Ever feel like you've lost your motivation?

My medical issues this year have set us back financially and I should've never bought this VW Bus project. Or the 900CE project. Or the Celexus. Or kept the Miata. I'm burnt out on everything. Seasonal affective disorder is alive and well in me, just as it has been for the past few winters. I don't care about racing. I don't care about getting E36 M3 done at home. I play Fallout4, spend time with friends once or twice a week, and that's about the extent of it. I know its wearing on my wife, but she too is basically in hibernation mode. Even the corgi is getting fatter.

Things will get better. They always do.

Scattered family. Little communication. Hit a deer. Furnace dies. Holidays. Lack of sunshine. Really blah. Never left the house for two days while car is in the body shop. I had a rental.

Then my SO calls and we make a dinner date.

So things are looking up.

Dirtybird222, You've identified it: " I'm starting to believe it's partially due to my job as there is very little satisfaction in my work which is killer." I'm there too.

You know what you need to do -- I should listen to my own advice here...

DirtyBird222 wrote: My project motivation for anything has been at absolute 0 lately. As in car projects, house projects, etc. The only thing I'm consistent with is working out and running on a daily basis. I've got two car projects that need work - 2012 Civic Si body in white from the ground up and a chump car that needs a engine transplant and I'm having the hardest time getting off my ass to do anything. Not sure if it's kids or work that's doing it to me; but, what are some things you guys have done to get your head back in the game? Home projects are straight up discouraging because of the wife changing her mind every two days.

Your priorities in life just might be changing. I'm a "car guy" at an arm's length these days. Not much desire to work on them or race them anymore. I got way into cycling (bicycles) and that's the current all-consuming passion.

I'm still interested in cars, but I'd just rather read or watch vids about them.

Well right now I'm in a bad spout of depression, have been for a while, so trust me, I've lost motivation for a lot. Somedays I wonder how I get out of bed.

I had plans to fix the door panels on the Firebird this winter. Have yet to open a door much less try to take off a panel. Its hard to get off the couch.

Forcing yourself to do something is the hard part. i find that 20 minutes into it my motovation starts to return. My welding class starts next week, hopefully that will get me fired up a bit.

In reply to Spoolpigeon:

What year CRX Si?

I've been feeling the same way about my running. I didn't train well for my latest marathon, and my performance sucked. Now I'm really having a hard time getting into training mode for the next one. I think it's just a part of getting older and needing to focus on fewer things. For me, anyway.

Constantly. Had more typed, decided against it.

gamby wrote:

DirtyBird222 wrote: My project motivation for anything has been at absolute 0 lately. As in car projects, house projects, etc. The only thing I'm consistent with is working out and running on a daily basis. I've got two car projects that need work - 2012 Civic Si body in white from the ground up and a chump car that needs a engine transplant and I'm having the hardest time getting off my ass to do anything. Not sure if it's kids or work that's doing it to me; but, what are some things you guys have done to get your head back in the game? Home projects are straight up discouraging because of the wife changing her mind every two days.

Your priorities in life just might be changing. I'm a "car guy" at an arm's length these days. Not much desire to work on them or race them anymore. I got way into cycling (bicycles) and that's the current all-consuming passion. I'm still interested in cars, but I'd just rather read or watch vids about them.

I'm in your camp Gamby. I enjoy wrenching on bikes these days more than cars.

It comes and goes for me, but mostly goes. Especially when I run into yet another frustration like I did today.

It'll be four years in May since I bought Ugly, and in that time I've driven it around the block once. I've done a ton of work to it, but it never seems to stop. After spending the best part of the last 8 months figuring out why it wouldn't run, I got it going last week. Today I went out to diagnose why it's running poorly, and one of the times I was starting it, something popped and the whole electrical system died. It's one step forward, two back with that car, and meanwhile it's been 3+ years since I've done an autocross, a track day, or any other kind of competitive driving.

Plus, it's cold out there. I just don't even want to think about that damn car right now. But then I'll start thinking about how much fun it will be when it's done, and the pride of having done it all myself, and I get fired up again.

It’s such as shame…I’m a hard worker and I can do everything (plumbing, electrical, carpentry, masonry, you name it) but after being in my current home for seven years, I’ve done nothing but basic maintenance.

