What keeps people motivated? Is it the goal? Is it the journey?

I’ve been asking myself that recently because I’ve found myself so distracted. We just had the Golden Week break and before the week, I was excited with the prospect of the free time I could devote to my projects because I won’t be working.

Of course, that was before the break.

Plans always seem to change when you have a lot free time and you’re not on your regular schedule.

During the break, however, I wasted my time. I watched too much TV. I didn’t read. I didn’t work on any of the projects. I didn’t write or sharpen the saw. I didn’t do anything productive at all.

Maybe, and this is my only saving grace this time around, I worked on my health as I had more time to go running outside. Any activity that promotes help is always a bonus for me. I feel like my health is the best investment I can make.

I want to blame this non-productivity on the weather because it had been so cloudy, rainy, and so dark. It was also so cold during the break.

Wah, wah.

I know. Excuses, excuses.

That’s bullshit.

I really thought I would be motivated, though. What happened?!

Deep down, I really thought that the desire to make more money and become financially independent was enough to power my will. It was supposed to be enough to drive me to work hard and focus on the little things I need to do. After all, if I’m motivated enough, I will supposedly work as hard as I can to achieve all my dreams and achieve success.

Blah, blah, blah.

Referring back to my previous post, I think I lacked the dedication to perfect my daily habits. I know that schedules are important, and I think I lost the discipline when I let myself be dictated by the freedom of the day. I could work if I wanted to, but you know what, there were TV shows that needed to be watched. They’re taking up too much space in hard drive. It’s too cold outside, so I wasn’t going to make the trip to the coffee shop to work on my blog–it’s too far and I don’t want to leave my warm, cozy sofa.

After all, I could do anything I want with this free time, so why worry?

Why, indeed?

Well, not having the daily schedule but having too much freedom allowed me to get distracted and become less motivated to achieve my goal. In short, the pleasure of the moment made me forget the pleasure of the future. I got too drunk off of not having work responsibilities to worry about. I didn’t have accountability for my actions.

Maybe that’s the missing piece. Nobody is holding me accountable when I’m on vacation or when I’m taking a break. There were no outside forces pushing me to do the work. I didn’t have a boss telling me what to do. Nobody pushed me to write those blogs or work on the self-development worksheets I was going to work on. I didn’t hold myself accountable, either, and that’s what made me lose focus and slack off.

Hmm.

Okay. Now I guess that I’ve figured it out, I just need to get tougher on myself and push myself further. Or, I need to have an accountability partner to keep me working and keep moving the needle further and closer to my goal.