Think about your dream job. I mean your all-time, number-one, could-do-absolutely-anything-you-want dream job. If you can't think of one right off the top of your head, don't worry. Here are some ideas I pulled out of my newspaper's classified ads for you:

• WANTED: Man or woman, age 21 to 129, to taste-test new chocolate candy recipes. Twenty hours per week. $120K/year and up.
• GREAT OPPORTUNITY: Are you a real go-getter? Because we need someone to go get our coffee. Up to two hours per week. $1,750/hr.
• NEEDED: Highly-motivated individual to stress test beach chairs in the Bahamas. Travel expenses and per diem included. May be required to test beer and/or margaritas up to 10% of the time. Starting rate: $6,000/month. Winters off.

While your dream job sounds kind of nice, let's face it: sooner or later every job becomes a job. You may find it incredulous that anyone could tire of tasting chocolate or fetching coffee or even sitting around on the beach. But sooner or later it happens.

It may be happening to you right now: as a writer or (like me) a writer-wannabe. You like writing. You would love to do it full time, even on the beach with beer up to 10% of the time. So why, even if you're not getting paid for it right now, do you have trouble staying motivated with your dream job (or dream job to be)?

Because sooner or later every job becomes a job. Our brains seem to be pre-wired to want to do "something else." It's the seed behind, "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence." If I just could go over there instead of here life would be perfect.

Sometimes you just need to trick yourself into staying motivated. For me in comes in the form of "time wasting." Sure, I may be tired at the end of a long day. I may just want to unwind in front of the television or simply go to bed. Or I could try and get that twenty minutes in. But how? I have no motivation.

Well, my answer to that involves playing a little Jedi Mind Trick on myself. I think to myself, "What will they say at your funeral? 'Charlie was a great guy. He watched a bunch of TV shows. Let's hear it for Charlie!'" No. They won't say that. They'll say, "Charlie was a great guy. He wrote all those great books that billions of people loved. Let's hear it for Charlie!"

Then it's fairly easy to make the right choice. I flip on the television because I shudder at the thought of signing that many books.

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