This one’s a question: How do you keep your own enthusiasm “up” while between sessions?

The problem is simple: I am the kind of person who slowly yet steadily loses enthusiasm for any project or activity I am involved in when I stop doing, talking about, or thinking about it. In other words, the best way to keep me engaged is to engage me in the activity; the next best thing is to engage me in conversation about it; the worst thing I can do is go quiet and inactive.

This is linked to another problem: I tend to read silence and inactivity as disinterest. This may well be inaccurate but it is a deeply ingrained tendency that no amount of persuasion and intellectual reasoning seems to budge. It’s simple: I assume if you enjoy the thing you’ll either be doing the thing, or talking about the thing. Thus, inactivity and silence equate to disinterest.

I am working on the assumptions under those beliefs:

1. People who enjoy an activity will keep doing the activity – is that true?
2. People who enjoy an activity but can’t do that thing right now will want to talk about it – is that true?

The fact remains that if I am running or playing in a game and the others go quiet between sessions, I will lose interest quicker. The best interval to keep me engaged is to play at least every two weeks. When my bi-weekly sessions get interrupted, that’s a recipe for losing interest.

Both of my current games got hit last week by stuff that caused me to miss session. Both groups have gone quiet. I am told – and I have no reason to doubt this in my head – that the players are all excited to play but don’t have anything to talk about between sessions. In other words, they are all cool with this silence. I’m the one with the problem.

Fair enough, you might think. Except I am the GM in both games. The games went silent. We missed a session, so it’s a month until next session. My interest and enthusiasm is practically nil. It’s suddenly hard to sit down and prep. I am having to force myself to prep. Now it feels like work to prep. And so the loop spirals down.

So, this is the question: How do you keep your own enthusiasm “up” while between sessions?

Am I the only gamer on the planet with this problem? That might be true, but I doubt it. What solutions have other people tried that worked? What suggestions might be practical?

Comments welcome. Call-ins (click the “Message” button) welcome!

Game on!