How do I stay motivated when the public treats my work with contempt?

You do work that matters, and the people you do it for often look at you with suspicion or scorn. That gap — real service met with contempt — is a lonely place to stand. It stings all the more because you care, and caring makes the disrespect harder to shrug off. You cannot control what the public thinks of your whole system, and trying to win them over one at a time will only wear you out. What you can control is the good you actually do, whether or not anyone thanks you. The value of your work does not disappear because it goes unrecognized. A quiet good deed is still a good deed. The recognition was never the reason you started. So change where you look for proof that it matters. Keep a private record of the people you actually helped this month. Lean on the colleagues who see the work up close and know its worth. Let the contempt be the crowd's opinion, not your verdict on yourself. You know what you did today. Let that knowing be enough, because it is the truest measure you have.