Motivation - How do you change it from fear to fun?

Question

So if you are like me in your 9 to 5 job, your motivation goes pretty much in this order...

1. Fear... must eat and support my habits (if eating isn't a habit)
2. Pressure... social pressure from family and friends tell me I should
3. Fun... learn new stuff, make cool stuff

I'd say it is 80% fear, 15% pressure, and 5% fun. Not a very good mix.

Like most, I want to flip 1 and 3 (can't control 2). But with the years of habit accumulation, not only by me but my family, it is hard to "risk it all".

How would you flip fear for fun?

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1. Is this just mid-life crisis setting in?
2. Am I afraid that I have too much momentum to seek fun over duty (or fear)?

Pretty pathetic.

Answer 1

Figure out what it is about your job that gives you the 5% fun factor, and then look for another job where that aspect of the job takes a higher role. For example, if your 5% comes from working on designing new applications, find a job as a designer, instead of a developer who does a little bit of design.

Answer 2

Personally, I view my job as what I do when I'm at work. If it's not there tomorrow, I'll go somewhere else. I can't recall having been in the "fear" motivation category in my adult life.

I know that's a rather unusual attitude, but I also have a fairly extensive network of former coworkers and friends who all have openings.

That may mean I'm too relaxed, but I've found that as soon as I realized it was "only" a job, and the work I didn't get done today would be there tomorrow, and if it wasn't, 'hey: day off', I found myself no longer stressing :)

Answer 3

Get a new job. That's what I did. It's never too late, and the fun jobs are out there.

Answer 4

I would suggest aiming to reduce the fear. Once that reduces, the gap will be filled with other things. You don't really say what you're afraid of, but it seems to be that you're afraid of not being able to earn enough money, presumably by being made redundant or fired. If so, here are some steps to reduce the fear:

1. Put money in a savings account. The more you save, the more months you'll be able to support yourself if you are jobless for a while.
2. Make sure you're not going to ousted from the company. On the negative side, don't do anything that you think that you might get so much as a verbal warning for.
3. Improve your skills, technically, and just as importantly, your soft skills. If your management team like and respect you, then you won't be top of the list if it comes to redundancies. Take the initiative for something - backups, internal wiki, mentoring juniors etc. Make yourself indispensable.
4. Network. Meet other local developers, so you'll have more options for finding your next job.
5. Don't worry about things that you can't control. For example, you have no control over the CEO's dubious secret financial operations, so don't worry about them.

Answer 5

Fear as the driving force is a really negative way to think of it.

Your first item is the basic needs, and should only really be about fear in the 3rd world.

It's odd that you have attributed the 2nd factor as a negative one. Social belonging is one of the strongest positive factors. Just look at SO - we're all getting nothing but kudos from our community here.

Don't you get any buzz at all from the fact that, as a programmer, you're a high earner and well able to provide well for your family? You might see the fact that you need to keep your job for the sake of your mortgage, medical insurance, whatever, as a trap. I don't think it really is.

Listen to the most recent SO podcast with Steve Yegge - they discuss something similar in the context of Google. The big risks and big excitement for big rewards are really hard to justify when you already earn enough to send your kids to university.

In a wealthy western culture where few (should) want for much we need to find a low-risk, lower-reward innovation culture, rather than the entrepreneurial win all or lose everything one.

Answer 6

I suggest you:

• Consider carefully specific situations have given you a real buzz in the past. What did you do? What was your role? What was the social contect of the situation? What aspect of the pocess / outcome made you come alive? etc.
• Look at ways to transform what you're doing into more of the above.
• Get help to do these things if you need it.

You don't have to 'risk it all', but you may have to 'risk it some'. In any case, from what you've said, even 'all' may not be a lot to risk, if you're unhappy anyway. Of course you have responsibilities, and these need to be met, but in the long run your family might benefit more by your contentment than by a large pay packet.

I wish you all the best.

Answer 7

First, I'd look at the culture in where you work. What kind of atmosphere is there, what kinds of attitudes and appearances do your co-workers generally have?

Second, I'd look at what it is that I call fun. Figuring out the root cause of an issue is fun for me. Seeing something come to life and have thoughts of Frankenstein is cool to me.

Third, where are places where I can take the second to replace the first? If I brought in some relaxation balls how would this get viewed? If I put up a Paris Hilton wallpaper for my monitor background what will happen?

I don't think it is a mid-life crisis but possibly an awakening similar to "Fight Club" or "Office Space" in a way. I enjoyed those movies as being somewhat inspirational as well as very funny.