Here is a comment on the motivation topic from a few days ago. It is worthy of repeating here on the front page. Thanks Rich.

I had a co-worker whose motivation level gradually dropped, his job performance suffered, and he eventually was placed into a position where he had to quit. Unfortunate, since he had great potential.

I've found a few things that have helped me when I start to lose the excitement:

1) Take some time to focus on activities outside of work for a while. Get involved in volunteer work, refocus on your family life, pick up an old hobby, or start a new one. Doing this will fill some of the needs that your job just can't fulfill, and you'll likely find that it takes much less to motivate you to get to work every day.

2) Find a way to break out of the routine within your job and recapture the excitement. For me, this has often come through "skunk-works" projects. Every workplace has at least a few things that are just waiting to get done, but nobody has the time or the expertise to tackle. Find one that interests you, and see what progress you can make during your spare time. Caveats to this approach are: a) Be sure that you do not take time away from your assigned duties for the side project. b) You should confirm with your supervisor that they're ok with you taking on a side project (bosses usually don't like surprises, plus, they're likely to be aware of any land-mines you're likely to hit).