
Ask HN: How do you deal with loss of motivation? - rampipod
Lately, I don&#x27;t feel motivated about anything. Job is okay and I just switched about 8 months back. Work is just not challenging enough. I had to accept job because of good money and my previous job being in danger due to internal org. issues.
I exercise 4 days a week but I still don&#x27;t see any difference in motivation. I also had my testosterone checked. My GP says its normal.<p>I wanted a leadership position at my company, but I was hired for a position that has no decision making power at all. Everyone here seems dumb and working on a few useless things.<p>I thought I would be making life changing decisions after taking this job, but so far that does not seem to be the case.<p>Should I create artificial challenge and try to get into MIT&#x2F;Stanford for masters?<p>I need to find something with purpose,big money, and satisfaction.<p>What shall I do?
======
rsp1984
Of course now everybody here in the comments is jumping at the line

 _I need to find something with purpose,big money, and satisfaction._

and telling you that you should STFU and go back to your job and learn to be
content with what you have. Please be reminded that that's just people on the
internet though.

The thing is if you ask anything on the internet that sounds like "How can I
be more successful / smarter / prettier than average" you'll attract a lot
more haters than people that truly want to give advice.

However the reality is that being more successful, finding something that
gives you purpose and satisfaction and even making big money are all natural
and human desires and there's nothing wrong with that.

The only piece of advice I can humbly offer is that if you really, _really_
want or need something then there's usually also enough motivation to work
towards it. Now if you don't feel motivated to work towards your goals that
could be a sign that either your goals aren't optimal or that you're actually
happy with life as it is and don't feel so much need for change.

~~~
Clubber
I'm in a similar boat. I'm just tired of working for other people. I was an
athlete so I have it ingrained in my brain to always aspire to greatness. I'm
stuck doing mostly boring web CRUD apps (new team, new project) where I was
building complete automation systems with nearly full autonomy.

Unfortunately, the US isn't really a meritocracy. Leadership positions come
from who you know more than what you know. If you don't feel like playing the
dating game, start your own thing. You'll definitely not be bored.

Also, you could work for a small company where they don't really know what's
going on. You need to earn trust with the ownership by solving easy low
hanging fruit that really earns / saves money. Don't go too small and make
sure the company is profitable / well funded / proven business model,
otherwise you'll constantly be bailing water.

~~~
TheRenee
"Leadership positions come from who you know more than what you know." If you
think that's the case (Which it is PLUS talent and passion) then go and meet
more people. Your network is your networth.

------
leoh
Something that has helped me a lot with motivation is figuring out how to calm
down my nervous system, for example, with a good massage, a yoga class that
encourages holding poses for longer periods of time (Iyengar-style),
meditation, and reading offline. It's really easy to be "on" all the time,
even when you are not feeling particularly motivated — for example, being on
the internet is often over-stimulating and leads me to feel a lot of fatigue
and a lack of motivation. There is no one solution. I would be wary, however,
of pushing myself into doing something just because it's impressive or
exciting. Acting from a place of centeredness is always more fruitful. There
is no one solution. Best of luck to you.

~~~
nyxtom
Indeed! ^^

It's important to be self aware of what your body is trying to tell you
ultimately. Be able to monitor your mood, motivation, general tiredness,
anxiety, and monitor what is causing that. I have regularly taken therapy to
provide some introspection and this has helped tremendously. Overall, it comes
down to some of the basics for me in many cases of deregulation (as its called
when your nervous system is out of balance). Find things to bring your mind
(such as therapy), and your body back into a regulated state. Take breaks from
the computer, do yoga (as suggested above), enjoy experiences for the sake of
learning something rather than for the sake of impressiveness, integrate your
mind in areas that have nothing to do with your field....

------
hueving
>I need to find something with purpose,big money, and satisfaction.

Consider giving up the big money requirement and your options will open up
significantly. At companies like Google and Facebook where you get the good
pay, there are very few roles that get to work on the super interesting
problems so they are hard to get. Most likely you will end up working on data
migration tools, front end interfaces for existing systems, account life cycle
tooling, etc that may be interesting at first, but they aren't that
satisfactory in the long run because you'll realize you're a very small cog
that can be easily replaced.

If you give up big money and join a startup (even mid sized), your impact can
be a lot more tangible and satisfying. Programming for government/industry
research can also be pretty satisfying but the pay is much lower (e.g. I
worked for an academic consortium on HPC networks and really felt like I was
improving tooling for cutting edge science).

~~~
thr0waway1239
>> because you'll realize you're a very small cog that can be easily replaced

This very thing struck me when I was watching a video recently about Ph.D.s at
Google [1]. You would think, well, a Ph.D. working at Google - what could
possibly be a more fun job? Apparently, to conduct even smallish experiments,
they need to make sure that the code runs on infrastructure which is basically
created to handle huge scale. I couldn't locate the exact place in the video
again, but couldn't help but feel that this takes away so much of the fun of
working on research problems in the first place.

Obviously, if you disagree with my view, then you would thrive in that
environment! Given how many times the research problems I tackle (as side
projects, for fun) end up going absolutely nowhere, I would absolutely not
want to invest any effort in things like readable and scalable code and such.

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ-
IwnnjBy0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ-IwnnjBy0)

------
conceptme
"I need to find something with purpose,big money, and satisfaction."

I think you need to be more realistic, sorry but you sound a bit like a child,
everybody is dumb and doing useless things except you the little snow flake
who comes to save the world and will be a billionaire if only he was
recognized.

~~~
stinos
Long ago I settled for satisfaction in work only, discarding amount of money
and I don't think I could be happier with the jobs I did so far. Granted I get
_enough_ money so that I don't really have to care about it. But for me once
the threshold of _enough_ is covered I fail to see why I would pursue more.
Sure you can always go bigger and more and faster but does that kind of
motivation really make you happy or more motivated? Or does it just lead to
again wanting bigger and more? I also really feel like the OP should ask
him/herself questions like these instead of blindly assuming big money is one
of the answers in dealing with lack of motivation.

~~~
joe563323
This might work for a 10x super star developer. But what about the above
average ones who is in the mid 30s and constantly worried about ageism and
outsourcing. So the logical tells to follow money and sacrifice job
satisfaction. Sad but true.

------
webmaven
First, if work is not challenging, you can _make_ it challenging. For example,
challenge yourself to automate every aspect of your job. It will give you
something interesting to work on, you will learn a lot (and not all of the
lessons will be technical), and you will have some tangible accomplishments to
point to (whether that is efficiency, uptime, cost savings, ...) during you
_next_ conversation about being given more responsibility and authority.

Second, as you noted you can find challenges outside of work (particularly
with all the free time your automation has given you. |-D

You could try for getting into MIT or Stanford, but you could also simply take
the courses you are interested in. Learning something new if a great
motivator, I've found.

Then again, so is crushing your enemies, seeing their men flee before you, and
hearing the lamentations of their women.

But I digress.

Another possible creative outlet & source of inspiration is participating in
open source, up to and including starting your own project (which might be
part of your automation platform, or something completely different).

Or get a non-tech hobby. Drawing, painting, knitting, dancing, a sport,
volunteering at an animal shelter, gourmet cooking, write a novel, learn a new
language etc. I personally find gardening to be a great way to recharge my
mental and emotional batteries.

Good luck!

------
kabdib
I had a very long post about humility and emergent leadership that I
mercifully just lost to an errant keystroke. I won't attempt to duplicate the
deathless prose and deep, though humorous anecdotes from my work history that
I dredged up as evidence. Lucky you.

Let's just say that the worst leaders I've worked under have had the certainty
that they were _Leaders_ , that they were somehow born to it, and that they
were surrounded by idiots.

