Losing motivation and looking for direction.

"Motivation", that is the critical question you'll need to ask yourself. What is your true motivation for building this product? In your first sentence, I believe you answered that question "for the sake of learning". If you're no longer learning on this project, your motivation is going to dry up and it's going to be extremely difficult to get yourself going again.

So, I think the option you have now is to re-evaluate the business and find a new motivation that gets you excited about the business, or if you feel that it just isn't there, then it might be time to sale it as @Blake_Emigro suggested or to put it on the back burner for a bit and pursue your next project to learn.

Earlier in my career, I occasionally burned out. But after finally sitting down and figuring out that my motivation (unintentionally) in growing my business was money, which I've since come to learn isn't the best motivator. Especially when you're hoping that it comes quick. It can take years to build a successful product and if your daily motivator is money, it doesn't carry you very far.

I've watched thousands of people pay to go to expensive conferences/seminars in hopes to find that next big thing that was going to make them rich. Only to return home in a few months give up. ~96% of them wouldn't continue with the daily grind. In 2010, I got to know a number of successful mommy bloggers, making $200,000-$1,000,000/year. How was is that a stay at home mom, could earn that type of income, while also raising 5 kids? It was baffling to me. I soon realized it what the source of their motivation. Their motivation wasn't to make money, it was to share with their friends, family and eventual thousands of followers. After showing up day in and day out, within 18 months, they had a substantial size paycheck where they were able to bring their husbands home from work to help their build the online business.

Check the source of your motivation and ask yourself how much fuel will that give you to keep this business moving along?

When I coach someone I say - motivation is overrated, one has to focus on inspiration.

The difference? One searches energy from the external source like books, money, subscribers, etc. and the other finds energy from deep within without bothering much about the results.

Here, Ikigai helps.

The most common golden rules for inspiration and energy is:

Do what you love and love what you do.

And trust me many of my past clients have seen success with this.

If there is something I want to do deep within then I will do it irrespective of the results. Initially, our main focus should be on the process. Falling in love with the process is something that will make you last longer. Failures won't bother you because you are already detached from the results.

Few things you need to do to grow here:

• Figure out what you want to do? If you are not able to find it then keep experimenting. Ask the right questions to yourself for the right answers for your passion.

• Then have results/goals related to your passion only for direction but focus solely on the process. Just fall in love with the process because that will take you towards your destination.

• Once you make the choice keep pushing. Don't stop. Being detached from the results will help you to gain that extra energy to work and push harder.

• Kill perfection. Trust me nothing is more frustrating than expecting perfection. We live in the internet world and every other product looks better than our product. If we wait then we will keep on waiting. Make the product and take it live and keep improving based on your understanding and knowledge.

Even our product is not "perfect" but we made good sales in the past. Recently went online with our product and have mentioned on the website not to expect a perfect product. Nevertheless, it will serve more than the buyer's desired purpose.

So don't chase motivation, chase inspiration.

External results will keep changing. Today its money, tomorrow it will be subscribers, then it will be fame, etc. But if you are in love with something from deep within then the only driving force will be "seeing yourself doing it".

Hope this helps.

I don't choose what I want to work on, per se. I decide first on what OUTCOMES I want, and then work backwards from there to determine the things I will do or work on in order to get that outcome.

So, what are you really after? What do you really want? Start there. (feel free to answer, I'm happy to continue the convo :)

I must have multiple things going on at the same time, and I work on things in round-robin style. I have mental capacity to focus on the same thing at most 5-7 days. I know myself and my tolerance very well at this point. When I start feeling lack of motivation, I switch to another project because the root cause for my "lack of" motivation is not the making part; it is the tunnel vision that sets in after you stare at the same thing for too long.

It's funny actually because before starting our own company, I was working in a "corp env" and they tried to put me in different teams for years at a time (!!) and wondered why I was never happy with the setup, until they said, we have no other divisions left for you, so we are going to fire you. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Fine, whatever.

I don't know about you, but for me motivation is the secret sauce that makes me -10x, 1x, 10x programmer depending on the level; so knowing how to boost it is super important. Not just wrt. programming, but making things in general in case it is nocode.

First off, Ikigai Jobs is beautiful and well put together, congrats. It seems like something you could sell on https://indiemaker.co if you no longer wanted to pursue it. Or, since you're operating a venture studio, you could form a small founding team around it and incubate them to product-market fit while holding a nice stake in it.

I also suffer from lack of motivation sometimes because I've had several failures. I'm not a good builder, I'm the idea and strategy guy. I've got a dozen things I have been or want to work on and I often fall flat on my face with the execution (build). How I keep going is that I believe in myself, and that I'll eventually get something going by sheer force of will and hard work, even when what the work should be is confusing.

Whenever I get stuck I learn new things. It helps a lot. Activates my mind and helps envision that my dreams are fulfillable. My latest rut was fixed by reading Interviews here on IH and finding Sales Safari - their approach is fresh and exiting. Got me going again :)