Study Skills - Find Your Motivation Fast

The single biggest reason cited for not competing tasks is the lack of motivation. If you're like everybody else in the entire universe (and you are) then at one point or another you will lack the motivation to do something. Welcome to the club. There are about 6 billion human members plus a few million animals as well (that's right animals can be lazy too).

Whilst a lack of motivation may not be your biggest challenge personally, it is one of the biggest challenges that students face as they try to find the strength of character to push through high school and College.

When lacking motivation, simple and seemingly innocuous tasks can somehow become huge mountainous challenges. But why?

If you lack the feeling of motivation, your focus will be low, your effort will be down and your output will suffer the consequences. But when you are feeling motivated the amount of work you can complete is astronomical, your effort is through the roof, the challenges seem small and anything seems possible! It's a feeling we'd all love to have all the time. So how does it come about?

As a general rule, most people are operating on the base level of motivation - which is fear of negative consequences. What do I mean by this? Well, we act out of concern about what will happen if we don't act. For example, you may complete your homework because if you don't you will be grounded. You may strive to get an A on your Maths test because if you don't your average will drop which will impact your ability to get into University or College. It's not necessarily a "bad thing" but it's the way we are conditioned to behave.

If there was no deadline and no consequence for not handing a paper in on time, would we ever even hand it in? Would we even start the stinking paper? Would anyone ever do anything they didn't want to do?

Fear of negative consequences (i.e. negative motivation) is important in the world. We need to have rules and social conventions. We need to treat each other with respect. But that doesn't mean you should operate your entire life this way. There is more to life than just constantly doing what everyone wants so that they (and society) will be happy with you. That's not a joyful life experience.

Whilst "existing" may work for you for a period of time (and for many people it works for their entire lives) it doesn't both work and lead to a positive approach to life. The motivation we seek to promote is one where you want to complete the tasks you do for positive reasons.

Want to find real motivation? Act only out of possibility. Never act out of fear. Act out of the possibility of what may come from doing what you're doing. If you're doing homework, ask yourself what the possibility may be. Is the possibility that you learn something new? Is the possibility that you are smarter than you were before? Is the possibility that you are closer to your ambition of a good grade? Is the possibility that you are one step closer to College? What is your possibility? Every act has a possibility. Find yours and you will have found your true motivation. The power of possibility always crushes the fear of negative consequences - if you harness it correctly.

The answer to finding motivation is actually simple. Whenever you are doing something and don't feel motivated simply ask yourself "What is the possibility here? What positive outcome is going to occur from this?" If you can't find a simple possibility (like I could learn something new, I could earn some money which I can spend on something important to me, I'm a step closer to something I really want to achieve) then you really aren't searching hard enough. There is a possibility in everything. Good luck.

By Lachlan Haynes

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Discover much more about your motivation here: Help Me Study | Get Motivated