If you think you are surrounded by idiots, get out fast. This will work out
well no matter the true situation:

1\. If they _are_ idiots, you'll be pushing a rope. You can't save them. Do
your best elsewhere. Unless you're an investor, who the heck cares? Just
another ship going down.

2\. If they _aren 't_ idiots, but you only think they are, it will end badly,
and it's best ended early.

The only way that a King of the Idiots gig ends well for you is when they pay
you a pile of money to leave because they can't fire you because of bad press
or something, and most people won't even be in a room with people who are at
that level.

------
chpmrc
I'm surprised that none of the top comments mentioned "So good they can't
ignore you" (Cal Newport). It's an enlightening book. Long story short:
"follow your passion" is crappy advice, you start enjoying what you do once
you become very good at it (the author calls it "accumulating career capital")
and by deliberate practice (i.e. always challenging yourself so that you are
always slightly outside your comfort zone but not too much or you'll feel
discouraged). Once you have enough career capital you can spend it to apply
the changes you need in your life. For example, to ask your employer to work
remotely to travel the world or reduce your working hours to attend college
etc. (be careful about the "control traps" though).

The obvious question is: how can I practice something I'm not passionate
about? And the answer is the same you'd give someone who wants to be muscular
but is not passionate about going to the gym: be more disciplined. But that's
an entirely different beast.

The way I see it: you force yourself to do something you know has good results
(you exercise 4 days a week so you are already doing that) -> You start
improving and appreciating your efforts -> You create a "mission" out of your
work -> You get so good you can call the shots on something important -> Rinse
and repeat. Eventually I think what makes us happy is not the prize but the
appreciation for the efforts that led to it.

~~~
Jarwain
What are control traps?

~~~
chpmrc
They are traps designed to lure you into a state of less control, over
yourself, than what you'd like. For example after 3 years at a company you ask
to work from home. They'll likely propose that you keep staying in the office
but with a better title and a salary increase. And control is called, by the
author (yes I love the book), the "dream-job elixir".

------
_98fj
Let me quote from the internet:

 _Fuck motivation. it’s a fickle and and unreliable little dickfuck and isn’t
worth your time.

Better to cultivate discipline than to rely on motivation. Force yourself to
do things. Force yourself to get up out of bed and practice. Force yourself to
work. Motivation is fleeting and it’s easy to rely on because it requires no
concentrated effort to get. Motivation comes to you, and you don’t have to
chase after it.

Discipline is reliable, motivation is fleeting. The question isn’t how to keep
yourself motivated. It’s how to train yourself to work without it._

~~~
StavrosK
Isn't that basically saying "fuck liking the thing you do, instead practice
doing it even though you don't like it, and if you have to train one of the
two, train the latter"?

If I had to choose between liking the thing I do and not liking it but doing
it anyway, I'd choose the former. I don't find "how can I be more motivated?"
a bad aspiration at all.

~~~
ndh2
I don't think that's the best way to put it. First you decide what you like.
Then you keep doing it.

It's pretty unlikely that you'll find one thing that, no matter what happens,
will always keep you motivated. The question is not whether you like it or
not. It's where you keep getting the energy to stay on course, to keep working
on it.

------
dandersh
You're not motivated because you did not get what you wanted (leadership
position) and you identify yourself as being superior to those whom are in
your position (dumb, working on useless things).

Motivate yourself by either pulling up those around you or leave for what you
really want to do.

~~~
CodeWriter23
It's the old happiness/gratitude inversion. The trap is thinking you will be
grateful once you're happy. The truth is being grateful creates happiness. And
your example of pulling others up is a fine expression of gratitude.

~~~
frozenport
OP never said nothing about happiness, OP wanted responsibility and power.

------
smilesnd
Motivation is something I believe everyone struggles with from time to time.
Some people don't even realize they lose it till it is to late. Others have so
much to do they don't have time to be motivated.

Leadership position at companies are either earn through hard work at the
company or proven track record at other companies. If you want leader position
work your ass off for it. If everyone is dumb and not working on anything
useful then it should be easy to move up the ladder.

Unless the job pulls you out of poverty, puts you in poverty, gets you out of
a toxic environment, or takes you completely out of your comfort zone then it
ain't going to be a life changing job. Doesn't sound like you went to Africa
to save orphans.

Creating artificial challenges is to make you grow not really to motivate you.
If you think just chasing a challenge will make you happy or motivated try it
out. But maybe you need to find something that just makes you happy or
excited. One guy I knew was making north of $200k a year working at the bank
worked nights at a sushi restaurant. Sushi was his passion his motivation his
happiness.

Typically you don't get a job with purpose, big money, and satisfaction right
away. You get a job to pay the bills and learn. The next job is either to move
up, move out, or you found something you passion about.

Right now sounds like you are finical stable, and if you got time to work out
4 times a week then you should have time to try new things. Try to find a
hobby or something. Get as far out of your comfort zone as you can, and see
what you like and love. Don't seek motivation let it find you.

Best of luck.

~~~
newbear
So, did this guy quit banking to pursue sushi? What's the story here? I'm
interested.

~~~
smilesnd
Nope he never left the bank. He makes to much money to leave it. Plus he is
one tier away from reaching $400k+ plus quarterly bonus. Supposedly the
quarterly bonus is something like $30k. He works 3 nights a week at the sushi
place he is pretty good.

------
rdtsc
> Lately, I don't feel motivated about anything. Job is okay and I just
> switched about 8 months back.

I wonder why you mentioned "job" as your first driver for motivation and
happiness. What about other parts of your life besides the job? Now I imagine
since this is HN your probably only shared about that part, but I hope there
is more to it - relationships with family, friends, significant other and so
on. Hobbies (go to local meetups about your favorite technology), maybe other
interests like sports. Someone mentioned other stuff like helping others:
mentoring perhaps, a soup kitchen (I did that for a while, it really changes
your perspective on a lot of things and challenges some assumptions).

> I need to find something with purpose,big money, and satisfaction.

That won't sit right with a lot of people. It is good you are honest though.
But be prepared for people to focus on that. So you already make good money it
seems but you feel you deserve big money? Why do you think you deserve to be
in a leadership position and making big money?

> was hired for a position that has no decision making power at all. Everyone
> here seems dumb and working on a few useless things.

Now imagine if you made big money and still had no decision making power? What
if you made less money but had decision making power? Which one would make you
happier?

------
comeon3
> I wanted a leadership position at my company, but I was hired for a position
> that has no decision making power at all. Everyone here seems dumb and
> working on a few useless things.

> I need to find something with purpose,big money, and satisfaction.

> I have tried being altruistic,but I ended up on the receiving end. I now
> presume that everyone is selfish and will not think for a second they get
> better deal. Hunt or be hunted - Frank Underwood

I guess you believe that you where meant for something greater here in life
and that people should treat you like the “natural” leader you are. Am I
right?

I'll say that there is a very big risk that your have narcissistic tendencies
and looking at your comments from an employer's perspective, I would be very,
very worried.

------
dbrunton
Find someone to help.

Preferably, this will be someone at work. Either someone in your job who's as
stuck as you are, someone in the next layer up who needs a boost, or someone
in the next tier down who needs a hand. It will be your next big challenge, to
recognize that someone else needs help, to determine what kind of help that
is, and to offer what you can.

Your only measure of success is whether that person succeeds.

The three benefits to taking this approach are:

    
    
      1) it's easier to objectively measure whether what you're doing is working
      2) you get to practice helping yourself, on someone else!
      3) it will help you stop being an asshole, which is probably something you're doing
    

I hope you try it. It doesn't take very long, maybe just a few weeks, but
don't hesitate to try it a few times.

