There are several things that I want to do, and know I would benefit from doing, but can never be ARSED to do!
It really gets to me. I know I have the intelligence and knowledge to do these things. And I now doing them will open doors to even better things to do. But the motivation is no-where.
I really really really want to learn 3d programming with directx. I have got as far as rendering a teapot and changing it’s colour. But whenever I read helpfiles or look at example code or anything that would help me learn it I get so fed-up. It brings back terrible feelings from University when I had to study insanely boring things that I had no interest in.
It’s like I really want to be at a destination, but I really don’t want to do the journey.
The point of this post - How do the ‘dopers’ motivate themselves to do non-compulsary things. Self-improvement for example?
Suggestions:
-set off a certain period of time each day/week to work on your goal
-come up with a reward to give yourself for working on your goal, or a punishment for not working
-write out your goal, set a date for it, and do the same for various sub-goals that you have to accomplish on the way to it. Try to be as specific as possible, and try to stick to your schedule.
-figure out some trick for calming yourself down and getting on task when you get fed-up. Like music, or meditation, or slapping yourself in the face, or just thinking of the destination that you want to reach
I’m no expert on motivation and I don’t do all of these things, but one of them might be able to help.
I’ll second knock knock’s suggestions, and also say that one thing that may help is to go somewhere other than your home to work on whatever needs working on. I cannot focus on homework assignments at home, but if I go to the library specifically to do homework, at least a good portion of it gets done. The same goes for practicing piano. Can’t really get any good time in at home, but if I go to the practice rooms on campus, then I inevitably spend at least two hours playing.