The problem is not the project, the problem is often the scale and the time :) I work for 4-6 companies a month and if I got time, I go to meetups, give talks or help other developers. And if I'm lucky I get the time to read a book besides constantly reading up on programming topics, astrophysics, psychology, microbiology, history, ......
The only time I write my own projects are those 4 weeks a year were customers forget to call me. I spend my vacation on guitar workshops. So reading books and tutorials is nice applying them in your daily work makes more sense than just writing a side project, although they are fun.
So motivation is something nice but the problem is not the "go for it" the problem is the "stick to it" :) that's at least my experience.