In all the comic books and all the movies, Superman never said: "You know, I'm always saving people.  I'm always saving the world.  But, today, I don't feel like it.  I feel like ... watching TV."  No, Superman was always motivated to get the job done.  If you're doing your own self-funded software company, how can you be single-minded like Superman even though you are a mere mortal?

Any piece of software is a lengthy undertaking.  It's easy to find distractions to avoid work for a day: 500 cable channels, new-fangled computer technologies, the opposite sex.  It's also easy to quit after a few days, a few weeks or a few months, wiping out in a tidal wave of long-term fatigue or long-term boredom.  These motivation problems are like diseases.  Being distracted for a day is like getting a cough or the 24-hour flu: you lose a day or so but then, hopefully, you come right back.  Long-term fatigue or boredom is more serious; it's cancer.

Superman never gets sick but, as a mortal, that's not an option for you.  You are going to get sick; it will happen.  Everybody also loses motivation.  What do you do when you lose motivation?  Well, what do you do when you get sick?  You take medication.

For the major, company-threatening illnesses, you've got to be proactive and aggressive.  A small dose, each week, works much better than a massive dose when the disease is acute and life-threatening.  To combat long-term motivational problems, here's what I prescribe.

The first prescription is to know yourself and be proactive about yourself.  Superman has a weakness: kryptonite.  When he's around that glowing green stuff, his brain is addled, his body is lethargic, he's in trouble.  Knowing yourself is knowing trouble when you see it coming.  It means knowing your moods, knowing when the best time to work is and when it's time to take a vacation.  Being proactive means knowing how to manage yourself to get the maximum effort out of yourself over the long term.  It is knowing the buttons to control your mind and body and knowing how to work them like a pro.

The second prescription is to realize that fatigue and boredom are just feelings.  When lying at the bottom of a prison of kryptonite, you can't help but question your life decisions and see everything in a really negative light.  But that's exactly the wrong time to make major decisions about your life ... and your company.  Escape the feeling first and make the major decisions later.

The third prescription is to consciously create habits.  It takes about 30 repetitions to form a habit.  Two hours of programming at the same time every weekday, for six weeks, and you'll form a habit.  A 30-hour marathon won't form a habit.  Form the habit first, then crank up the hours.  (Or not, you'll be amazed at how much work is done in those 60 hours.)

The fourth and final prescription is to pace yourself.  Superman can't do a great job for three months and then burn out.  Like him, you've got to set a sustainable pace that you can carry out indefinitely.  You've got to show up, year-in and year-out.  It's a multi-year marathon, not a sprint.

Those four prescriptions go a long way to keeping the major baddies in remission.  But, what about those days when you feel under-the-weather?  That is, the motivational version of the common cold?  Here's some over-the-counter remedies to address the symptoms.

The first over-the-counter remedy is to ask yourself, "Do I really have a choice?"  Superman has a great job: he's his own boss, he makes his own hours and he works on things that are meaningful to him.  But, his alter ego, Clark Kent, doesn't have a great job: Lois Lane "dises" him, his gas-bag boss is always yelling and he probably doesn't make much money. 

The only alternative to your own company is to work for somebody else.  Yes, back to a modest 401K socked away over 30 years, poorly-run and ill-advised projects, office politics, gas bag bosses.  Starting your own company is the easy way out.  No, you have no choice.

The second remedy is to bargain with yourself, saying, "If you work today, you can quit tomorrow."  Then, cheat and renege on your bargain the next day.  It's a recovering alcoholic's trick: take it day by day, minute by minute.  To delay your failure most often avoids it entirely.

The third remedy is to visualize the rewards and what your success will mean.  All Superman gets is the satisfaction of a job well done.  You've got it easier.  Imagine what it will be like to make millions and what you'll spend those millions on.  Imagine the amazement of a new employee at how clean your code is or how well-run your company is.  Rigorously catalogue every dream and hoped-for reward.  Replay them in full detail when you need a boost.

The fourth remedy is to assign yourself a simple, mindless task.  Refactor a class, add calls to assert(), run a memory-checking tool and clean up some memory leaks, anything.  Build momentum by doing something, then re-direct that momentum once you are in flow.  Better yet: keep up a running list of mindless tasks so you can just pluck one from a list when you need it.

Nobody likes to take medicine.  Nobody likes to be sick, either.  But everybody needs the medicine cabinet and, when you do your own self-funded software company, you need a virtual medicine cabinet to address those special, motivational ailments.

Unless you happen to be Superman.