Motivation and Life

May 27, 2004

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you feel unproductive?

This week I’ve been feel­ing that way and while I typ­i­cally love web devel­op­ment and graphic design, for the past few days I haven’t felt that vibe that keeps me moti­vated. It’s not my job, I love my job, in fact I received great news that the com­pany I’ve been sub­con­tract­ing for the past year and a half wants to put me on their per­ma­nent staff.

Start­ing June 1st, I will be part of the offi­cial machine, instead of feel­ing like a con­tribut­ing out­sider. I’m excited and at the same time a bit fear­ful con­sid­er­ing I haven’t offi­cially worked for a com­pany for almost 2 years.

My work evi­dently has impressed those around me and the deci­sion to put me on their per­me­nant pay­roll has long been in the works, and I’m excited for what the future brings. In regards to my unmo­ti­va­tion, I sup­pose we all have these feel­ings every once in a great while.

I just need to sit back and pon­der all of the won­der­ful things that have hap­pened to me in the past cou­ple of years, like for instance;

  • Get­ting mar­ried to my wife; my sec­ond half, my life.
  • The birth of my beau­ti­ful daugh­ter, Zoe Elizabeth.
  • Work­ing for a top-notch tech com­pany doing what I love best.
  • Strength­en­ing my rela­tion­ship with my father.
  • Being proud of my lit­tle brother who joined the Navy and is pro­tect­ing our Country.
  • Learn­ing more about myself since my move from Cal­i­for­nia to New York.

Some­times, espe­cially dur­ing unmo­ti­vated or over­whelm­ing points in our lives, we all need to just step back and breath in the won­der­ful things that have hap­pened to us. We tend to, as humans, take things for granted. Real­iz­ing our strengths and appre­ci­at­ing those around us, espe­cially the good aspects of our lives makes us fur­ther appre­ci­ate our exis­tence and as a whole makes us bet­ter peo­ple and, more impor­tantly a bet­ter world. 

6 comments

Nice to see I’m not the only one who goes through those slumps. It’s posts like these that remind you that there’s a per­son behind all the tech­ni­cal mumbo-jumbo that we post. Thanks for sharing.

Per­son­ally, I’m not entirely com­fort­able yet with shar­ing too much per­sonal infor­ma­tion on my site, but I try to post sto­ries and pic­tures on a reg­u­lar basis, mainly to keep the human side of my site visible.

by Paul G on May 27, 2004 at 5:31 pm. Reply #

First off, con­grat­u­la­tions on the job!

I know what you’re going through, it hits me every few months or so. I think that you just have to deal with it as it’s hap­pen­ing and know that the lack of moti­va­tion isn’t going to last forever.

And you’re right, it’s good to stand back and appre­ci­ate your life and the good things in it. It keeps things in persepective.

by Todd on May 28, 2004 at 9:27 am. Reply #

Thanks Todd.

I wish the best of luck to you for your new job.

I know that feel­ing of appre­hen­sion and ner­vous­ness, I’ve expe­ri­enced it many times. How­ever, change is good. It gives us all a fresh per­spec­tive, sharp­ens our skills and broad­ens our horizons.

by kartooner on May 28, 2004 at 12:26 pm. Reply #

Con­grat­u­la­tions on your new job!

You are absolutely cor­rect on tak­ing a step back. I never do. It would be a bet­ter cop­ing mech­a­nism than plow­ing full speed ahead no mat­ter what.

by Max on May 29, 2004 at 10:19 am. Reply #

Hey Erik,

Con­grat­u­la­tions on sign­ing on the per­ma­nent staff with the com­pany you’re sub­bing for! That’s awe­some news. :-)

I’ve gone through the same feel­ings that you’re going through. In fact, about four weeks ago, I was feel­ing the way you described. It’s strange, because my life is also going extremely well right now.

I think some­thing inside of us just yearns for some­thing that’s not there. That prob­a­bly sounds flighty, but I’m not sure how else to explain it.

The feel­ing DOES pass (or maybe it just retires itself to a cor­ner of our brain for awhile), so hang in there.

Tim

by Tim on May 30, 2004 at 9:29 am. Reply #

Thank you every­one for the comments.

I wasn’t expect­ing them, but I do appre­ci­ate your kind words of encour­age­ment and con­grat­u­la­tory praise.
:)

by kartooner on June 1, 2004 at 9:52 am. Reply #

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