I keep motivation as part of the "skill set" (capability/ability?) to work on something. I contribute to OSS for problems/ideas that troubles/benefits me the m

I keep motivation as part of the "skill set" (capability/ability?) to work on something. I contribute to OSS for problems/ideas that troubles/benefits me the most. Sometimes it's just a bit tricky thing that requires some time to do the digging (e.g. dig the library and debug issue). Sometimes it's a feature I want on something I am using. I think much of the coding understanding learned by non-required tasks (OSS contribution included but not all) are from doing these kind of things bit by bit (some by reading, but practicing coding probably makes it much better). But not to dream about making millions or even pennies for doing what you are interested in. It's expectation management. Money does has certain kind of value, but might not be so aligned with your other interested sectors (e.g. fun, security, control of data)