Good luck!

~~~
uhhyeahdude
As an asshole in recovery, I cannot overstate how good this advice is. A
mentor of mine once suggested that I do something similar, and for similar
reasons. He didn't tell me why, but it's obvious now, and I can laugh about
it.

Helping others makes me feel good. I enjoy feeling good.

Helping others magically decreases the number of assholes I encounter in my
day-to-day life. Hmm. I wonder what that means?

Helping others is a great way to make friends, to learn new skills, to broaden
your worldview, reduce your stress and so on. But, really, the reward is
simply in the practice itself.

The beneficial-to-me stuff is a side-benefit, and I think it has to be. This
is something that you do for its own sake; you have to make a sort of pact
with yourself to forget about any personal gain. The mental gymnastics
required to pull that off are difficult to explain, but it is doable.

I'm pretty sure it works for people who are generally nice to be around as
well. Perhaps they too are recovering assholes who make an effort to help
others.

I'm not saying you are a jerk, by the way, but it seems like you might find a
bit of relief by way of dbrunton's advice. Ganbate!

------
ne01
In my opinion,

Complete lack of motivation is the result of mental congestion.

Start emptying your mind! Delete all good and bad memories! Don't worry about
the past and don't be afraid of the future.

What you have right now is not what you really want! That's why you are not
happy!

Just empty your mind and you'll find what you really want!

And we always have motivation for the things we TRULY want!

~~~
cryptozeus
Any suggestions on how to do this ? Meditation may be ? This is easier said
then done.

~~~
ne01
I just wrote a post about it:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13820600](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13820600)

------
koonsolo
“It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life
expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and
instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—daily
and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right
action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility
to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it
constantly sets for each individual.”

― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

------
hentrep
You alluded to this with mention of interest in a leadership position at work,
but what are your near-term goals in life? Make a list, devise a strategy, and
focus a portion of each day stepping toward those goals. Be careful and
explicit in drafting these goals. For instance, "Become wealthy" isn't as
clear and actionable as "Increase my income by $500 per month."

Are you focused too much on work? When is the last time you took a week or two
off just to mentally reset? How is your social life? I was interested in a
specific field a few years back, but I had zero friends or connections in said
field. I started a meetup group around the topic, grew it to 1500 members in
just over a year, learned a TON about the field in the process, and made
invaluable and exclusive connections that would have been otherwise very
difficult. It was a beautiful blend of social and professional advancement and
I highly recommend something similar.

Last point: if you're considering grad school, be aware that this is much more
accessible and palatable early in your career vs. late. If you have a shot at
getting into an MIT or Stanford, why no give it a whirl? It isn't necessarily
the degree that is of value, but the high-end network you'll obtain in the
process.

Keep your head-up -- motivation will ebb and flow throughout your life. This
is normal and a sign that change is in order.

------
toddmorey
I've thought about work and motivation a lot. A few quick points:

1\. A friend of mine came up with a formula for motivation at work that you
can say in one sentence. I love it because it's both simple and powerful:
"People want to be a significant member of a winning team on an inspiring
mission." You want to feel that you matter. You want to feel you have a chance
at success. You wan't to feel your work makes a difference.

Trouble comes when any of those needs aren't met. It sounds like you don't
feel that you are allowed to significantly contribute and it sounds like you
don't feel your team is set up for success. I don't know if you would ever be
inspired by the company's mission. In my experience, no amount of salary will
ever compensate for the absence of any of the three above.

2\. Even in a job that meets all three of those needs, motivation waxes and
wanes. Work that matters is always challenging and you go through streaks and
slumps. Here's something I've learned that's interesting and really freeing:
Forget the insane amount of ink that's been dedicated to motivational coaching
and repeat this: "You don't have to be motivated to start." You just don't.
Set a timer for 30 minutes, set the existential stuff aside for a moment (it
feels really good), and start. Just 30 minutes. This is powerful because
you'll see the chicken and the egg of it all: Sometimes you are motivated to
start. But sometimes starting in makes you motivated. (I'm amazed at how often
I ignore the timer going off at the end and just keep working.)

Good luck with it! I hope you find your purpose and satisfaction. The big
money is nice while you can get it, but it never serves as a replacement
involvement in real, meaningful work.

------
WheelsAtLarge
What you are learning is that money does not buy you happiness. Clearly you
accepted a job you really did not want for the security and the salary.

I can think of 3 options in your case. 1)keep your job and find fulfillment
doing something else on the weekends and free time such as hitting a hobbie
hard. 2)Keep your job and figure out how to get to the top. This option means
you'll have to become a master at social skills. Learning more techie stuff
will not help you. Top decision makers are NOT the most technology savvy but
they are the best at managing people and getting the most out of the team. 3)
Start finding the job you want. It might be less money or not as safe but at
least it's something you enjoy.

"I need to find something with purpose,big money, and satisfaction."

That's what we all want but you won't get it unless you are willing to take
some big chances. So decide what to do and do it. You can't start at the top
but you can get there and find all 3. You might fail but there's a possibility
of hitting it big. If you go this route make sure you make a plan and decide
now how to deal with adversity.

Good Luck!

------
failrate
For the depressive affect I consume St. John's Wort and L-Carnitine and I use
a sun lamp. For the creative side, I ensure that I work at least 15 minutes a
day on a creative project outside of work hours. At work, I strive to improve
the overall quality of my environment. Remember that if you dress well and act
confidently, people become remarkably deferential (i.e. even though your role
may not technically have any decision-making power, if you are confident and
reliable, people may start to look to you for your opinion on decisions, and
so on).

~~~
pmiller2
Just a general PSA for anyone considering St. John's wort: it can interact
with SSRIs and other prescription medication. The same also applies to 5-HTP.

------
throw_away_777
The easiest way to make big changes is to make a lot of small changes. Try to
focus on small improvements you can make and work towards them. Don't get
frustrated if progress is slower than you expect.

------
cammil
You should only do things for love OR money, but not both.

Don't spread yourself thin serving two masters. Serving one, often brings the
other, but both should not be your goal.

If you do things for love, and also seek out money, your art will suffer. If
you do things for money, but try to do more of the things you like doing, you
will fail to do the hard things that bring you financial success.

Pick one. Love or money. Commit to that.

------
johnfn
You could be mildly depressed. How is your sleep? How do you feel about other
aspects of your life, like relationships?

------
CodeWriter23
I've been driving for Lyft to cover cash flow gaps in between freelance gigs.
Nothing like sitting on my ass in traffic having inane conversations with
strangers many hours a day to increase my motivation.

------
FabHK
I suggesting looking at Cal Newport's _So good they can 't ignore you_, and
his blog.

The notion that you just need to find the right thing (passion/purpose) and
then the big money and satisfaction (that you think you're entitled to) will
roll in is misguided.

Exercising 4 days a week shows that there's sufficient motivation there.

At any rate, good luck!

