At first for me it was making the public commitment to my friends and family that I was gonna become a programmer (would have been embarrassing not to after I told everyone!)

Next it was making the commitment to myself to try and push code to github every day. Something about that habit in particular was powerful for me because I felt that I was building up some proof-of-work and compounding my skills / work in public

I guess it all comes down to problem-solving, especially your own problem, nothing drives you the best than this.

why would a non dev answering this, feel free to ignore:)