Coaching practices for I Keep Telling Myself I Should Be Into This Thing It's the Smart Respectable Thing to Care About but Sitting Down to Actually Do it There's Zero Pull Just Duty and I Can't Tell If I'm Genuinely Interested or Just Performing Interest

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For I Keep Telling Myself I Should Be Into This Thing It's the Smart Respectable Thing to Care About but Sitting Down to Actually Do it There's Zero Pull Just Duty and I Can't Tell If I'm Genuinely Interested or Just Performing Interest, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• I keep telling myself I should be into this thing
• I keep choosing projects based on what I think will impress people or do well, and then I stall out halfway through because deep down they never actually moved me
• My interest in this was strong while it was new and intellectually shiny, and now that the novelty’s worn off it’s fizzling
• I need to get into something I find genuinely boring
• Almost everything I do now runs on grim "I have to," and the work I used to be genuinely curious about feels like a chore I’m forcing through

Practices that may help

1. Distinguish genuine interest from performed interest
   Separate goals you are genuinely curious about from ones you believe you should be curious about.
   Self-Concordant Goals, Made Practical
2. Follow genuine interest, not strategic interest
   Pursue the thing that genuinely excites you — even if you cannot explain why or see how it fits.
   The Creative Act: Rick Rubin’s Approach to Making
3. Link developing interests to a sense of contribution
   Interest that connects to helping others or solving real problems becomes more sustaining than interest that is purely self-contained.
   Passion vs Interest: How to Actually Find Work You Love
4. Develop interest in areas where it is currently absent
   Interest is not fixed — it can be cultivated through basic understanding and early success experiences.
   Expectancy-Value Theory: Why You Try (or Don’t)
5. Use curiosity rather than obligation as the primary action driver
   Pursuing what is genuinely interesting, rather than what the goal demands, produces better work and more sustainable energy.
   Goal-Free Living: When Process Beats Destination
6. Prioritize skill gains that reveal more of the domain
   Each layer of skill opens new parts of a domain you couldn’t see before — this is how interest deepens.
   Passion vs Interest: How to Actually Find Work You Love
7. Invest effort before expecting the passion to arrive
   Passion follows competence — start before you feel ready, because the feeling comes after.
   Passion vs Interest: How to Actually Find Work You Love
8. Make the task feel worth doing, right now
   Raise perceived task value through connection to meaning, rewards, or curiosity.
   The Procrastination Equation, Made Practical
9. Surface utility value by connecting a task to goals you already care about
   A task you find boring can become motivating when you see concretely how it serves a goal that matters to you.
   Expectancy-Value Theory: Why You Try (or Don’t)
10. Track what makes you ask questions, not what makes you feel good
    Curiosity is a better signal for developing passion than pleasure.
    Passion vs Interest: How to Actually Find Work You Love

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