My Four Motivators
- Author: onedollaraday
- Filed under: General Thoughts, Life
Mar 31,2008
It’s sometimes funny how an innocuous blog post about one thing can spark off a series of interesting comments about a related topic. Burt’s post about being busy did just that with some interesting comments about peoples’ motivation.
This got me thinking about what makes me come home from a day working in front of a computer…and spend more hours working in front of a computer!
My motivation is three fold:
- Money - the extra income I earn from the online world enables me to live a more comfortable lifestyle with a few extra luxuries - to indulge in my hobbies (snowboarding & mountain biking) and to buy more gadgets & clothes than I otherwise would be able to.
- Knowledge - I enjoy learning new things and there’s always something new to learn whether it be PHP, SQL or CSS etc.
- Challenge - similar to knowledge, I enjoy figuring out solutions to problems and get satisfaction from getting a site to do exactly what I want it to do.
- Ego (wasn’t sure what to call this one!) - I get a bit of a kick from creating a site, publishing it on the web and then seeing how popular it becomes. It’s also a sort of culmination of gaining the knowledge and overcoming the challenge which ultimately leading to making some money.
However, sometimes even these aren’t enough, and I do just come home, sit in front of the TV and not even turn the computer on (or just go to the pub!). Remember, for me, this is extra income - I’m not relying on it to pay the bills or to buy my food which I suspect gives you that extra kick if you are full-time self-employed.
That’s just me though - it’s always interesting to hear why other people are doing it and what keeps them going - what are your motivators?
Categories
Links
Recent Comments
- Erik on Yes, It’s Been A While…!
- Adam Dempsey on Finally, I Got My Money Back on RAC!
- onedollaraday on Yes, It’s Been A While…!
- SarahG on Yes, It’s Been A While…!
- Chris on Yes, It’s Been A While…!
One Response for "My Four Motivators"
I divide my time into two (similar how you did). I have my full-time self employed work for clients, and then my own personal projects for the AIS side.
The client and contract work can get a bit tedious at times, especially when you’d rather set your new site up, get some products selling etc! But I’ve found that organising and sticking to a set routine can help, plus if I don’t do the work, I don’t get paid, and then I’ve got a bit of a problem! A major motivator to me is concern and worry over not getting something done for a client in time. I don’t like to let people down so that pushes me to get the job done.
My personal stuff is a sideline. It’s a nice little addition of money that just gets saved in an account and is used for something big, ie. not everyday stuff. Last year we were going to use it for a holiday but instead used it to cover our house moving and insurance costs. This year I’m now hoping to put what we make towards a deposit for a house, else it’ll pay for a decent holiday (if we’re refused a mortgage).
I think to keep motivated you also need to give yourself a rest away from it. It’s easy to keep saying you need to be at home 9-5, working all the time, but then you maybe forget that you’ve not had a day off or a holiday in months. Now we tend to take an afternoon or two off each week and go out taking a few photos down the beach, or when the weather is good we’ll be off cycling. I start work at 8 and finish around 6pm so I need that break else the motivation will turn into hate for the job!
Leave a reply