How do you keep going?
Showing Up is Hard
It is so much easier to not show up than it is to show up. It's incredibly easy to choose inaction instead. That goes for anything, though. If you add in to the mix that you're trying to show up to work on a project that is nothing yet, showing up is even harder.
What Usually Happens
We've all done it before: you get a new idea, find the perfect domain, start a new repo, and get caught up on some UI bug or other menial issue and decide to take a break for the night. The next thing you know, you haven't worked on it in days, or months. I have done this dozens of times. Somewhere along the way I quit showing up. Some ideas just don't stick. Sometimes it's hard to get back because you're not sure where you left off. Sometimes you look at a project and you're just not sure where to begin.
The trick
Quit thinking about it.
Just stop thinking and get started now. Seriously, you're not going to make any progress on this unless you show up. In this case, we're talking about software, so opening your IDE (or code editor of choice) is showing up. Start clicking around the project. See a typo? Fix it now. Start small and before you know it you'll be in the zone, tackling challenges you've spent weeks thinking about in minutes.
Be kind
Still, some days you're going to open that IDE up and get nothing done. You'll feel pretty discouraged. You'll find it hard to show up again. Maybe you'll just forget, or you'll go and work on something else instead. Don't sweat it. Progress is never linear.
Visualize your goal
Keep your end goal in mind and think of it often. What is different about your life once you reach this goal? If your project is a means to reaching your goal and you remind yourself of that regularly, you'll want to keep showing up. Try to balance the reward of progress with the disappointment of stagnation to inspire you to get to work.