I wanted to write this blog because developing strategies that maintain and progress your motivation are essential to not only enjoying and succeeding at university but in all aspects of your life. Conventional definitions of motivation imply that it ebbs and flows and is up and then down. I want to challenge this.
Some would call me motivated because I train 6 days a week and haven’t eaten sugar, dairy and gluten for over 4 years. Whilst it would be out of touch to assume and expect you to be able to do such major things “easily”, but the reason I found them easy is because I assigned a greater meaning to them. Quitting sugar meant improving my health, losing weight, increasing confidence and much more and holding those in the front of my mind whenever I had a craving allowed that greater vision to hold more weight than the craving allowing me to stay motivated. There will be an underlying theme across the three steps I take you through that emphasises the importance of assigning a greater meaning to everything you do.
Motivation does not have to waiver, if you set up practices and get more actively involved in maintaining your own motivation, you will be more productive, reach your goals faster and remove the submission to a lack of motivation.
The three top tips I will take you through are 1. Make it fun. 2. Get involved. 3. Set goals.
Tip 1 – Make it fun
Think back to the last time you did something fun. I am betting that you didn’t have to pull yourself out of bed and struggle to find the motivation to do it. Imagine if you made those monotonous tasks much more fun, they would feel less like a chore and more like an opportunity. Yes, I am challenging you to make study, assignments, exams and any other activities you do where motivation is lacking fun. You need to get creative. Whether it is finding a music playlist that gets you into a zone, finding a study buddy who’s presence puts you in a good mood or moving into an environment you feel is more conducive to being productive. The key is to get as creative as possible and find the fun.
This also links back to assigning a greater meaning to everything you do. When you know something is contributing to your growth, improvement or reaching your goals it will be easier to find the fun in them. By making an assignment represent an opportunity to give your best to something that is going to contribute to doing well in your course which is a course that provides future job prospects and those job prospects impact your financial freedom and this impacts your family life and so on, you now have an assignment that represents much more.
Tip 2 – Get involved
Active involvement is essential in developing, maintaining and progressing motivation. As I mentioned earlier I do not agree with the social norm that motivation comes and goes. If you take an active involvement in your own motivation you can employ practices that ensure your motivation is supported and does not decrease. The best way to get involved is to manage your tasks and time to a point where your perceived lack of motivation does not have an opportunity to actually impact your task completing capacity. Often the hardest part of doing something is starting it. Procrastination generally tends to diminish once you properly start an activity or task. By being organised you limit the time allowed to procrastinate and remove the potential blame on a “lack of motivation”.
Tip 3 – Set goals and create momentum
Setting goals and achieving them is the best way to develop momentum and has a snowball effect on everything you do. The best way to set goals is to start small but do not be afraid to set what some may see as wild and unrealistic goals. I have a wild goal that drives me everyday and is a source of motivation for everything I do. The way I keep momentum going so I feel that the wild goal is not unrealistic is by making sure I set and achieve all of the tiny goals every day. I make my bed, go to the gym, eat the right amount of food, meditate and all of these daily tasks create momentum that allows me to progress and bring my larger goals into closer view.
Setting big and small goals is so beneficial and seeing yourself succeed at the smaller goals gives you the motivation to go for the bigger goals and succeed at them too.
This again brings back the importance of assigning greater meaning to everything you do. Making your bed can represent much more and be a stepping stone to achieving your wildest dreams and shifting to this perspective ensures you have practices in place everyday that develop and maintain your motivation in every facet of your life.
Conclusion
This is how it will benefit you.
The first step to staying motivated is to change your perspective on what motivation is. By making things fun, getting actively involved and setting goals you have the capacity to ensure your motivation does not wane and you feel like a productivity machine. By developing these practices at university and in your young adult years you are setting yourself up for a life of motivation and success.