In 2011 I was broke. My English was broken. I was a package delivery driver with a high school diploma, and somebody told me software testing could be a career.
Look at me then and tell me I was a technical guy. I was a refugee. I had no idea what a software development life cycle was, or SQL, or Java. None of it.
The only reason I did it is that I did not want to let my family down. That is what kept me up, night after night after night. For myself I would not have worked that hard. My family drove me, and they pushed me, and the work came out of them rather than out of my discipline.
Two people want the same career. One is doing it for themselves and one for somebody else. Which one studies on the bad night?
The second one, and it is not about character. It is about direction. If your purpose is a star in the sky that high, it is pulling you up all the time. If your purpose sits somewhere below you, it pulls you down, and you will feel that as a loss of motivation and mistake it for a flaw in yourself.
One of my students answered this better than I could. She said the career pays well, and she needs money to take care of her child and give that child a better life. Then she said the second half, which is the part that makes it work: there is flexibility in it. Her child needs her. Working in a restaurant means being in the restaurant. Working from home two or three days a week means being there for her baby. That purpose is far greater than wanting more money, and the rule behind it is simple. The higher the purpose you have, the higher the achievement you will reach.
So ask what other reason than money you are doing this. Who are the people you are doing it for. And then write a letter to the version of you standing there next year this time. Close your eyes and put yourself there: the cherry blossom is out, the trees are green, the weather is beautiful. Tell that person what kind of person you wanted them to be. Then decide today whether they will be thanking you.