"How do I get
motivated to study?”is one question I am constantly asked by students.
Having
just completed my honors thesis (which turned out to be the hardest, most
stressful and rewarding project I have ever done) I am happy to say that there
are many ways to motivate yourself, but it may involve some pain, frustration
and overcoming mental barriers to begin with (at least this was the case for
me!).
Unfortunately,
there are no quick and easy solutions to have you feeling totally inspired and energized
about studying a subject or completing a project that may not be all that
inspiring/interesting at times.
Here
are some of the things you can do to motivate yourself to get on with the work
and study that needs doing.
1. Make every thought serve you and move you forward
During
the initial phase of my honors project I spent a lot of time in my head but it
wasn’t time well spent. I would worry constantly about whether I’d be able to
pull this project off, whether I’d get the response rate I needed, how I’d
start writing it, etc.
In
hindsight, this was a complete waste of time. It was only towards the end of my
project that I started to be more effective with my thinking. I heard Dr Sharon
Melnick state that we have 60,000 conscious thoughts a day. Now for those of
you who just thought ‘What’s a conscious thought?’ that’s exactly what a
conscious thought is, you just had one! Dr Sharon Melnick states that each of
these thoughts are going to either be bringing you closer towards achieving
your goals or further away from your goals.
After
hearing this I decided to carefully watch what I was telling myself. I replaced
thoughts such as ‘I can’t do this’ and ‘My writing sucks’ with ‘I’m making
progress’ and ‘I’m doing the best I can and my writing will evolve and get
better. This is a work in progress!’.
2. Visualize yourself taking action
Studies
have found that visualization makes a difference to professional athletes’
performance, so why don’t we as students practice doing it as well?
Practice
visualizing yourself taking the actions that need to be taken (e.g. see
yourself typing up your work on your laptop, organizing your files and being
able to access articles/materials with ease).
This
simple strategy helps you to stay focus on what needs to be done. As Jesse
Jackson said
“If
my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it”.
3. Small actions add up
My
mum recently said to me ‘Jane, every action is a cause which has an effect! If
you put in the action, you’ll get the results!’. What great advice mum!
Often
we can get bogged down and feel overwhelmed/stressed by the enormity of the
things we need to do (e.g. writing an 11,000 word thesis). I had to regularly
remind myself that even if I wrote only one sentence each day, eventually all
those sentences were going to add up to my 11,000 word limit.
But
I was really committed to finishing my thesis on time and doing a good job, so
in February I set myself a goal to write 500 words a day. This meant that if I
stuck to my goal then my draft thesis would be written in 22 days. I said to
myself ‘It doesn’t matter how bad the writing is, just type up 500 words’. This
was a very empowering activity as it forced me to be in action.
I
read somewhere recently that worry disappears in the face of action. So next
time you start worrying about an assignment or exams, force yourself to do
something, however small it might be.
4. Get some comrades
and spend time with them
There’s
something really comforting and energizing about spending time with others who
are going through or have gone through the same painful experience as you.
I
found that it made a huge difference to be able to talk to other students who
were doing their honors projects or had completed an honors project in previous
years. A lot of these people gave me motivating pieces of advice such as
‘You’re going to feel so good once you finish this project! We know it’s tough
but just stick at it!’ as well as practical advice/tips (e.g. “Make sure you
don’t leave your referencing until the last minute!”)
I
was told by one of my lecturers about this idea of getting together with other honors
students and having regular writing sessions each week (where you would all sit
around at a table and write for an hour or so). Whilst I never did this for my honors
project, I have done this in previous years with friends when preparing for
really difficult exams. Getting together with others can turn boring, stressful
tasks into fun, playful ones.
5. Remind yourself that this won’t go on forever
I
see a lot of students that are really overwhelmed and want to throw in the
towel at this point in the year in regards to their studies. If you’re a
student, remind yourself that this won’t go on forever, that everything changes
and all you need to do is just keep taking action.
1. Make every thought serve you and move you forward
2. Visualize yourself taking action
3. Small actions add up
5. Remind yourself that this won’t go on forever
No comments:
Post a Comment