Motivation

Motivation is a tricky thing. So many of our goals that we set for ourselves are far-reaching, the kinds of things where success is a long ways off. Maybe it's weight loss, maybe it's getting published. Maybe it's smaller goals that we wonder if they are really worth the trouble.

So it's vitally important that, when approaching any kind of task, we examine the motivation behind our goals. Reminding ourselves that even the smaller goals have an important place. Keeping our eyes on that wonderful feeling of  satisfaction that comes with accomplishing something.

As I look at my plan for the next 10 days, I see a number of things that need to be done. Back to school clothes shopping and haircuts for the kids, the big pre-semester cleaning I do every semester, various ways of prepping for school and getting on top of that. All good things.

More good things is working on my writing and game designing. These are important to my professional development. The better my portfolio, the better internships, and later jobs, I can get for myself. More good things.

Then I also have quite a bit of WoW and other gaming goals. While I doubt I'll beat both Uncharted and ACII like I originally wanted, I'm trying to take a little time every day to slaughter Templars. While my WoW goals are more contingent on finishing prior to the release of Cataclysm (comeon Blizz, give me a date already!!!!!!!one!1eleven) I know that once school starts to get into full swing, my WoW time will dwindle to virtual nothingness. I'd rather try to meet as many of those goals prior to school starting, where I could spend the final countdown to the Cataclysm gearing and poking through some final things.

Obviously, as much as I prefer the reverse, the focus is on my other, "more important" goals. Trying to accomplish these around the everyday tasks of taking care of the kids, losing weight, and all the other day-to-day stuff that weighs us down and eat up our time.

That's why it's so important to know why you're doing these things. Keep it right in front of you. Write it down and tape it to your desk where you'll see it every minute. Knowing that you're dragging through rehashing last semester's stupid Assembly assignments so that way you don't have to do them during the semester when you're more pressed for time. Knowing that tediously porting the 2D RPG from crappy C++ to the super-shiny C# will give you better options to create your own game.

Keep your eyes on the prize. The prize will keep you motivated when the tedious intermediate steps drag you down. If nothing else, think of the satisfaction of completing a goal and being able to smugly tell everyone how awesome you are because of how much you can accomplish.

Well, I guess I better hop to it. After all, I have less time today with Dungeons to complete and Dragons to slay tonight.