It’s not enough to do work for work’s sake. Not in the long run, anyway.
I know, I know, work really can be its own reward. For a time.
But for work to be sustainable, and for it to feel meaningful, one of two things must be happening. We either have to be:
1) Making something that other people really want. Or,
2) Doing something that brings us closer to our goals.
This applies to anything, even the non-commercial. Why knit someone a scarf? Is it only so that you have something to do with your fingers? There are so many other things you could be doing with them. Why do you garden? Is it just so that you have some busywork to do during the summer and some mud on your jeans?
Even when the work appears to be its own reward, when it comes to the most satisfying endeavors, there is some other reason (maybe a multitude of them) buried deep underneath. Or at least there’s got to be, if you ever expect to keep it up.
Why do you practice an instrument? There has to be a reason. “Because my parents are making me” is a bad one. It rarely holds up in the long run. “Because I must” is barely better.
Why write a song? “Because I must express myself!” This sounds good, but it rarely holds up either. As a wise old professor of mine used to say: “Express yourself? You were going to do that anyway.”
If you want to be successful at anything, you have to be in it for the long haul. You have to be willing to keep on doing it even when no one else cares. You have to do it when there are other, intensely pressing things to care about too.
Find your reasons. (Better yet to pick several, in case one breaks.) Make them good. You’re going to need them.