Coming up for air, oh wow I did it again... 

I went down in a death spiral towards the deep abyss of distraction and shortsighted uncaring.  A whole week has gone by without accomplishing anything.

The story of my life repeats as my good intentions and motivation vanish quietly.  
Sometimes I wish it would be a loud crash and burn and then perhaps the embarrassment to myself would stick in my memory.

Self loathing won't get me anywhere either, let's do a Root Cause Analysis because that is what software devs do when a problem happens.  We want to know why it happened and how to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Describe the issue and its impact
I wasted a week being totally unproductive.  I devoted my free time to personal entertainment and didn't even exercise even though I committed to working hard for the next six months.

List potential reasons why the issue happened
I went on a weekend family vacation so I used that as an excuse to have my own vacation around the sides of the family one.
New distractions, a video game release and a great scifi book series sucked me in.
I am a little lost in what to do next with my current pursuit of becoming a lifestyle entrepreneur.
I am experiencing difficulty at building my own tools so I want to run away and quit.
I am stressed by a project at work that I keep getting stuck on too.

Identify the root cause
Escapes, all the problems above are escapes that come from not believing in the benefits of my endeavor and that I cannot be successful.

Provide a prevention strategy and solutions
Commit to a schedule: don't start entertainment as a 

  before working hard, I simply cannot stop once I start.  
Reaffirm motivation: why I am doing this when I could be resting with entertainment


I love books, I love video games, and I love relaxing.  Years ago my unspoken (or not thought about) goals were to create the optimal life for the above loves while also providing for my family and meeting social norms.  I have been quite successful.

But those goals are shallow.  My life is shallow.
What important things am I missing?


: after a day of entertainment or working on my corporate job I don't feel any sense of accomplishment or that I spent my time well.



a salary job is restrictive and takes priority over most of my life. I can't live in another country for months with my family and I can't be an active part of my kids school and family life because my time is owned by another entity.

 I want to buy out my own time to live and learn anywhere, anytime to give myself and family space to grow.

But can I actually do it? Can I even really try to do it?  Am I strong enough?
I hope so and I guess we will find out. 

Next step, scheduling and following through.

Down the well again

When starting a project I want to simply start coding or building.  I have done it many times and wasted a lot of time and code.  For example; I have a great idea, let’s make an app where you can post information and pictures about yourself, update your friends on what you are doing and message people… Oh wait… that is a social network and a million of those exist already.


I like to build things, I like to code, I like to work alone on my computer.

Work generally pays off in one way or another, sometimes it is just gaining knowledge or goodwill from helping someone out.  Although, if it paid off in a recognized currency then that would be fantastic.  To reach 

What are the needs in the groups I frequent without an ideal solution already?

Which of these needs are niche enough that a small player like me can solve before a big corporation comes in and drops a dump truck of cash on the issue.

If I do identify the need and a good solution how would I find people who would benefit from the solution and care enough to pay for it?


These are really tough questions.  Really tough.

Because this problem is hard, my natural inclination is to assume I need to pursue this with academic means.  For example, I should be learning and growing my development skills, and reading more books.  While growing academically is not a bad thing, it doesn't answer the question of what I should do.


My challenge then is to find someone else’s small problem that I can help solve.

Yes, I will have to talk to people. Yes, I will be prepared for disappointment.

I will commit to being uncomfortable by trying to address the questions I have.  I refuse to 

 my past acquaintances and act like I want to talk with them when I really only want their money or help.

I will however ask successful people and others for advice and send messages to strangers until I find what I am looking for.

What's your problem?

Ready!  Set!  …. Hold on. Where are we going again?


This feeling is killer. I want to start hacking and reach for my dreams.  


I have motivation and I am ready to sprint, but this feels familiar.


(Opens skeleton closet of half finished projects) 😬


Well, let’s not do that again. I wasted a lot of time on those…


Based on my goals I think I have criteria for a project.


Scope must be small, less than 3 months to MVP

There must be a plan for profit, not just an idea about “I can add advertising later”

 
Until I can own my time and my frustrations it makes no sense for me to dive into an art project that will be interrupted. 


I spent the week researching software entrepreneurs and I have some ideas that need further investigation 


Open Technologist
Books
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Goals

Planning sucks, I know