How to Motivate Yourself in your study??

‘How do I get motivated to my study?’ is one question I am constantly asked by my students.

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

I heard one professor of Psychology 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! The Psychiatrist also states that each of these thoughts are going to either be bringing you closer towards achieving your goals or further away from your goals.
2. Visualise yourself taking action

Studies have found that visualisation makes a difference to professional athletes’ performance, so why don’t we as students practice doing it as well?

Practice visualising yourself taking the actions that need to be taken (e.g. see yourself typing up your work on your laptop, organising 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 once:

“If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it”.

3. Small actions add up
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 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 good friends 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 was told by one of my lecturers about this idea of getting together with other honours students and having regular writing sessions each week (where you would all sit around at a table and write for an hour or so). Getting together with others can turn boring, stressful tasks into a 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.