[http://calnewport.com/blog/](http://calnewport.com/blog/)

~~~
INTPenis
I was looking for someone to mention exercise.

At 32 I just discovered that exercise gives me energy to code.

It's taken me this long because I kept repeating the same mistake. I started
exercising regularly, after 1-2 weeks inspiration to code in my free time came
back to me. This also affects my work positively.

But then I get so enthralled by coding, I get back the energy to stay up all
nights, 8 hour hackathons, so I forget to exercise. And slowly the energy
dissipates and I'm back to square 1.

So this is the first time I can look back and see this pattern in my life.
Hopefully it will lead to some change.

------
smdz
I'd been in similar position many years back. I couldn't leave the job because
I promised myself I would complete at least 3 years in any co I join. The only
reason was to prevent job-hopping that would ruin my resume. Fast forward, I
am self-employed now.

First, my job was boring, unchallenging, zero-stress, lesser hours and paid
pretty well. In those days I always questioned - "why would anybody leave such
a job? won't that be stupid?". So I started learning other things - I delved
into music, reading, blogging and stocks (which became my obsession and then
analyzing data just became an obsession). I also spent that part of my life
enjoying life. That period lasted for 3 years and then the company had
restructuring, which turned my job into a challenging, high-stress job.

Retrospectively, I do think I wasted a lot of time back then. But had I not
done that, I may not have pursued the path. I wasted money on unnecessary
things - which I should not have.

> I need to find something with purpose,big money, and satisfaction.

Big money - Money can't make you happy. That is 100% true. But money can buy
you freedom. Freedom can lead you on a path to satisfaction. Bottomline: Do
worry about your finances, but don't get greedy.

> What shall I do? Chill, relax and explore (for a preplanned
> 6months/1year/2years). Your job is taking care of your finances. You may
> have worked too hard to find "now" as less harder. Such times don't last
> long. Don't push your brains to find a purpose for existence - its also
> depressing.

A famous quote says: “The quieter you become, the more you can hear.” The same
stands true for your conscious mind

------
dnautics
you're not motivated because you put a lot of effort into something and your
brain had a huge expectation miss; in other words it trained itself that
'effort is pointless'. My suggestion is to do a lot of very small things (that
you know will work) that ramp up small successes and retrain your brain to
appreciate effort.

I'm currently going through what would probably tear many people apart - out
of money (literally had no money last week since I sold the last of my bitcoin
to stay afloat and it didn't hit my bank account quickly enough), applied to
several jobs in SV, all turned down because "they're looking for someone more
senior", tried to start a company, couldn't find funding, can't finish some
biochemistry work that I've been doing because I can't pay for the equipment I
need... The part time coding job I took on still hasn't paid me for january's
work...

But I have a bunch of small projects that keep me going and while it is
slightly harder to get up in the morning, I am still productive. (I just wrote
a library that transpiles Julia into Verilog)

------
mtw
I would look first in rest and recovery. Go on a sunny relaxing beach
sornwhere. Cuba is a good destination since its cheap, different and has poor
Internet connection. Rest for at lest 10 days.

Additionally also look in good sleep (a good 6/7 hours per day) and adequate
exercise. Sometimes people do too much exercise or not enough, as well as good
nutrition. If you are not sure what kind of nutrition you should follow,
Mediterranean diet is a good bet.

Lack of social support is a third direction. You should have close friends and
family. Invite them often at home for dinner, cook, what about an afternoon of
board games. Whatever people say, humans thrive on social contact. A beer with
a good friend is also good. Don't just overdo the alcohol.

The final step is the work. Like social support, lack of motivation can be
found in lack of communication. Talk around and discuss what you are doing and
why. Invite smart people in your professional contacts for coffee. Tell them
about what you are doing, ask what are their problems and what interesting
things they are doing. Do this 2 or three times per week. Soon you will see
opportunities or motivation

Good luck !

------
andy_ppp
I find everything in life to be full of cycles; I have my down times where I'm
not feeling life and struggling to achieve the things I want and here is how I
get out of this:

Will power is like a muscle, if you use it on some small things it makes you
able to be more motivated in other areas. So for example getting up early and
tidying your flat/room; going to bed at the right time; drinking less,
stopping smoking, even doing 10 press ups. I always find I can build on that.

As for work I would build something cool that you always wanted; something for
you. There are so many awesome ideas for something that I need or want it's
almost distracting to think about. If you want something intellectually
challenging try playing with Tensor Flow or Learning Elixir.

Maybe take on a website build project and build it in Elixir or some other
language. When you realise how motivating doing things for yourself is, you
might want to do it full time...

------
thestepafter
Satisfaction isn't found in money. Focus on helping others and you will find
true joy.

~~~
rampipod
Hello, Thank you for the comment. I have tried being altruistic,but I ended up
on the receiving end. I now presume that everyone is selfish and will not
think for a second they get better deal.

