Getting Motivated (Part 1): Find Your ‘Why’ For Studying

/ Heidi Morgan

This is the first post in the series on ‘How to Get Motivated and Stay Motivated’.

It’s simple.

If you honestly don’t have any reason why you want to study, then don’t. Give up today. Go for it. There’s still demand for tradies.

… But I’m guessing that you’re reading this because you actually do want to study.

So why are you struggling to feel motivated to study?

The issue is that most people just leave their reasons for studying floating vaguely round in their head, and hope they’ll come to the rescue at the right time.

It’s destined for failure.

If you haven’t given yourself concrete, super-clear reasons why you want to study, then in that moment when you’re choosing between a crazy-boring-and-super-long-and-absolutely-incomprehensible-history-task-your-idiot-teacher-forced-on-you and snuggling into that tantalising couch in front of The Voice – then The Voice will win every time.

So in this post, we’re going to look at how to nail down that ‘why’, and how you can channel it to boost your motivation at any time!

Step 1: Find Your ‘Why’ In 15 Minutes

Sit down with a pen-and-paper or blank Word document, and write out all the reasons why you want to study.

Write whatever comes into your head; don’t cull it, don’t judge it, just write it. No matter how stupid or self-evident. Heck, no one’s ever going to read this but you.

It’s fine to start off with ‘I want to do well’ or ‘I want to get into a good course’, but they’re so vague that the sight of a Youtube cat video will send them flying. To get deeper, just keep asking ‘why’. You wrote ‘To get a score good enough to get into Commerce’? Well, why do you want to get into Commerce? Maybe for the income? Okay, but why do you even want that money? And why else do you want Commerce?

Most important, it’s about what motivates YOU personally, not what you think should motivate you or what motivates others. Sometimes it even takes a ‘bad’ reason – like what people will think of you if you fail or wanting revenge on someone – to actually fire you up. That’s totally okay!

So just write and keep writing for 15-30 minutes. Then stop and read. Highlight anything that stands out and really ‘clicks’ for you.

Step 2: Create a mission statement

Now condense this into a few powerful sentences that encapsulate the reasons, YOUR reasons, why you’re studying – your ‘mission statement’.

This is part of a mission statement I had at one point:

I want the people I admire to respect me and see me as a smart and hardworking person. I want to become a self-disciplined, driven, productive individual – one who’s always learning, growing and pushing herself to her limits.

[And my subconscious but far-too-egotistical-to-write addition: I want the thrill of seeing my name at the top and feelin’ like I’m smarter than dem all.]

It doesn’t matter how long it is, or what it talks about, as long as it’s specific, razor-sharp, and makes you zing. It’s going to be your anchor for the next few months, so spend a bit of time refining it! You’ve got to really care about achieving that mission. Like, really care.

Try pairing it with images of your dream home, your dream career, or your dream ATAR-calc screenshot.

But it’s useless if you don’t read it when you need it. So how can you make sure you keep seeing it?

  • Make it your home screen on your phone or laptop.
  • Turn it into a huge poster for your bedroom wall and school locker – if you can add inspiring images, even better!
  • Laminate a little wallet-sized card to stick in your wallet or phone cover.
  • Turn it into an alert so that sentences from it will pop up a couple of times a day on your phone or laptop.

You’ll get ‘numb’ to it over time, so remember to update the statement when it loses its zing!

Step 3: Visualise it

So next time you can’t muster up the motivation to hunker down to that history homework, stop and pull out your mission statement.

Close your eyes and live the achievement of that mission.

Picture yourself at 7:01 am December 14, staring in unbelief at those numbers. Picture that triumphant moment of looking into the eyes of your vanquished competitor. Picture finally living that dream job and clocking that 6-figure bank account.

Step 4: Be brutally honest

Then look yourself straight in the eyes (figuratively, or a mirror would do :P) and say:

‘If I veg in front of the TV right now, then I will FAIL [to get that score and make people respect me]. But it I just spend a bit of time on that history right now, then… I WILL achieve it!’

Seems overdramatic? It’s not. If you think “just this once, tomorrow I’ll…”, you’re kidding yourself. If you made the TV choice today, chances are you’ll make it tomorrow. It’s the tiny, compounding choices that make or break success.

So don’t water it down. Be brutally honest. Think of this moment as the defining moment. Your choice right now will achieve that success, or it will achieve that failure.

And if you really care about reaching that success, then you’ll do the study.

This was Part 1 in the series on How to Get Motivated and Stay Motivated.  Check out Part 2: Change Your Attitude!

What are some of the reasons that motivate you to study? I’d love to hear from you, so drop a comment below to share it with us!

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