It’s exceedingly difficult to get motivated as my wife is a slob so anything I accomplish will immediately be covered in mounds of ridiculous crap.

Additionally, SWMBO is completely incapable of leaving me alone long enough for me to get something done…the instant she sees me working on something, she starts in with minute details about exactly what it needs to be, the order in which it needs to be done, and a litany list of constraints…”these three things need to be done first and while you’re at it, you need to do these other two things as well”.

Invariably, I wind up dropping my hammer wherever I happen to be standing, saying “Berkley It” and walking away.

She could get so much more out of me but she can’t resist being an overbearing bully and I don’t do flunky man slave so “twang” the hammer hits the ground every time.

I'm no health expert by any stretch but I think some people feel crappy or worse partly because of the food we eat. Much of our diet is full of nasty chemicals that we don't even realize is there and makes us feel less than vibrant. I won't bore anyone with more details but a vitamin b6 and Niacin supplement each day has helped me feel a tiny bit better.

In reply to drainoil:

The other problem is laziness is habit forming and so much easier than being motivated. I either work in the shop often, or I get out of the habit of work, and sit on my fat ass every day.

Y'all went and made me feel bad about my lack of accomplishment.

Heater core in the truck, done.

I am right there with you. I worked on my Galaxie for the first time since April. It has been off the ground for close to two years now.

This is the time where we should all take a break from the forum and go start working on our projects. Make a list of the tasks that need accomplished and try to check at least one off a day it feels good to complete something. Really makes each day feel useful no matter how small the task. Then at the end of the day try to think of a few positives from the day instead of what you wished you were able to accomplish.

I lack motivation every winter, this summer tearing my mcl didnt help. I cant fit in my tiny garage with the car too work on it. I spend winter watching football and playing WoW or gt6. Usually about febuary i start getting motivated because i miss driving the car.

Still not sure ill even do the v8 swap this year. My current motivation says do a tune up, finish the interior swap and drive it. My boss is going to weld the roofrack holes shut if i get that motivated.

Toyman01 wrote: Y'all went and made me feel bad about my lack of accomplishment. Heater core in the truck, done.

Me too. I did the rear brakes on my mom's xB and my brother and I started pulling the dead engine out of his El Camino yesterday. It was cold over the weekend, but the sun was out. Sun makes everything better.

drainoil wrote: I'm no health expert by any stretch but I think some people feel crappy or worse partly because of the food we eat. Much of our diet is full of nasty chemicals that we don't even realize is there and makes us feel less than vibrant. I won't bore anyone with more details but a vitamin b6 and Niacin supplement each day has helped me feel a tiny bit better.

Do we have a thread on this? I eat 95% homecooked meals and I am in relatively good mental and physical shape but every once and a while I get in some weird funks where I lack energy and motivation. I just don't know if that's a mental thing or if there is some sort of snake oil vitamin I should be taking.

In reply to Enyar:

I'm in about the same boat (homemade food, mentally OK, physically I need to lose 20 pounds and be more active), and I tend to notice that if, say, my wife makes pasta for dinner, I grab a (homemade) bagel for breakfast, misbehave and get fast food for lunch with soda that day and then we make pizza for dinner, by the time 7pm rolls around I don't want to do a damn thing. Carb overload? Thankfully this type of combination doesn't happen very often but when it does, I can tell it kicks my ass as far as energy and motivation are concerned.

I do usually feel better when I remember to take a multivitamin but that could be coincidence.

I've just now started to get back into doing stuff on the cars. I think just going out and cleaning up the garage is a good step in the right direction. If it's messy out there I really don't want to work on anything. It's been so hot an muggy though that I didn't even want to go out of the house and do that though. But it finally is starting to get cooler, so this weekend I got out and cleaned up my mess, and that actually put me in the mood to work on the car again. I just took it slow, didn't get all worked up about E36 M3 not going as planned or being hard to work on (BTW eff you, AMG engineers) and I managed to get a lot done.

Take a break, clean the garage, the bug will bite you again eventually. IF not, then maybe it's time to move to a different hobby.

Well... it looks like I'll be going to New Hampshire for work again in 2-weeks stints. That will likely put a damper on getting anything done in the garage. On the bright side, I'm hoping to get some skiing in.