Maintaining the momentum you build during the beginning of the school year can be difficult. Fatigue and brain fog quickly build up as the semester progresses and you are left looking for ways to regain that momentum and work with motivation you’ve had before. Bad news, the lack of motivation persists even later on and you may need to really learn how to motivate yourself. The good news – it’s perfectly manageable.
Why Motivation Is Important?
Motivation is important because it is the driving force behind a lot that we do in our daily lives. Some conditions, such as depression, generally include a serious lack of motivation to deal even with the most menial of tasks. While it is not necessary to have any conditions to learn these simple step-by-step instructions, it sure helps to follow them daily. An important part of staying motivated is doing things quickly – free essay examples for college can give you inspiration and motivation to write more in less time. Check out their great examples and see which you can recycle for your own needs.
Different Kinds of Motivation
Motivation Is not uniform and can take different forms. While some are driven by the desire for academic success, some others find it more motivating to simply increase their knowledge. So, while some focus on grades as an external validating factor, others prefer inner, personal growth. Based on this example, we can see that there are two different types of motivation: extrinsic and intrinsic. Also, you can take insights discovery personality test which can be a helpful tool for understanding your own motivation. The test identifies different types of motivation and by understanding your own motivation, you can better understand why you do the things you do. This can help you to set realistic goals and to stay motivated in the face of challenges.
How to Keep Yourself Motivated?
While having extrinsic motivation is easy (this is either a promotion at work or grades in college or University), having the intrinsic motivation and maintaining it is much more difficult. The thing is that all of us have ups and downs in life, and unfortunately, some of us can try to deal with it with wine or other unhealthy habits, but most people will solve any problems by choosing rational options. While extrinsic motivation is always present, intrinsic motivation has to come from within. While doing so, it follows the same patterns as your own ups and downs.
This should not say that intrinsic motivation is difficult to acquire. In fact, some authors even state that intrinsic motivation is similar to a skill – it can be practiced and exercised. To do so, you will need to establish a good, productive routine and help yourself maintain it until it becomes your new modus operandi, or a set-in habit. Here are steps that you can take to keep yourself motivated.
Plan Ahead
Planning ahead will prepare you for all the steps that you need to realize to make a certain project come through. Planning should not be too general, but it should also not be too detailed. Steps that you can manage in a single day, or even two per day, are probably the best way to go. Making them too general will take too long to accomplish, and you are likely to procrastinate on it.
Be Ready for Changes
An important part of planning is setting deadlines and entering the steps into a calendar. However, as life goes on, unexpected events happen and can disturb your plans. Unfortunately, health issues might catch you suddenly. All you can do is have scheduled analyzes and inspections, take walks in the fresh air and take vitamins if needed.
When planning, you should always account for any unpredictable events and plan accordingly. After all, being able to finish everything by the deadline is not always possible, so make sure to do some extra work whenever possible. This way, you can stay ahead of your own plans, which to some is motivating itself.
Set New Goals Before Finishing Old
Always having a goal to chase is as important as it gets. The thing is that most people enter their ‘down’ phase when there is nothing to do. Moving back onto the track can be difficult and time consuming. For this reason, you should always have a dream to chase and plan (!) time off that you can take a break during.
Find Mentors Online and in Real Life
Although life coaches can be difficult to even listen to, it is necessary to find some kind of mentor or a motivator in your life. Far from paid sessions with a professional, finding a mentor can be as easy as finding a person you find motivating and inspiring to help pass onto you their positive vibe and energy. A good blog can be a mentor. A good book character, a movie protagonist or a family member can all be mentors as well.
Reward Yourself
Rewarding yourself from time to time is necessary, healthy and productive. Do not overindulge – you do not really need two weeks off for every week of work. You should, however, reward yourself in meaningful ways that help you improve yourself.
As rewards can take different forms, it is necessary to understand what is it that you need. For example, you may need a vacation. Or you may need to delegate some work to others. This is also a form of reward. Having someone “writing my paper for me”, may seem like a dream, but it is possible, and very affordable. You can even have professionals do your study notes and much more.
Final Considerations
Finding motivation can be hard. On the other hand, staying motivated is much easier, especially one you have gained some momentum. For this reason, we’ve come up with these manageable steps that just about anyone can follow to be more productive and more motivated day after day.
Michael Carr
A bilingual person and an overachiever by nature, Michael needs a lot to keep pushing through the day. With more than one “low” episode in his life, he tries to instill every change he wants to see in himself as a habit. He believes that we never stop growing as people and that good introspection is the only way to ensure we get to where we want to head.
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