Hunt or be hunted - Frank Underwood

~~~
simplehuman
To be altruistic means to be selfless, by definition. And you shouldn't expect
anything in return. It looks like you expected things in return but didn't get
them and now you have become cynical and claim everyone is selfish...

------
golergka
First thing you should do when you find yourself in a hole is stop digging.

If you feel a loss of motivation, the worst thing you could do is feel guilty
about it. Feel like you're somehow bad or inferior because everyone around you
seems to have this drive to move forward and you don't.

It's completely OK to not feel particularly motivated. Your job is not your
life; sometimes it's fine to just work 9 to 5 and put only the effort
required, nothing extra. Spend your nice salary on things that you like.
Excersize because you like it, not because you have to. Do something else with
your time. Meet friends. Watch TV shows. Don't care about wasting your time,
just enjoy wasting it.

And please, when you see the people with "TED speaker", "self-motivated",
"energetic" image, take it with a grain of salt. This happens to everyone,
it's OK.

------
snarf21
First, you seem to have unrealistic expectations.

These things are usually a triangle in all jobs as they force competing goals.

Put labels on an isosceles triangle: Money, Purpose (work you can be proud of,
changes the world) and Challenge (work that pushes you, is interesting or
complex). Then decide were you would be the most happy. Lots of people leave
high paying jobs to work on somewhere with purpose. Others work in a job that
barely tolerate for the financial gain.

If you can't find anything that has the balance you want, then I'd suggest you
temporarily choose a Money only focus and save as much as you can, then go
start your own business so you can control the balance completely. You may
find that your perspective changes quite a bit when you have to start making
hard decisions.

------
tim333
>Work is just not challenging enough

I'm reminded of a story from Scott Adams

>A week after graduating college, I took my first flight in an airplane. I got
in a conversation with a businessman in the seat next to me. He was CEO of a
company that made aircraft screws. He told me that his career system involved
a continuous search for a better job. No matter how much he liked his current
job, he always interviewed for better ones. I assume he failed to get most of
the jobs he interviewed for, but over time his system worked, and he became a
CEO.

You could try that.

([http://blog.dilbert.com/post/102892840346/systems](http://blog.dilbert.com/post/102892840346/systems)

or see his book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big)

------
pipio21
You did not HAVE to accept anything unless you are not an adult.

You accepted good money. You chose it and pick your master(as the Bible says
you can't have multiple masters). You want it all.

I chose the other thing, something that paid me way less than market value,
but gave me total freedom and autonomy. Now I have it all but it started
without money because the ability to take decisions was more important for me
than money. Money comes when you make something so great you wont be able to
do in a natural environment.

But you need to find this environment yourself. Technical Mentors, coaches,
master minds. Now I can do things in a week that used to take me years because
I know the people. A personal journey.

George Lucas (or Steve Jobs or Dyson) did the same with Starwars for example.
It is easy when looking back and having success, but when you get bankrupt
like George went for controlling the creative process it is not easy.

It was not easy for Dyson to be supported by his wife while iterating the
vacuum cleaner.

You are not warrantied success but failure is warrantied. I chose my path
because even if I had not made it, my life became an adventure worth it for
me. Some people did pity me while doing it because they looked under their
point of view but I was extremely happy.

We don't know you and even if we do you need to take a personal decision in
your life and few people are prepared in life to give that kind of advice.

------
Broken_Hippo
"I need to find something with purpose, big money, and satisfaction".

You know, these are great concepts to work for, but make really crappy goals.

"Something with purpose" What sorts of things bring you purpose? Does it need
to come from work or can work bring you the means to have purpose elsewhere?

"Big Money": Money only buys some happiness, and the biggest boost is simply
getting enough money. What sorts of things can money get you that you don't
have now - and how will those things improve your life? If you make decent
money, are there ways you can stretch it further? Live in a modest home and so
on? Will these things make up for any money you don't have?

"Satisfaction" \- again, what brings this? Culture and work environment?
Feeling needed? Is there a way to cultivate that where you are? Even more
importantly, are there things you can do to make your next job fit this
description?

Once you start answering questions like these and have clear, tangible goals
it is easier to find the motivation to find them. In addition, I fully
recommend making sure you have work-life balance. This includes hobbies and
interests that aren't work-related. I also recommend speaking to the doctor
once more to consider speaking to a mental health professional, since lack of
motivation can be a sign of anxiety or depression.

------
crispyambulance
It sounds like you're an early 20-something? If so, its perfectly normal to
aimless and miserable in your 20's.

Perhaps try not to focus on yourself so much. I don't mean that in a bad way,
I mean, if you spent some serious time helping others in meaningful and non-
transactional ways, you'll feel better about your own situation.

Watch this: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CrOL-
ydFMI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CrOL-ydFMI)

------
aji
I'm certainly no expert in motivation, and can't give you advice on your
specific goals, but I personally find that reframing long term goals into
short term goals can be a big source of motivation. for example, don't focus
on bench pressing your own weight, focus instead on getting to the gym 3x or
4x a week and working on your bench press. don't focus on finishing that
personal project, focus instead on making a little progress on your personal
project every day or every week. having long term goals is still valuable, but
having short term goals to focus on can make it a lot easier to find
motivation. it's easy to get demotivated on big goals, but if in a given day
you meet every single one of your daily goals, then you've aced that day as
far as your goals are concerned. and you'll ace the next day, and the next,
etc.

having a job with big impact and big money is a sizable goal that you won't
reach overnight. you might not even reach it in a year, or several years, who
knows. it's a big goal that's easy to lose motivation on. but reframing it
into daily goals, and focusing on taking one step at a time, could be a source
of motivation. just my 2¢

------
silascb
Find a job that you like, at a company whose values are in line with yours,
and you'll find yourself feeling more fulfilled, challenged, and motivated to
be something greater than what you were yesterday.

I used to change jobs about every 8 months to a year due to a lack of
challenge I'd eventually find in every job I took on. I learned things very
quickly, and as a result, found myself rather bored a few months in. I'd leave
as soon as the lack of challenges and opportunities started to affect my
happiness; I struggle with doing the same things every day for a long time. I
can definitely do the same things every day, but I absolutely need additional
tasks and duties beyond what's expected of me when I first arrive. It's the
only thing that keeps me motivated - I need to be constantly learning and
actively contributing to my company.

When I was 22, I found a non-profit I really loved with a mission I could
really stand behind. The pay was crap, but after meeting everyone there, I
decided that I could live a not-so-rich lifestyle if I meant that I could be
happy on a daily basis doing work that I actually loved.

As time went on, my ability to learn fast opened up a lot of opportunities and
after only two years I had exceeded my own salary expectations.

7 years later, I'm still at this job making more than I need to pay for my
current lifestyle, and I'm the happiest I've been in my life.

Moral of the story is, find a job you love, a company that you can stand
behind (essentially, your "work family) with a salary that can pay for your
lifestyle you have now, not the lifestyle you want. Do this, and I honestly
believe you will obtain the lifestyle you want through hard work and
perseverance, made possible by happiness and motivation.

------
d--b
I would get some vacation time, rest for a while, and think about what to do
next. You don't have to be motivated 100% of the time in your life.

------
rubicon33
It sounds to me like the problem isn't that you lack motivation, it's that you
lack anything to be motivated about.

Motivation tends to materialize in our soul in 2 ways:

1) We start something new, and interesting, that we've never seen or done
before, and it excites us for a short period of time (days, weeks, even
months) to pursue it. Eventually, the luster and novelty wears off, and we're
left feeling a "lack of motivation".

2) NEED. True motivation, the kind that persists, comes from need. When you
really need something, you'll find motivation. The problem is, from the sounds
of it, you haven't convinced yourself that you truly need anything more than
what you have.

Have you seen the movie Inception? Perhaps the biggest underlying narrative in
that movie is that an idea can grow, and consume you, even change you. You
need to form in your mind somehow, that things aren't good right now, and that
you need to change for them to improve.

I could ramble on and give examples, but basically that's what I believe about
motivation.

------
Taek
My motivation is derived from a massive discontent with my environment.
Namely, a lack of digital privacy, a government that I feel has greatly
overstepped its boundaries, the fact that I have signed over my life basically
in full to Google (email, phone, search engine).

I don't know what would motivate me besides the idea that things could be a
lot better than the way they are.

------
theparanoid
If you get in to MIT/Stanford it'll be fun. I did a masters, when I had a
dead-end job. It was exciting and opened doors.

------
alexashka
One thing I don't see mentioned is human relationships.

Let me guess, you're not married and have no kids?

:) People who aren't good socially, oftentimes try to put all their eggs in
one basket (I'm gonna be so good at my job, that it'll fix everything else).

Life doesn't work like that. The problem is not purpose/money. It's
satisfaction - that's only going to come when you no longer feel like everyone
else is dumb :)

They may not be as good at you at work-stuff - I bet they don't go posting on
a forum asking for self-help advice though. So who's really winning?

Not you. You have high IQ, low EQ.

The only solution is to fix that EQ.

One more thing - if you get to manage people, you'll be terrible as you are
currently. So really, if you work harder and achieve management, you'll
realize your EQ sucks, if you don't achieve it and go and try to make some
friends, you'll realize your EQ sucks.

Which's another way of saying life will fix your 'loss of motivation' one way
or another :)

------
saganus
I know this is probably an obvious advice here on HN, but one of the things
that I feel has given me sense of purpose (and in turn motivation thanks to
that) was starting my own company.

Now, of course that might not be suitable for you right now for whatever
reason, but it doesn't need to be a company for the suggestion to be valid;
how about just putting yourself a challenge of making a game that's polished
enough that you can share it here on HN for example, or to reach a certain
number of downloads/users?

I believe that if you are ready to put on such big artificial challenge as you
put it as getting into MIT/Stanford, then doing a baby-step shouldn't be that
hard right? So why not start there and increase your motivation step by step?

My point is, if you have the skills and time (and motivation!) to start a
challenge as hard (at least for me) as trying to get into a top-tier masters
program, then you must surely have at least that much motivation to do
something much smaller but with a higher chance of success and with much
quicker results, which in turn should ideally motivate you more to keep going.

So to answer your question, how do you deal with loss of motivation? well,
doing small things that add up seems to work wonders for me (and others as
well I presume)

Just make a Tetris clone with a twist for example. After that, maybe add
multiplayer to that same thing. And you can keep on going like that and at
some point you are going to realize that this thing is now much bigger than
you would have thought, and suddenly you have spent X amount of time on this
project.... and I guess that's motivation.

(Also, it doesn't have to be a game obviously, but how about making some
simple software to help one of your parents/family members/friends with
something they might be struggling with? that could also be a source of
motivation: helping others do things that might be very easily solvable with
your skills)

------
imh
You're asking the reverse of the question I'd be asking. Purpose, money, and
satisfaction are so vague and general, you'll never find an answer from those
premises alone. What do you care about? Music? Your family? Friends? The
environment? Cooking? Poverty? Writing? Abstract mathematics? I hope at this
point you have an idea of some things you enjoy or excite you, and you can
work forwards from those. But with what you've given us, there's just not
enough to work from. Aimlessly looking for purpose is kinda an oxymoron.

From the things you enjoy or excite you, start thinking about how to make that
your day job. Or alternatively, start thinking about how to have a chill
flexible day job that allows you to do those things more in your own time. Try
things out that you already think are cool, and maybe something will stick.
Then you can work towards that.

------
kurosawa
Spend a good bit of time thinking about what the ideal way would be for you to
spend 8+ hours a day (i.e. work), and how this would fit into your overall
goals in life - beyond work/career.

Do this by testing out all of the above hypothesis, e.g. speak to people
(through linkedin for example) that have done that MS from an ivy-league mid-
career (or whenever): get lots of experience data to give weight to these
potential next steps.

Ask lots of basic questions, why do you want money, what are you going to do
with it. How much does reputation matter to you, and what does reputation
mean.

From the little info above, it appears that good company, is something
important: (a) people that are at your level (and you need to think about what
that means exactly), (b) people with whom you want to do projects that make a
difference (and again, what does this mean)

Could you have this out-with a work context?

------
swalsh
I was in a leadership position for several years before the company went
under, and I took a position at a big .com. I understand the demotivation of
going from a position of major decision making power, into a position with
