How to stay motivated to do consistently great work over time

Freelance writing is hard and sometimes not very rewarding. Last year, I tried to start some online courses, a blog, etc, but I burned out like so many writers do. This year, as I was staring at Chris Brogan’s site and pondering re-enrolling in his terrific Owner Media program, I realized I was meandering down the exact same path I took last year.

But this year, I’m determined to be different. I want to stay motivated.

So I started thinking about what keeps me motivated. If you’re trying to keep motivated, you can play along at home.

First, I thought back on what other projects or jobs I have kept engaged with over a long period of time. For me, those projects are Outlaw Soaps (the small soap company that my husband and I own) — 5 years and counting — and my work with the Mozilla Developer Outreach group — 2.5 years and counting.

So it’s not like I can’t keep any job, it’s just that the online courses were hard to keep going.

Second, I think about the commonalities of those projects:

1. I work with other people on deadline-oriented projects
2. There is a big financial stake / potential payout above the average pay rate
3. I get accolades and appreciation from peers
4. There’s rapid growth with braggable statistics
5. We are featured in news, shared among industry experts, and have the reputation of being awesome
6. I present new ideas and get positive feedback on my innovations
7. I consistently deliver an above-average product
8. There is a higher purpose to my work — it is not just work for a paycheck, for my benefit, or for its own sake. I believe it enriches the lives of others.

My courses met 3 of these 8 characteristics, which was not significant enough to hold my attention. If I want to stick with another project like this (like my writing), I need to more closely bond to these criteria.

What kinds of commonalities do your stickiest projects have? I’d love to know. It’s likely there are several I didn’t even think of!

Third, I started thinking of how I could build these qualities into the job of author/content creator:

1. Working with other people on deadline-oriented things:
   - I could see if my publisher would meet with me weekly to discuss publicity for the book, my own editorial calendar, and stats/progress. We might even set some aggressive writing deadlines for future books.
   - I recently hired a personal coach to help me stay on track with my career. I needed to have someone to help keep me accountable with my new work. She’s a natural choice to review stats & progress with.
2. Appreciation / accolades from peers:
   - An acquaintance offered to give me a list of book awards to submit to once my book is published. Certainly awards would be awesome!
   - Speaking gigs would offer social proof of the validity of my message
   - Getting testimonials for my book really felt great. I need to actively solicit testimonials from readers
   - Getting on best seller lists would really be accolades over the moon.
3. Rapid growth of audience — braggable stats
   - I can establish baselines and comparable accounts, then set up reporting to track these comparable accounts in Sprout Social, my social scheduling tool.
   - I can set targets for my own platform numbers and reward myself for hitting or exceeding them
4. Presenting new ideas and getting positive feedback
   - Thankfully, my publisher is also super supportive of my ideas, and wants me to write more more more books, all the time, constantly. Pitching ideas to her is a joy.
   - Setting up a content calendar would enable me to pitch many ideas and get positive feedback on a rolling basis
5. Consistent delivery of excellent product
   Well, this is up to me, and only me. I just have to make sure that what I deliver is excellent.
6. Higher purpose to my work
   Thankfully, this one is easy. Of all my projects, writing is the one I feel has the most potential to benefit others in ways that I personally find meaningful (enjoyment of life, adventure).

I’m not entirely sure if adding these features to my writing work will create stickiness over time, but I certainly hope so. It’s important enough for me to try.

How about you? How do you build stickiness into your work to maintain enthusiasm over a long period of time?