Motivation!

Motivation has never been too much of a struggle for me. Personally, I have always been motivated to complete my assignments, succeed in school, work for what I want, and do the best I can. From the five aspects we learned in class on Wednesday, consisting of “The Motivated Peer,” I ft most of the five. These consisted of being optimistic, being process-driven, having persistence, taking more risks, and putting in all the effort an individual a based off their realistic abilities.

In terms of being optimistic that is probably the weakness I hold. I am not a negative person by any means but I like to stay true and be realistic during situations. I am motivated by what I can accomplish and if for example I am studying for a test but not understanding a bit of it at all then I realistically know I cannot expect to get a perfect score essentially. However, I will be optimistic with my studies and try my hardest.

I am extremely process-driven and I cannot function without a routine or knowing what I need to get done everyday. I am huge on making lists everyday and trying or attempting to keep on track with it day by day. I would consider myself process driven to complete tasks as early I can in the classes I take like Spanish 201 and ETS 107. Even more so, I am process-driven when it comes down to this class, CLS 105. I love to finish work early and get everything done ahead of time so I have the feeling of relaxation when it is all over and knowing I accomplished the things I needed to get done. I always do my Spanish homework a couple days ahead because then I constantly know what is going on during class and in between classes after my Spanish class I have time to do other homework because my Spanish homework is done already for the next day. I tend to be driven when it comes down to writing papers, for example in ETS 107 (Living Writers) I will try and read the book a few days or a week ahead of time so that allows me to write the one page reflection paper early and get that out of the way so it opens up my schedule to other assignments that are necessary for that week. For CLS 105, I like to get my blogs out of the way prior to the weekend and Sunday. I am writing this Thursday morning, in between my two classes because if I am done that means that on Sunday I will not have to physically work on this blog but rather I will just have to post it and then comment on my peers.

More importantly, I consider myself to be a very persistent person when it comes down accomplishing or getting something that I want. This applies more to my daily life rather than my academic life. For example, I am talking e-mailing potential places where I can work for this summer and have kept in touch since about January. I like to be on the early end for mostly everything because I am a very anxious person and never like to not know what is going on. I find that the more persistent a person is the greater the chance of being happy and receiving the goal in the end will be.

I would not categorize myself as being a risk-taker or doing outrageous actions that would classify my as one. At times I like to switch things up and tackle challenges that I normally would not do, but I am usually not a risk taker in classes. I took a risk this semester with taking an acting class actually. I am enrolled in DRA 105 and thus far I am very happy that I am in the class. Risk taking allows me to meet more people and feel more comfortable in an atmosphere, this is very easy to come by during an acting class because it is essential to be goofy or do whatever comes to mind in the moment.

The last of the five aspects of a motivated peer is the concept of effort related to ability. I understand that I can only put in so much effort, but if I naturally do not understand the subject matter then I cannot ask for anything else. For example, in Psychology 205 I try very hard to understand the material and go over it and study it, I take in-depth notes during lecture and recitation but when it comes down to actually studying for the exam I still cannot retain the information that doesn’t click with me.

Motivation is an advantageous characteristic to have and it is very helpful with everyday life and the long run. I am motivated to do well in school and to be happy at the same time. Even though I do not know my major or where I am going with my college career I am motivated to get somewhere, whether it be transferring into Newhouse or Whitman, I am constantly looking at the bigger.