We've all been there before, I'm sure. You have a big project that you're working on, one that you've been waiting for so long to complete, but then progress becomes slow. It gets more and more difficult to follow your dreams. Why is that? Why does this happen even when doing something you really want?
It partially has to do with expectations.
I am in this lack of motivation state right now as I am writing, so I will use it as an example.
Right now, I am getting the interior of my car prepared for paint. I originally expected it to take a few weeknights to prep, and then I will paint on the weekend. This didn't happen. Not because I didn't do the work, but the work that I needed to do took longer than expected. I figured, might as well get all of my wiring cleaned up inside of the car before I paint (Last year, I rerouted all of my wiring through the passenger side firewall port and removed some unnecessary wiring.). That way, if I need to do any cutting or welding to make the new harness fit, I will not need to repaint. This turned into 5 weeknights of just routing and optimizing wiring. Then, I spent the weekend doing paint preparation. By the end of the weekend, the car still was not ready for paint. There were a few things that snuck up on me, like finding holes in the floor after removing sound insulation. Along with that, things that I simply overlooked, such as welding rear strut tower reinforcement plates.
In this scenario, I was unmotivated because I knew that I was going to miss the weekend deadline that I set for myself, and missing it because of some petty prep work made it even more frustrating. I understand that in the long run I will be happy that I took my time before painting, but I guess I see painting as a simple task. In my head, I pictured myself slapping paint on regardless of interior condition. Over time, after I made a nice new wiring harness, after I started removing the last pieces of sound insulation, and after I bought paint, I started imagining what my interior could look like if I work a little more here and there. Before I know it, I am out of time, and I start running out of motivation. I am building a race car though, why am I spending so much time trying to make the interior look perfect? Once you have a nice dream of what you can have, sometimes you just need to go for it.
So what is my short term solution for this lack of motivation - taking a break. I am taking today off so I can refuel my desire to chase my dream of my beautiful interior tomorrow. I want to be refreshed and have a positive mindset. Cutting corners is easy when you are unmotivated, so I will continue to work when I have a positive attitude to make sure I bring my best work forward.