The Joy of Getting to the Middle
In any long-term endeavor, there are going to be times when you don't feel like doing your work. Days when you just can't face the keyboard, canvas, whatever. During these periods it's very easy to hate what you're doing or wonder if it's worth doing at all.
An important thing to note is that once you're into it, once you've warmed up and let the world fall away from you, it's almost impossible to hate what you're doing.
During the down times, when you're procrastinating instead of doing your work, this should be your mantra: when I get to the middle, I'll find the joy. When I get to the middle, I'll find the joy. Then when it comes, allow yourself to feel it, be replenished by it. Don't stop working; just acknowledge that this is what happiness is and that you have found it.
It's worth sitting through the agony of the first fifteen minutes, when you're stone-cold and dumb as a stump, to get to that first accidental chord that makes you do a double-take, or a character turning left instead of right, to get to that question mark that demands you answer it. Then you fall through the hole in the paper or start riding the melody line and all is right with the world.
When I get to the middle, I'll find the joy.