MOTIVATION!!

Need that push to doing things you find yourself avoiding or slacking in?

That’s me! Well this is what you need…. it’s called MOTIVATION, which is a force that moves you from just thinking about something to doing it. There are different types of ways to look at motivation but the one in particular that helps me is using external motivators. What I mean by this is by using those that come from a source outside of you, there are so many, but for me, a source such as family, their approval, acceptance, and feeling proud. I go to this great University to learn, and having been brought up with such smart and caring parents and sister, the last thing I want to do is disappoint them. By receiving bad grades makes them feel like they haven’t done enough on their parts to preparing me for college, which actually makes it more upsetting for me. The problem is, I have motivation for school in the big picture, but the smaller assignments in school is where I forget, and have trouble being motivated. Finding motivation is hard because it is something that has to be so powerful.

Small things such as homework seem to be difficult to find motivation for, especially for me, Spanish homework because we have it every single day. It not only can really affect my grade, but also my understanding of Spanish in general. I have to get up to a level 2 Spanish course so it is really important I understand every little thing we are taught extremely well because I have to continue with the language. Another external motivation particularly for this class was my family. My sister (21 yrs old) is currently studying in Peru for 5 month, so yes, she is very good at Spanish, and she knows I am taking Spanish now so she has expectations I have to fulfill. My parents and I are going to visit later on this year and I can’t just go and not know a lot. That would then be embarrassing to me. So, I have to find time every day to do the smallest homework’s that helps me reapply what we learned in class.

A strategy that helped me identify a situation where motivation is a problem was weighing consequences. When I am simply doing my homework, I don’t think about the big picture of this tiny assignment and am simply unmotivated. So in order to help, this strategy lays it all out with a plan to your problem and accomplishing that plan! You can use my chart as an example to see how I did it so that you can do it too! ( I used colors because I am a visual learner and it helps me stay and feel more organized, so if your not, don’t mind the colors!!)

Start off by making 5 columns like mine!

In the first column, Situation, explain where and when motivation is a problem.

In the second column, Consequences, write down all of the consequences of not being motivated.

In the third column, Assessment, try to narrow down those consequences to which ones are actually significant or not.

In the forth column, Plan, think hard, and write down your plan to avoid the biggest consequence.

In the fifth column, When, find a time and date to complete your plan! TIP: plug it into your fitter finder or planner if it applies!!

Another class this helped me with was my CRS 414 class, this is because of the readings!! I’m not a huge fan on reading, so sometimes I need motivation on situations that deals with that!

So for all of you reading this that just agreed with just about everything I said, I guarantee this will work for you as well then!