Need Motivation?

I started writing this originally as a comment to the post here:
https://www.indiehackers.com/post/102a3c5be8

...But it got pretty long, so I thought I'd create it as a post instead and to reach others that might benefit.

The question posed was: "How did you overcome the lack of energy to execute?"

Here's my answer:

I would suggest that you build something fun first. Just for yourself. I built a weird CSS framework called mustard UI(https://mustard-ui.com). It didn't make me any money by any means, but because I didn't expect it to, it took the pressure off and made it more enjoyable. Seeing the little traction it did get was fun as well. I'll be the first to admit that the framework is crap, but it was the process of getting something out there and growing it to now 849 stars on GitHub that was thrilling. That was enough to convince me that if something that crappy could attract that much attention, imagine what I could do with a product that actually addresses someone's pain point instead of just their curiosity. That can seriously help with motivation.

In regards to energy, let me tell you a little about my story...

About this time last year, a hurricane(Florence) came through and knocked some limbs down off of some trees in my front yard. My wife and I were out there on a Saturday with a chainsaw cleaning up when I decided to take a break and get some water in the garage. My wife was already inside and when I walked through the outside door, I froze. My eyes started rapidly blinking uncontrollably, and shortly after, I began having a seizure which took me to the ground. My wife was freaking out and called 911. The ambulance came and picked me up and drove me to the hospital. They performed a brain scan and found a dark spot. I was scared. After an MRI, they determined that I had a brain tumor that needed to be surgically removed.

Brain Surgery? What? This doesn't happen to people like me. 2 days later I was prepping for surgery. I woke up after it all went down (6 hours later) to find out that I couldn't move the left side of my body(arm or leg) and I was in the arms of a physical therapist trying to get me to stand up, which I couldn't do. I work as a web developer, and my biggest concern at this point was being able to provide for my family. You also have to realize that I couldn't speak or swallow correctly at this point either. I was relying on my childhood knowledge of the sign language alphabet, and a pen and paper to communicate with anyone. You can look back at my history here on IndieHackers and see that I was fired up about building a SaaS product. I felt like my dreams were crushed and I'd have to retire from the web dev game.

Physical therapy starts: I was moved to the physical therapy wing of the hospital and started the long road to recovery, doing daily physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy. I didn't feel like I was making progress. I felt weak and trapped inside my own body even though my mind was still functioning as it always seemed to. One week passed...still no movement in my left hand. Another few days passed... I could lift my arm, but still no finger movement. Finally, in week 3, I could slightly wiggle my fingers, but my speech was still monotone and slurred. I didn't feel like myself.

Back to the doctor: I had to go back and have another MRI performed to make sure everything looked ok. It didn't. Without sugar coating it at all, the surgeon said I needed to go back under the knife to remove more of the residual tumor. This time it was at a different hospital with a much more experienced surgeon. I scheduled it to be performed on Christmas day. It went spectacular. I was in the car headed home the day after with pain meds in hand.

Today, I'm typing this, so I've obviously regained a lot of dexterity in my left hand despite the leftover tremors that sometimes make me drop things. I'm also re-motivated to chase the dream of creating a SaaS product again. Sometimes you just have to summon the courage and do it regardless of the laziness you feel or the lack of energy. I'm headed into another week of chemotherapy this week which makes you feel absolutely awful and I still find a way to summon the energy to complete tasks for my goal. Why are you making excuses? Don't let me beat you to creating a successful business! After all, I'm working with a handicap and medications that make me sick and tired, but I'm still blazing a trail.

Anyways, I hope that this encourages someone on this Monday!