nearly none.

My coworkers won't "dumb" though, in fact at a minimum 3/4 of them were
probably smarter than me. I spent a year learning what I could from them, but
I didn't enjoy the job, and life felt too short to spend every evening
dreading going into work the next morning. I decided to leave, and start my
own company.

I'd lose the "I need big money, purpose and satisfaction", and just
concentrate on 1 of the 3 (i'll give you a hint though... concentrating on big
money will not solve your issue).

------
socrates1998
One of the hardest, hardest, hardest things in life is deciding what makes us
happy.

People don't spend nearly enough time looking at themselves and really deeply
trying to understand what they want out of life.

It's scary because you are supposed to "know" what you want.

Most people think it just shows up one day randomly.

No, it doesn't. You need to work as hard on yourself and your motivations as
you do on everything else.

Read some books on motivation, do some meditating, start a project you are
interested in, learn a new skill, learn a new sport, volunteer, read more
books....just keep looking and looking until you figure it out.

Unfortunately, it can take a long time.

Part of it might be learning to be content and happy with what you have
already.

Part of it might be your career.

Part of it might be your social/family life.

Whatever it is, you have to figure it out.

------
Nosleep
This seems like to me (with little text) you need to build that fire back up.

If you are good at your job and they pay you well enough, just keep it. Keep
doing well at your job. In your leisure time, start working on passion
projects. Something that you have been thinking about for a long ago and/or
understand well. If this passion project turns into something amazing that you
can run-away with, profit from, and bring you more power to change, do it.

There are a million things to be motivate by. There are people with serious
problems in the world, like dying from thirst.

Just find out what you what to achieve and find out if you are capable of
doing it.

Watch the real news. Find out about how terrible things are. Ask yourself if
there is any small thing that you can do.

------
Gigablah
"Everyone here seems dumb and working on a few useless things."

You can start by working on your attitude.

------
delbel
Its ok to feel unstatistifed some of the time, because it gives you the drive
to be better or do better things with your time, and to find a way to
challenge yourself to set higher goals. Its also ok to have loss of motivation
some of the time, because it can make you more creative and let you step back
and analyze different situations. But if you get stuck in a hole and need some
advice, I'd say get rid of your comfort zone in life and take some risks and
make life more exciting (for good or for worse) and just let things flow.
Could be as easy as switching to cold showers, or selling everything and
traveling in a van in the forest. That's why life is great, it's up to you!

------
partycoder
People call it being burned out. Not every job is a fit or has to be a fit,
just quit the job and keep looking.

Spend some time not only looking for good compensation but also balancing it
with a good culture.

Startups are usually early technology adopters, and you may be giving more
responsibility and autonomy than in a large company. You might enjoy it more
there.

Most interviewers may ask you: "Do you have questions for me?". Ask them: "who
are the most valued engineers in your company and why?"

If the most valued engineer is a warm body whose only purpose is to suggest
places for lunch to their managers or some fake wine snob continue looking.

------
watwut
Consider it learning experience - for that leadership role you want. What it
is that demotivated you, exactly? What you leaders could do to take better
advantage of your skills and ambitions, to make you more productive and as
result more happier? Is it just you being demotivated or other people too? How
does it affects performance?

What will you do differently once you are leader to avoid similar demotivation
of talent? Leadership is not just decision making, it is also dealing with
issues like this. They won't tell you, so self awareness now will go long way
later.

------
digitalsin
Honestly with your viewpoint and attitude, you shouldn't yet be in a position
to make life changing decisions at a company. It's not a bad thing, but I
suspect you're young and eager but you're not really mature enough for the
next step.

It will work out with time and experience. Patience is one of those things you
gotta learn before you're ready for that next step.

If you're a developer, get involved in some open source projects and
contribute. You'll find people better than you and you'll learn from that and
hone your skills.

------
codingdave
> purpose,big money, and satisfaction.

Clearly, this is the heart of the matter. My recommendation is not to
accomplish them all with the same thing. Big money is easiest to accomplish
with a job, without worrying about purpose or satisfaction. But make sure it
is one that leaves you enough hours outside of work to pursue your own
interests, and that is where you fulfill your purpose. Get both of those done,
and satisfaction should follow.

At the same time, keep your eye out for the dream job that does have
everything. And if it ever does appear, chase it.

------
manibatra
The big difference that I have seen is after I started trying to work on
things that made me happy. I have a list where I keep a track of
things/thoughts/feelings that have really moved me, made me feel motivated and
inspired and so on. There is also a list of all the things that have the
opposite effect. I try and make sure that my short and long term plans are
aligned with the positive stuff and at the same time eliminate the negatives.
Going back to the list has been a constant source of motivation.

------
jsemrau
I started a side project in 2013 to satisfy that constant urge to create. Year
after year in part time growing the infrastructure, app ecosystem, and user
base. Just completed launching a Twitter Event Recommendation Service Bot. The
marketing and negotiation skills I learned in my side job helped me in my day
job making me more successful in both. When I feel not motivated or tired, I
play video-games specifically the Mass Effect series because it is Leadership
training in a nutshell.

------
magiconair
If you have the luxury to pick your job then the most important thing IMO is
that you find something which interests you since you will derive your
motivation from that. Everything else is secondary.

If you're doing something that doesn't interest you then it doesn't matter how
good the other benefits are since you constantly have to use energy to
motivate yourself. Then you won't produce something you're proud of which
helps neither you or the company.

------
omarchowdhury
We have to assess what drives our motivation. There could be many factors.
Forgetting those factors, may lead to a loss of motivation. Rekindling
motivation is just remembering those factors, and then refining our action
based on the present situation. Since you say you lost your motivation, that
would imply you had possession of it before. But now you're trying to grasp
for the previous motivation, when you just have generate it, anew.

------
buzzybee
Nothing happens if you don't make it happen. It's that simple, but this also
means that you can't use the easy indicators for feedback. Everyone is waiting
on the social approval, they got hired into a designed role that coddles and
limits them, and so did you. That's why they and perhaps you look "dumb".

Go seek out a good conversation. About anything. What you should be doing now
is finding ways to dream bigger.

------
Javascripterr
One of the best ways that work for me is to join Slack communities with fellow
solopreneurs. It sort of replaces the in-person get together at shared offices

------
rajeshp1986
For people who are feeling lack of motivation & bored. I am feeling the
same.Infact, I don't know last when I felt motivated enough to do something. I
don't want to continue like this anymore and I have decided to change my life.

One thing we can do is connect together & see if we can spike each other's
interest by collaborating?

Please email me @ thinkmein2005@gmail.com or add in twitter @pantularajesh.

------
HortYuoh
Get married and have childern. Raising children makes you think of more
important issues than big money. You people in CA have really lost it.

------
clouddrover
> _I wanted a leadership position at my company, but I was hired for a
> position that has no decision making power at all._

If you were hired then I'd say it isn't your company. A way forward may be to
start your own company. Build your own enterprise instead of someone else's.

> _Everyone here seems dumb and working on a few useless things._

I don't think that attitude shows leadership potential.

------
always_learning
I'd advise you do some more charity work outside your normal job. That met
give you lots of fulfillment. Spent your time outside work wisely. Like go to
the gym, excercise, sport, eat healthily and hang out with people. That'll
give you more fulfilment.

We can't get everything in life. Your idea of the "perfect job" is
unrealistic.

------
uweschmitt
My order of priorities: satisfaction, purpose (both are tightly connected) and
finally enough money to make a living (see
[https://80000hours.org/articles/money-and-
happiness/](https://80000hours.org/articles/money-and-happiness/)).

------
wickedlogic
Find people who are passionate about things you are not, then help them
succeed in their startup/idea/community. Do it many people at a time. Perhaps
one of those people will have a project you can accelerate, and that
passion/interest will rub off... or inspire you on another topic.

------
JofArnold
> no decision making power at all.

From my personal experience, that's the thing that really drains me most and I
gather it's a well-known cause of stress (i.e. lack of autonomy). Might be an
area you want to reflect on more. I've quit a company in the past for this
reason.

------
jennytodavchych
Perfect is when your satisfaction come after done your goal! I mean, when you
have your goals, you have motivation to done them and after you have
satisfaction. By this plan you can become in leader. I hope you understood
what I was trying to say)))))

------
mirekrusin
You can try to do your job 10x faster, this will get you recognised and
promoted in no time.

------
pier25
> I need to find something with purpose,big money, and satisfaction.

Do you?

If you did, you'd be motivated about that. But you aren't.

The problem is not really finding something outside, but changing something in
yourself. It sounds like you think motivation comes from the outside.

------
nyxtom
Read more books, take a few days off and go on an actual vacation away from
the computer.

------
chrisian
Finally finally finally, when you do expire, whatever you have done in your
lifetime is what you have traded your life for. The cost of a big dream, small
dream and no dream is the same cost. The sum of your entire life. Dream big.

------
mrmrcoleman
Sounds tricky. I would recommended you look into Stoicism: Epictetus, Seneca,
Marcus Aurelius, Boethius, etc.

I'm not saying you shouldn't keep seeking something, but the aforementioned
might help you to decouple your happiness from it.

------
JJseiko
One of the most thoughtful things I've read on the topic of work satisfaction.
I may actually help: [https://sivers.org/balance](https://sivers.org/balance)

------
franze
a) >Everyone here seems dumb and working on a few useless things.

Read: Barry Oshry - Seeing Systems
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1241559.Seeing_Systems](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1241559.Seeing_Systems)

b) >I was hired for a position that has no decision making power at all. Power
isn't given, power is taken. Trust is earned. Leadership = Power * Trust

but if a) is your current view, you can forget b) especially the trust part.
if a) is true, then change the company, best start your own.

------
dodysw
Paddle harder. Motivation is like wave/wind on the sea. Easier to get around
with it, but we still have to move on with life even without it, even if it's
harder, slower, or more painful.

------
bsvalley
Do you think college is challenging? I think your current situation is
challenging. So I'd say - go ahead and tackle the crap out of it. Work on a
solution to pull yourself out.

------
m3kw9
If you can find someone to look up to and try to get to their level, that may
be one motivation. Also think of somethings you want to change in this world
and work towards it.

------
hunvreus
You will rarely get all things on your wish list. More often than not, you'll
get one and work your way up on the others.

The way I've dealt with burnouts and demotivation has been to identify the
actual root cause and then take a decision;

\- Option 1; leave it be (and maybe whine about it).

\- Option 2; give up & move on to something else.

\- Option 3; bite the bullet and work my way out of it.

9 times out of 10, I pick option 3.

As an example, I've been dealing with business development for a while, but
I'm naturally more interested in product development and R&D.

I got stuck on option 1 for a while and tried a couple time (unsuccessfully)
to go for option 2.

And for the past 6 months I've been working on option 3.

It's not glamorous and it requires a good deal of patience, but the
opportunity to get to a place where I can automate/document/delegate myself
out of it has kept me motivated enough.

I'm writing a business playbook [1], created a few sales decks and refined
techniques on clients and colleagues to the point that I can train others. I
have automated, documented and understood enough [2] that I can finally bring
in a BD person and hand over my responsibilities.

I recommend you have a hard look at what really makes you unhappy and list
your options.

From the limited understanding of your current situation, I'd say;

\- Deal with it. You stay where you are and find a way to be ok with not being
passionate about your job.

\- Give up. Find another occupation, either now or after a while once you
acquired new skills.

\- Work your way out of it. Find a way to change your role at your company.
Maybe you can automate, document and delegate. Maybe you can make yourself
valuable enough to another team to force a promotion or re-assignment.

Additionally, I don't think I would recommend you to go back to school. I'm a
lot more likely to trust and respect somebody who went on to learn new things
on their own, especially considering you can virtually learn anything online
these days.

[1]:
[http://playbook.wiredcraft.com/business/](http://playbook.wiredcraft.com/business/)

[2]: [http://playbook.wiredcraft.com/article/tools-
methodologies-p...](http://playbook.wiredcraft.com/article/tools-
methodologies-people/)

------
exabrial
Start playing music. (This is not a snarky comment, try it)

------
ak39
Talk to your superior and ask for projects you believe are challenging, will
benefit the company and allow you to use your creative skills.

Talk to your boss.

------
4n0n73u2
Leave the tunnel. Go hiking. Get married & make some children. Do anything
that accounts to your satisfaction. Then, go back to work.

------
joyeuse6701
Read four hour work week by Tim Ferris, I found the questions he asks in the
book helped regain some motivation and excitement in life.

------
joeguilmette
I take some time off and go scuba diving.

