Maintenance requires seeing value in the future condition of something.

To maintain something you have to be able to picture it existing in ten years and to care about what condition it is in then. Without that future image, present effort has no obvious payoff and always loses to something more immediate. Maintenance is really an act of imagination before it is an act of work.

Picture something you own or love, ten years from now, in good condition. Then ask what this month would have to contribute. That image is what makes the work feel worth doing.