similar place as you where I'm wondering "what gives?" This situation showed me that I had an internal problem, that while I could function in environments with external motivational factors, if I removed them, I had nothing. Something inside was holding me back. It was only through a combination of months of therapy and soul searching that I was able to find the source of my motivational short-circuit, I had given up on the first thing I ever truly wanted without even trying to achieve it. After that epiphany, motivation has been the least of my concerns. Heck, I'm working on my plans for world domination at this very moment. So here's my advice, take the time to debug your brain, it won't be easy, but it beats having that error message pop up for the rest of your life.

dolinsky 16y ago
This. Fear is a multi-faceted and very powerful, yet often times extremely irrational, emotion that can destroy you even before you get started. A few people here have brought up Seth Godin's Lizard Brain concept, but what's missing from it is a deeper dive into fear being a huge blocker to accomplishing something. "Just ship it", or "ship early and ship often" are techniques that are of great help but they're farther down the pipeline than getting started. Of immediate and initial importance is needing to understand why you are getting in your own way - what is the cause of the fear that is preventing you from executing your idea? Is it a fear of failure, of success, of being judged once you finish, of making mistakes, of having too much responsibility, of making the wrong decision along the way? It's not a question that you can answer immediately, and unwrapping fear can sometimes lead you down a path where the only thing you have feared is more fear (sounds like a very familiar quote, eh?). When it's someone elses idea that you're working on and you're not the one in charge it's much easier to meet and often exceed expectations b/c many of those fears aren't possible outcomes (to the trully paranoid mind they might be, but since you can accomplish tasks at work you don't fit the bill for this). It's not easy to understand the 'why' of our psychopathologies. Everybody has their own that they struggle with. Some people create coping mechanisms and live within the pathologies, and some people overcome their pathologies through a combination of technique / drugs. Two books that I found of personal help on first helping me understand the 'why' of my personal struggles and then provided helpful techniques to break through them are: "Do It!" by Peter McWilliams http://www.amazon.com/Lets-Get-Off-Our-Buts/dp/093158079X http://www.amazon.com/Lets-Get-Off-Our-Buts/dp/093158079X (there's a free version @ mcwilliams.com but the website seems to be down) "The Procrastinator's Handbook" by Rita Emmett http://www.amazon.com/Procrastinators-Handbook-Mastering-Art-Doing/dp/0802775985 http://www.amazon.com/Procrastinators-Handbook-Mastering-Art...
kleinsch 16y ago
If you've been working for other people for a long time, it takes some serious adjusting to work for yourself. I also have trouble getting motivated to start on a large project by myself, since it seems insurmountable in the beginning. It helped me to break it down into small steps that can be accomplished in a few hours, so I felt like I was making progress.

dolinsky 16y ago

This. Fear is a multi-faceted and very powerful, yet often times extremely irrational, emotion that can destroy you even before you get started. A few people here have brought up Seth Godin's Lizard Brain concept, but what's missing from it is a deeper dive into fear being a huge blocker to accomplishing something. "Just ship it", or "ship early and ship often" are techniques that are of great help but they're farther down the pipeline than getting started. Of immediate and initial importance is needing to understand why you are getting in your own way - what is the cause of the fear that is preventing you from executing your idea? Is it a fear of failure, of success, of being judged once you finish, of making mistakes, of having too much responsibility, of making the wrong decision along the way? It's not a question that you can answer immediately, and unwrapping fear can sometimes lead you down a path where the only thing you have feared is more fear (sounds like a very familiar quote, eh?). When it's someone elses idea that you're working on and you're not the one in charge it's much easier to meet and often exceed expectations b/c many of those fears aren't possible outcomes (to the trully paranoid mind they might be, but since you can accomplish tasks at work you don't fit the bill for this). It's not easy to understand the 'why' of our psychopathologies. Everybody has their own that they struggle with. Some people create coping mechanisms and live within the pathologies, and some people overcome their pathologies through a combination of technique / drugs. Two books that I found of personal help on first helping me understand the 'why' of my personal struggles and then provided helpful techniques to break through them are: "Do It!" by Peter McWilliams http://www.amazon.com/Lets-Get-Off-Our-Buts/dp/093158079X http://www.amazon.com/Lets-Get-Off-Our-Buts/dp/093158079X (there's a free version @ mcwilliams.com but the website seems to be down) "The Procrastinator's Handbook" by Rita Emmett http://www.amazon.com/Procrastinators-Handbook-Mastering-Art-Doing/dp/0802775985 http://www.amazon.com/Procrastinators-Handbook-Mastering-Art...

kleinsch 16y ago

If you've been working for other people for a long time, it takes some serious adjusting to work for yourself. I also have trouble getting motivated to start on a large project by myself, since it seems insurmountable in the beginning. It helped me to break it down into small steps that can be accomplished in a few hours, so I felt like I was making progress.