~~~
Nosleep
That's the best advice anyone could offer, I second this.

------
deepnotderp
L-carnitine for "sourceless" depression

Otherwise you need to rethink your career choices. Good luck man!

------
franze
in upper case letters: GO ON A LONG VACATION with as least planning as
possible i.e. trip through south america, asia .... if you have family, take
them with you!

gives you a new perspective, and perspective creates motivation

------
kilburn
> I wanted a leadership position at my company, but I was hired for a position
> that has no decision making power at all. Everyone here seems dumb and
> working on a few useless things.

This sentence alone signals that you are not ready to be a leader. Contrary to
what you probably think right now, being a leader _sucks_ in many ways:

\- You should be empowering to those around you. This starts by being
constructive instead of judgemental. Find out what are their strengths and
weaknesses, and tell them how you think they can improve instead of poking at
their weak spots. You should strive to _always_ keep this attitude, even when
under pressure and/or during bad personal times.

\- You must be a good listener. Try to understand your team member's
motivations and desires, and how they think/react to what's coming to them. Be
prepared to accept that other people's thought processes are _very_ different
from yours, and your job is to understand them instead of trying to change
them. Even if you possessed the absolute truth about everything, trying to
shoehorn that truth into their minds wouldn't work. They need to see that
truth by themselves, so you can only try to steer them towards finding it. In
some cases the way to do that is by providing arguments. Other times arguments
won't do it and you must show them. Later on, once you're actually seen by
them as a leader you'll be able to appeal to trust. Don't overuse that though
because you are not perfect and will make mistakes, which will erode your
trust if you used that to impose your opinion onto others.

\- You should be prepared to deal with the worse bullshit that's thrown to
your team. You don't need to deal with _all_ bullshit, but your team should be
confident that you'll be first in line if/when shit hits the fan, and that
you'll do your best to cover them.

\- You should lower your expectations about others. You must demand the
highest standards from yourself, but not from others. Do what you can to help
them improve instead.

\- Don't overreact when you get stabbed in the back (which _will_ happen at
some point). Attribute any bad situation to ignorance/stupidity before malice.
Always try speaking with people first, and over time you'll develop a "sense"
to discern bad actors from misunderstandings. In any case, being stabbed is an
opportunity to improve that "sense", and is always a better situation than
initiating work-warfare against a person who acted in good faith.

