This one is perhaps better suited to long-standing ruts – not the kind that last a few hours, but the kind that last for days, weeks, without much headway.
When you find yourself simply going through the motions of life.
Not wanting much. Not feeling much other than endless disappointment, aimlessness, and guilt.
You work on your game – or maybe you can’t even muster the desire to do that. You go to work or school only because you must. You complain to yourself, or to anyone around who will listen.
(Side note: I’m not, in any way, ever talking about cases of clinical depression, or even self-diagnosed depression. That is not something that is within my scope of experience or ability to help with. I am merely referring to the usual ebb and flow of positivity and negativity in a regular human being’s life, unhindered by any medical conditions, in this post and all others dealing with strategies for regaining positivity and motivation.)
Climbing out of this hole isn’t a process that is immediate, but there are things that you can try that can help.
One of these is the act of doing something drastic.
Do something that you haven’t done – perhaps ever, perhaps in a really long time. Something that is, or at least could be considered, pleasurable to you. Even if it doesn’t feel particularly exciting right now. Just… change your environment in some way.
Example time:
Once upon a time, about 10 years ago, I used to be an avid reader. Book-a-day kind of reader. Then school caught up with me, I got drawn into playing games, then creating games and working – reading fell out of my general list of hobbies.
I couldn’t remember the last time I went to book store and bought a physical book.
So that’s precisely what I did yesterday. I went to the book store, selected, and purchased, a physical book, then went to a nearby Second Cup to read it over a cup of tea. Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything.
Not 100% by any means, but last night and this morning I feel just a little bit better than I have for two weeks prior.
I’ve gone from wanting absolutely nothing, to wanting to read another chapter. That’s a huge success in my book. Teehee, look, I made a pun. 
I’ll be alright.
And you will be too.
And we’ll make some awesome games together.