Daniel M. Ingram:
Good advice given above.
It is common for people to miss the point about being with reality now in an accepting way in MCTB, even though it is in there many, many times. Hopefully MCTB2 will correct some of that. Try reading the section on the 7 factors of enlightenment and the section about goals in MCTB and see if those help lend some balance to things also. Pushing inherently involves not being where you are right now, and being where you are right now is the only thing that works, as this is a reality-based practice.
Also, if you are doing low-dose (half-hour per day, that sort of thing) it is doing something, but obvious rapid or dramatic results are less likely than high-dose, so less expectations, more settling into what is going on now.
If you spend a lot of time slacking and doubting and then intermittently pushing, try noting those: "slacking", "doubting", "pushing", such that you are in in sync with what is actually going on. This is key. Insight practice is about that sense of this side integrating in real-time with the sense of a that side, with thoughts of future and past being in sync with this present in which they occur.
Consider reading the Trungpa section in Journey Without Goal, Chapter 9, where he talks about Buddha family neurosis and wisdom and see if any of that applies. It is highly recommended. I have read it probably 50 times and get something out of it every single time. It is about relating now with your own style, with what is going on. If slacking is your style, inhabit that style and relate clearly to it, being in it and with it clearly as it is.
Thanks for the advice. If I'm a slacker, or more correctly my ingrained habits of the mind are to waste time rather than face the challenges I want to take on then investigating it by non-judgemental noting (or a simple paying of attention) really makes sense. I have tried it for a few moments and can see the cycle occurring in the mind as well as sadness, fear, reluctance and empathy to a degree that comes straight after.
Being with the slacking once again shows the impermanence and sequence of events (kind of like the cause and effect structure that Richard has stated).
Re - MTCB, it is the inherent faults of some readers like myself. I see enlightenment is possible and think, HOLY CRAP I WANT SOME OF THAT!! and start pounding away at what I think is the proper approach. But to be fair there is also a great sense of a surge of enthusiasm in the book that pulls in those that are inclined that way (as I was when I first read the book) - to ignore the basic but subtle mechanisms of the practice.