In case you haven't noticed, you don't need any "leadership position" to put
all that to practice. You can start doing it _right now_ , and I assure you
that leadership will follow naturally. People will start turning to you when
they need help. People will start wanting and valuing your opinion much more.
This _will_ make you feel important and purposeful, but it will also be
stressful and demanding. Be up to the task and the pay will follow.

------
agjacobson
Management Summary

"I need to find something with purpose,big money, and satisfaction"

Hold yoga poses long. Take strong patent medicine herbs. Knitting.
Volunteering at an animal shelter. Cold showers. Realistic goals on the bench
press. Scuba diving.

The answer has become clear.

Go for the money.

------
bert2002
Fix and unfixable problem and get it done right.

------
tudorw
Monopoly, 2 out of 3 ain't bad...

------
z3t4
go out into the woods. live off the nature a few days. makes you apreciate a
warm bed modern conforts

------
kfrzcode
Double down and grind.

------
firewalkwithme
I want to quit

------
mbarronj
I found a huge improvement in my life by changing how I thought about
conversations. I'm in a position (and have been in the past) where I _could_
make large decisions by fiat. But I don't. I discuss them with stakeholders.

In those discussions, I _could_ tell everybody my opinion, and tell them to
take it or leave it. That works about as well as it sounds like it does.

I have in the past tried to convince people of my argument, with evidence,
rhetoric, emotional pleas, what have you. Those work to various extents, but
not as good as I might want. I'm no rhetorician.

Recently, I had an epiphany. The way it came about largely mirrors the idea
itself - I had a discussion _about_ discussions (or perhaps, debates). And
with a colleague I discovered that my usual victory condition (winning someone
over to my side of an argument) was the wrong victory condition. There's a
backstory there, but I won't get into it.

What I discovered instead was that I should focus on making sure the most
information and understanding was on the table, out in the open.

My victory condition changed from winning the argument, to making sure that I
and everyone else involved knew all of the things possible to be known about
it.

In the process, I typically find that my original opinion was flawed, the
opposing opinion was flawed, and we overlooked lots of opportunities.

You might think that it's easy to get to this condition with brainstorming
techniques or something of that nature. But It's not so simple - there are
widely known shortcomings to simple brainstorming, and most of the workarounds
involve systems to do exactly what I'm talking about on a larger group scale,
without everybody knowing it.

What I've found is that I can foster that environment with my own
conversation. And that people will reciprocate if its done well, with the
viewpoint of the other person(s) in mind. Read "The Entrepreneurial Engineer"
for more on that subject.

Why am I telling you this when you are asking what to do about finding
purpose, money, satisfaction, and decision making power?

Because none of those things are given away. They are built up of actions you
take that affect your world. And you need to definitely start with the
smallest of actions. If your coworkers are "dumb" and doing "useless" things -
it sounds like there are tremendous opportunities to either A) learn why they
aren't dumb or useless (they are after all making "good money"). or B) change
things to being less dumb and useless.

But I read another point in your post. Motivation.

Motivation is a tricky one. I probably know and have tried all the things any
book or website would tell you about motivation and productivity, because i'm
the least motivated or productive person you will ever meet (or at least, I
used to feel that way).

I learned something else really important recently. Actually, I re-learned it,
it was something I knew in High School, that got me through college, but the
lesson kinda disappeared somehow, got sunk.

I get depressed so much more easily than I think I do.

I suffer from constant low grade depression. Perhaps Dysthymia is the right
word? Anyway, depression isn't sadness (you can find many places telling you
this on the web). Depression is that hollowed out non-feeling. Nothing really
jabs the "go" button.

I did two things that dramatically affected my depression, and I will suggest
them to you. You may have different composition, and could easily need
something different. Talk to a professional (I always highly recommend
therapy, and psychiatric if needed).

I stopped drinking alcohol completely (BIG effect) and I started taking 5htp,
which is a mild anti-depressant and also non-prescription, so easy to get
ahold of, and it steadies things out.

Anyway, I've noticed a huge improvement in my motivation and productivity
right away. The old 4.0 engineering student returned, if you will.

So, perhaps really you are putting the cart before the horse here, and need to
look inside rather than for external satisfaction of these higher-order needs?
Worst case scenario, you will be better prepared to achieve your self-
actualization. Which, I have to say, I am in NO position to guess at what it's
nature might end up being.

------
sauronlord
What kind of helpless self pity is this crap?

"I wanted a leadership position at THEIR company..." (fixed that for you)

It's not YOUR company, but THEIRS.

Incorporate your own company (couple hundred bucks) and list yourself as
"President" on your linkedin.

Put together a bullshit website about your consulting services.

Start acting like a leader in your own affairs.

Mind YOUR OWN business.

\-----

Money solves almost all problems. For the remaining issues time and good
health covers everything. I challenge anyone to show a convincing argument to
the contrary.

Better get to $300k/year asap and let the other chumps have their "leadership
position"

~~~
iopq
I have money and I'm in good health. I don't have a job, though, and I don't
really have any motivation to do anything.

~~~
sauronlord
This works for me:

\- Vitamin D... 4000 IU per day \- 8 hours sleep \- Lift weights 5 days a
week. Yoga for 20 mins everyday \- low carb/sugar diet \- Decided on ambitious
purpose in life

Saying you have no motivation is making it worse. I started saying something
like "I'm imoroving my motivation..."

~~~
iopq
I get 50,000 IU every week like it says on the bottle. I sleep around 8 hours
a day. I lift weights 3 times a week and I play football 1-3 times a week.

Saying I'm improving my motivation would be a lie. I'm not improving it and I
can't lie to myself.

~~~
sauronlord
It's a lie to whom? And on what basis?

I'm seriously starting to think this was a troll post. Here's why:

\- Entropy increases with time (body and muscle decay, etc)

\- Yet you clearly stated you are getting better each day OBJECTIVELY (lift
weights, football, earning money, etc) And by the way... there is only the
current day. Everything else is an idea/memory/abstraction

\- Then you say it is a lie that you are not motivated. Utter bullshit. The
lie you are living is the idea that you would be lying by allowing yourself to
be happy.

Feelings and thoughts do not matter, behavior does.

You clearly pointed out you have no big Mission or goals. You have your answer
right there. Make an arbitrary decision to make your family, friends and
community better in a massive way. DONE.

The difference between happy people and unhappy people... is that happy people
just decide to tell themselves they are happy.

~~~
iopq
Oh, I have goals. I want to get a gf again.

What six primary fears? You're talking about something like I'm supposed to be
aware of it. I googled it and different websites have different ones.

I don't really fear anything. Maybe I should?

~~~
sauronlord
Fear of death.

Fear of ill health.

Fear of the loss of love.

Fear of poverty.

Fear of old age.

Fear of criticism.

If you only have 4 or 5 of the fears, then you are already ahead. Squash the
rest.

\----

I'm glad you admitted you want a gf. I purposefully left that out in my
comments above, but we caught each other's vibe.

Wanting a gf also isn't specific. Children or intercourse, intimacy, etc are
actually measurable.

~~~
iopq
I want intimacy.

I don't have any of those fears. If I die, I die, I don't really care.

------
ebbv
With how unhappy you are in your job the lack of motivation is no mystery. You
should find another job or found a startup or if you think it will be useful
to what you want to do, sure get a degree.

I would caution though that usually when people say "Everyone here is stupid"
it's usually not everyone else that's really the problem. This goes for my
younger self as well.

------
crestedtazo
> Should I create artificial challenge and try to get into MIT/Stanford for
> masters?

Yes, this is your best approach. Getting a Masters from MIT or Stanford will
be the only way for you to find further satisfaction in your career. Good
luck!

------
yarou
Substituted phenethylamines for motivation.

