Huge hobby projects are notorious for sucking the life out of the hobbyist. It usually starts with a strong emotional connection in the form of conviction, visi

Huge hobby projects are notorious for sucking the life out of the hobbyist. It usually starts with a strong emotional connection in the form of conviction, vision, and probably way too much patience with oneself. Then the patience goes, the vision needs adjustment, and finally the conviction is in doubt... So good job hanging in there. Here are things that help me: - I encourage myself to b*tch about it, especially if I am passionate about it. Never did this before but it's just a fun alternative to being too serious...and still being annoyed. And if you have even the tiniest amount of bad == good reverse psychology, this will be giving yourself energy by definition. "I hate this piece of sh*t hobby! God what a waste of--" (suki no uchi dazo) - I use micro-passions instead of micro-visions. I put it aside until the next wave comes. If I'm afraid the next wave won't come, I rank the micro-passions. Like break it down to 5-10 components (at least) that you like, and then rank them by how much you like doing them. (Not how much you like completing them) From there it becomes a question of surfing the waves as they come. - Human psychology is really, really primitive in terms of its use of interest-symbols as pointers to deeper insights, so you can sometimes take advantage of it. Study what the specific hobby-topic says about your life, and what it's suggesting. This can help you be less serious about a hobby, even if you're still interested in it (== better able to commit steady, patient interest to it over time). IOW you might realize "I'm building and painting model cars because my mind is hitting me with a clue-bat, suggesting I can maybe design an enjoyable life where I'm in control of the wheel and actively going somewhere" is a surprisingly a) good fit to one's subjective reality sometimes and b) disturbingly funny insight into where you're at. You can start with a dream dictionary since those are really just symbol dictionaries. - Document your progress, this is huge. If you lose clarity on your next step (of say, 2-5 minutes length) it's easy to get derailed. If you lose track of your personal method because you never documented it, ditto. Nobody wants to re-figure-out that stuff. I make sure there's a how-to component and a logging component as well. One other big one: - Keep a list of your interests. What happens is, you'll discover that you're always in the mood for _something_ so if you like lots of things, you'll effectively never be able to lose touch with your passions. And this feels damn good. "Ah damn, my hobby nuclear reactor isn't feeling interesting today, good thing I have been needing to put in some time on my donut-critic hobby!" Hang in there, and may your visions come true in ways that force a good cackle.