I have been struggling lately with staying motivated.  I have lulls like this in life where my attention to detail wanes a bit and my excitement for my current endeavor subsides.  In the past I’ve used these moments to build up my list of excuses and rationalize my quitting.  But as I am getting older I am realizing the difference in motivation and discipline.

Motivation is the general desire or willingness of someone to do something.  In the past I was always looking for something to motivate me, like an emotional shove in the right direction: Pumped up music, inspirational talks, stories of success, etc.  But once the external hype was removed I had nothing to fall back on.  So I stopped and moved on to something else.  And continually failing to finish things that I started became a burden I carried around for years.  It was so heavy, mostly…