I wonder if it would help thinking through what makes you feel satisfied. I think many of us feel a bit crushed and demotivated when the reason to get up every

I wonder if it would help thinking through what makes you feel satisfied. I think many of us feel a bit crushed and demotivated when the reason to get up every day is extrinsic: taking care of somebody else, solving problems for somebody else, etc. Even if you are skilled at those tasks, it can feel pointless even if you recognize intellectually that they are important. I’ve always felt that there was a big difference between doing something and doing something well. My grandfather, who grew up in an immigrant family on a farm during the Great Depression, used to say “do it well or don’t do it at all.” And it showed in his actions. He would spend enormous amounts of time doing things that just did not seem worth it to me at the time; eg, he obsessed about growing flowers when he had all these other skills that could be making him money. When I finally understood what drove him—that nearly any task can feel worthwhile when you move from simply doing it to doing it as best you can-it changed my relationship with work and other tasks in life. Another commenter here suggests that you should “work to live” and not the other way around, but I don’t really see them as separate. If you have the quality relationship with work in mind when you do it, when you connect it to doing things well, it’s hard to avoid feeling like your actions are also a part of living excellently, and for me at least, that fills me with a tremendous feeling of satisfaction.