M-o-t-i-v-a-t-i-o-n. What does that spell? It spells Motivation. What is Motivation? Motivation can be defined as an action or actions that moves a person towards a desired goal. Almost every college student struggles with motivation on a daily basis in one way or another.
In a few short weeks the spring semester will come to an end. During the last few weeks it becomes extremely difficult for students to stay motivated. It is hard being motivated to accomplish tasks. I have noticed that as the semester progresses I have become less motivated in my courses even waking up in the morning to go to class has become a challenge. The end of the semester is the worst time to become unmotivated because of all of the final exams, projects and other tasks that are due. This week in CLS I used 2 different motivation strategies which were Academic Fears and Exploring Rewards.
The first strategy I used was Academic Fears. I used this in my WRT 205 course because my last essay for WRT 205 is due in two and a half weeks.This strategy only takes four steps which are:
1. List 3 academic fears then rank these fears
2. Next choose your worst fear & describe the worst thing that can happen in the 2nd column 3. In the 3rd column write the best thing that can happen
4. In the fourth column write the action that you need to take for the best scenario to occur
Academic Fears
The second strategy I used was Exploring Rewards. To do use this strategy you just need to make a table like the one I made below that has no-cost rewards, low-cost rewards, and high-cost rewards in separate rows. Then in each column you write rewards that you believe will motivate you.
Exploring Rewards
Evaluation
Both of these strategies taught me several things about myself because they made me evaluate my motivation which is something that I had never done before. These strategies forced me to be honest with myself and made me take action so that I could become motivated. Before I used Academic Fears and Exploring Rewards I would wonder why at the beginning of the semester I was excited for courses to begin and interested in the topics but after the first mid term I was ready for the semester to end. These strategies helped open my eyes and led me away from my pessimistic thoughts that resulted due to my lack of motivation. For both of these strategies I made tables which was very effective for me because I am a linear learner. By using tables I was able to organize the information into a logical way that made it easier for me to understand and since I put used tables I am more likely to look at and use these strategies again in the future. After I used these strategies I finally understood what motivates me to accomplish task which is a valuable piece of information that everyone should know about themselves. In addition, now I know what I need to do in order to motivate myself and what incentives I should use to motivate myself. One thing that I like about both of these strategies is that they can be used in any course. Furthermore these strategies can also be applied to other situations they do not only have to be applied to academics.
After using these two strategies this week I was motivated to write a one page draft for my WRT 205 class for my final essay. I am glad that I was motivated to write this draft because when I was writing it I thought of a few questions that I wanted to ask my profesor to clarify the assignment and now that I have a draft I can go to the writing center & get help to create a better paper. Usually I start writing my essay a day or two before it is due and by then I do not have enough time to ask my professor for help.
Before I read about motivation this week I was very unmotivated about writing my last essay for WRT 205. I even considered dropping the course just because I was lazy and did not want to write the essay. After learning more about motivation I realized that I need to become motivated because what is the point of coming to college if I do not want to push myself to my limits.
I hope my blog has helped you become motivated or at least taught you about two very effective motivation strategies. Just try to stay positive, continue to work hard and remain motivated for the rest of this semester. As Vince Lombardi said "The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender".
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