Continuing the Process

I've been on vacation this week and still have not accomplished what I planned on doing.  Why is that?  I try to be more disciplined but for some reason or another things just never end up going the way I planned.  I've finally started my novel (started it while on my job no less) and was very much looking forward to working on it this week.  So what happens?  I get sick with a pretty bad sinus infection.  The pain in my head is so great that I can hardly see, much less look at a computer screen and tap on some keys.  AAARRRRRGGGGGHHH!  So I've spent this week at home recuperating from the anti-biotic that wiped me out last week (I hate taking those). 

But that's not the worst of it.  I have a job that I'm doing for someone else and I have yet to finish it.  I only have six more chapters to go (thank God they're short chapters) so I should be finished with it by this weekend.  Everyday this week, I've gotten up early, made plans to work for at least half of the day and read for the other half.  Hasn't happened. So now I have no choice but to find a way to motivate myself back into working.  I'm looking to have some things in place as a writer come this summer and I don't have too much time left to at least get the ball rolling.

Why is it so difficult to get motivated when doing something that you love to do?  I want to live the life of a writer, to be able to locate any where in the world and do what I do. You would think that would be motivation enough, but the familiar keeps creeping in and making itself comfortable.  I've been working a 9 to 5 for more than 30 years.  Routine is hard to break and the thought of having to discipline myself in much the same way in order to make a living at what I love to do is disturbing at best and annoying at its worst.  Guess what? Annoying or not, its necessary. So once again I have to convince myself: if I say this is what I want, then I have to do what's necessary to get to that point.  If I work hard in the beginning and continue the process, eventually I'll get to the place of cruise control and passive income which will allow me to do even more of what I love to do.  Which is write.

What motivates you to do what you love to do?