I would say discipline is what I lacked a year ago. Habit wasn’t enough to get me over the hurdle of running into problems. I think determination and discipline go hand in hand, so more or less, its the same thing.

Anyways, enough about me, what have you been up to over the last year?

One thing that I found when developing something, is that motivation is never enough. Motivation will always come and go, and there will always be tasks that are unpleasant. There will always be a long stretch of coding, or creating resources, or doing whatever that just isn’t fun, that just has to be done, and if we’re relying on motivation, will block the project.

Instead, use determination. Say that you will absolutely get the project done… Pull up that part of yourself that forces you to change dirty diapers, and apply it to the blocking tasks.

Otherwise, distractions will always come up… the code will get more and more stale, libraries will change and update, and the fits and starts of refactoring the code will become habit and never lead to a finished product.