Motivation

Motivation has never been a struggle from me until I came to college. In high school, it was easy to find reasons to do well. But college is so much different. I feel like I am constantly on the go, and there is always something to do. In the beginning of the year, I felt more motivated to complete my assignments, probably because I had more free time. But second semester has been harder because I joined a sorority, which takes up SO much of my time. I think that I fit most of the five aspects of the motivated peer, but not necessarily when it comes to school work. They are optimistic, being process-driven, having persistence, taking more risks, and putting in all the effort an individual a based off their realistic abilities.

Since I have been struggling with motivation, I decided that last week I was going to find a reason to be motivated in two of my classes. I had a PSY 205 test on Tuesday that I was REALLY freaking out about because I always feel so unprepared no matter how hard I study. The material is just very tough to understand sometimes, not to mention I am also a horrible test taker. So in PSY 205, I used the test as my motivation to study. So what did I do? Since I am a visual and kinesthetic learner, I need to have a hands on way of studying the material. I created flash cards by chapter that I went through probably 100 times. I also used acronyms to help me remember the information, which was EXTREMELY helpful especially because there was a lot of lists I had to memorize for my PSY exam.I also made it visually pleasing because I learn best when I can see the material, and it catches my attention.

In HTW 318, I did the same thing. I would go through my notes and see which information I could create acronyms for. I would then play around with the letters that were going to be used until I found an acronyms for it that made sense. I would also try to incorporate the link method into this by creating acronyms that had to do with people I knew, things I love, etc. Doing this really helped motivate me to keep studying and doing well in both of these classes because let's be honest, everyone likes to do well on test, though some (as I) just have trouble making my self prepare for them.

By the time I was doing prepping for both of these classes, I felt a motivation I haven't in a while. It really does help to set a goal for a class, and use parts of that class (such as homework or tests) to motivate you to do well. I really hope that I can continue to work on my motivation skills until I reach a point that I don't have to go out of my way to be motivated, I just am.