Self-Motivation

Yeah, so I do keep meaning to post something and I have been wanting to do the research on that article that I've been dying to write, but have I done either of these things?

I think you know the answer to that. The answer is simply, no.

Now that brings up the question of, why?

Is it because I'm lazy? I'm too busy? I've just got better thing to do then sit and write posts for a blog that no one really reads at all?

Sadly, the answer to these is also no. I know the real question, but the problem is not something I easily have an answer to.

You may have seen some posts on here regarding a certain bad habit that I have. It's call procrastination. I consider procrastination my number one bad habit. I don't have too many, but this is a big one and I have no idea how to totally kick this habit of mine.

When I say I procrastinate, I don't just mean that I put off things that I don't want to do. I actually put off things that I really want to do. Like writing. It's fun for me to write. I enjoy it. I want to do it all the time, but I don't do it all the time.

My wanting to write and liking writing should be enough motivation for me to overcome my habit of procrastination to be able to do writing more often, but it's not. So maybe it's not just procrastination that's the problem. Maybe it's a lack of motivation.

Now there are books written on this subject, you do a google search and you come up will thousands (perhaps even millions) of articles and blog posts on the subject of 'how to motivate yourself'.

I know what does help motivate me. If someone challenges me to a short term challenge for the results are real and measurable - that gets me going.

Take NaBloPoMo for example. You may notice that there are months when I post at least one thing nearly every day. Those are the days when someone challenges me to NaBloPoMo. Or NaNoWriMo - there's one I have yet to fail at. (OK, I only hit 40K for CampNaNoWriMo, but I was away for the first week and pulling in a lot of OT at work.)

Even if I'm not fit enough to truly finish a race that I've entered, like the half-marathon I did in May, I'll push myself to finish because I will not drop out or give up.

Still, these examples show more of my pig-headed stubbornness then any sort of motivation. I hate conceding defeat to anything that I *know* I can do if I just push myself hard enough.

So when it comes to motivating yourself, how do you do it? Because no matter how many of those internet articles I read, I can always use more advice.