Inertia

It may sound like an idle fantasy but I'd like to be able to write for a living. A number of people whose opinions I respect have encouraged me a lot and taken a particular interest in what I write. (There are others who appear uninterested, but I know I can't please everybody.)
So what's stopping me?
There is a little voice of realism saying: "You have a family and a mortgage. You can't give up a full time secure job unless you have alternate means of support. The most you can devote to writing is a small part of your time. You would be trying to compete with authors who have devoted their lives and risked their futures on a writing career. For you, it is just a hobby and can never become more than that."
There are a babble of voices of self-doubt saying: "You can start things with bright ideas, but it takes a finisher to see them through. That's not you. Are you going to put in the huge effort required to write a book, only to have it rejected by publisher after publisher? Sure, your writing gives a few people a chuckle. Why do you think there are people who aren't interested in what you write? There are heaps more where they come from. In fact there's a world full of them."
Every now and then I hear from a little analytical voice. It says: "You will need to change. You can't afford to take a softly-softly approach. You must be prepared to promote yourself. While it's a hobby you can post your writings and let anyone who's interested read them. If you want to be a writer, you have to make people read your work or else be swept away in the torrential flush of words on its way to the treatment farm."
For anyone who's still reading, my current focus is on light humorous verse. I think I'm capable of writing a collection of verse and/or short stories targeted at the 8-12 year old market. If I'm wrong, then at least it shouldn't take years of toil to find out. I need to improve my writing habits, or even this foot-in-the-water approach will dry up. The gymnasium wall asserts: "Motivation is what gets us started. Habit is what keeps us going." It would be nice to think that inspiration and burning passion were the drives that kept me going. In reality I either need habit or external encouragement to keep me going, and until I get some better material completed it's only one or two close friends who provide the latter.