Motivation

Once again, it is that time in the semester when most students are struggling to keep up with end-of-term papers, presentations, and projects. With deadlines quickly approaching and work piling up, self motivation becomes a life saving skill.

As a senior, I have been reflecting more on my schooling and I now realize that one of the most important things I learned was how to motivate myself. This is a subject that most classes and teachers rarely discuss, but it is something that every student is expected to know. To truly learn , you must become actively engaged and personally involved with the subject. This can sometimes be difficult even with the most interesting of subjects. School is a full time commitment, but life can sometimes be hectic and keep you from being fully engaged in your schoolwork. It is times like this when knowing how to motivate yourself can make the difference between success and failure.

I began to develop this skill during my transition from high school to college. In high school, I kept myself motivated enough to get through my classes, but I was never able to become fully engaged with what I was learning. When I graduated high school, I looked forward to college knowing that I would be able to study what I was interested in. What I did not consider is that motivation and engagement do not simply appear just because you are interested in something.

I remember being excited about the material and assignments during my first year of school, but also experiencing that first disconnect between being interested in a subject and being willing to become fully engaged with it. Many of the assignments I did that first year did not end up being up to par with what I envisioned because, with everything going on in my life, I found it difficult to stay as dedicated to my studies as I would have liked.

After my first year, I decided to move to Manchester rather than commute. This decision was partly based on the thought that always having the school at a close proximity would allow me to work when I felt most motivated rather than when I was scheduled to attend class. This helped break the divide between my education and my personal life and allowed me to become more personally engaged with my schoolwork. Once I made that connection, I found that identifying the more personal meaning of my classes gave me the motivation to stay focused. Throughout the next couple years, I maintained that way of thinking so that the assignments and other challenges of school allowed me to get the most out of my classes and to develop the skill of self motivating.

Although I feel like I have developed these skills substantially over the last few years, it can still be difficult to find ways to get motivated sometimes. Even now there is a growing to-do list set next to me with things I had hoped to get done last weekend. However, I now know how to get all of these things done while staying engaged and dedicated to learning.