What Keeps You Motivated?
Imagine it’s Friday night, and you have five chapters to read in your biology textbook to prepare for a test on Monday morning. Let’s say that you’re not very confident in your reading abilities; you don’t think you’ll spend much time reading in your career; and you often feel frustrated when you have to read long passages. Given these feelings and thoughts, you probably won’t feel motivated to work through the chapters this weekend.
WRITING PROMPT: Ask students to reflect on these questions: Are you as excited about college now as you were on the first day? Are you more motivated in some classes than in others? Have all your experiences been positive so far? Have you received any negative feedback in class that caused your motivation to falter? These responses will help students begin to assess their own level of motivation for college.
Now imagine a different scenario. Once again, it’s Friday night, but this time you have an investigative story due Monday for your journalism class. You believe you’re a good writer, and you think you have a meaningful and important story to tell — plus, you love this class. Given these thoughts and emotions, you’ll probably feel motivated to work hard on the story over the weekend.
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Why? You believe you can do a good job, meaning you have strong self-efficacy in your journalism skills. You see this writing task as relevant to what matters most to you. And you have a positive attitude about the task facing you. These are three key components of motivation (see Figure 3.1).
Let’s begin by taking a closer look at each component. Then we’ll compare two types of motivation — and explore which is more powerful.
ACTIVITY: Divide the class into pairs. Have students in each pair share what they consider to be their greatest success. Invite each student to share how this success has motivated him or her to achieve important goals.
FOR DISCUSSION: Ask students to think of someone in their life who inspires them. Why is this person inspirational? How can they use what they learned from this person to keep themselves inspired and motivated to achieve their goals?
Self-Efficacy
Self-efficacy refers to your belief in your ability to carry out the actions needed to reach a particular goal. In other words, you believe you can be effective. The stronger your sense of self-efficacy, the more likely you’ll do what’s needed to achieve your goals and to keep trying even when you encounter setbacks.
Self-Efficacy: Your belief in your ability to carry out the actions needed to reach a particular goal.
Take Moira, who always struggled in her high school Spanish classes. She didn’t believe she could improve, so she gave up easily on projects. Her grades suffered as a result. If Moira had believed that she could do what was needed to master Spanish — such as finding a tutor or joining a study group — she would have taken action to make it happen. Her grades would have ultimately improved. Her sense of hope that she could succeed in school would have been restored. And she would have built new knowledge that would have equipped her for jobs that require Spanish speaking and writing skills.
How can you strengthen your sense of self-efficacy? Try the following tactics, suggested by psychologist Albert Bandura.1
Experience success. One important component of a SMART goal is that it’s achievable. Achieving a desired goal enhances your self-efficacy beliefs and spurs you to take on your next challenge. In that way, success builds on success. By proving to yourself that you’re making progress (as you do on the PSP), you strengthen your sense of self-efficacy and are more likely to succeed in your next goal.
Observe others who are successful. You can strengthen your self-efficacy beliefs by watching other people complete a task successfully. Psychologists call this process modeling. For instance, join a study group and see how students who get the best grades take notes during lectures. Or ask tutors at the math and writing centers to show you the strategies they use to master the subject matter. Stronger self-efficacy beliefs for these activities will help motivate you to try them in the future.
Seek support and encouragement. Being supported and encouraged in your pursuits helps you believe more strongly in your ability to achieve goals. So surround yourself with people who want you to succeed. Let them know not only when you’re struggling but also when you’re making progress toward your goals. Their encouragement will help you feel even more confident in your abilities.
Turn stress into a motivator. Stress is natural — everyone feels it — and it isn’t always bad. In fact, a little bit of it can energize you to tackle a challenge. Too much stress, however, can sap your motivation. The key is to find a middle ground — just enough stress to inspire you, but not so much that it paralyzes you.
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Relevance
If you think that a goal has relevance for you — that achieving it will make a positive difference in some way — you’ll feel more motivated to work toward that goal. (Remember the R in SMART?) Relevance can even motivate you to achieve a goal that seems boring or unpleasant in the short term, because you know that by meeting this challenge now, you’ll get something that’s important to you in the long term. For instance, maybe you dread your English composition class. Still, you force yourself to work at the class assignments because you understand that knowing how to write well will help you in your professional life, no matter what career you choose to pursue.
WRITING PROMPT: Ask students to imagine where they’ll be in five years. What do their lives look like? Now ask them to imagine what their lives will look like if they don’t finish college. How do these two outcomes differ?
If a subject or an assignment seems irrelevant to your life at first, connect it to something that is relevant. If your motivation for a particular task starts to wane, try out these strategies.
CONNECT
TO MY EXPERIENCE
Write down two goals you set for yourself in your personal life: one with strong personal meaning and one with weak personal meaning. Did your motivation to achieve these goals vary based on how relevant they were to your life?
Find something interesting in every class. Almost all academic topics relate to one another in some way. For example, if you’re a psychology major taking a history class, you might be able to write a paper on the history of psychoanalytic thought. Even though the paper is for your history class, the topic connects with something that interests you. If you remind yourself of such connections, seemingly irrelevant projects will become more relevant than you thought at first — and you’ll be more motivated to do a good job on them.
Connect coursework to your long-term goals. Doing well in college can give you the knowledge and skills needed to achieve your long-term goals — such as going to graduate school, getting into a highly competitive program like nursing, or effectively managing family or community responsibilities. Always try to keep the big picture in mind.
Build transferable skills. Use general-education courses to develop transferable skills like note taking, writing, time management, and critical thinking.
Focus on practical benefits. Remind yourself of the practical benefits of achieving a goal — for instance, “If I can maintain a 3.5 GPA, I can keep my scholarship” or “If I pass this class, I’ll avoid the cost of retaking it.”
Focus on a love of learning. The feeling of accomplishment you get from mastering new material — even if that material isn’t your favorite — can give a task meaning.
ACTIVITY: Invite a volunteer to name his or her least favorite class. What skills are required to do well in this class? Create a list of about ten different skills on the whiteboard. This will probably take a lot of prompting. Next, ask students how these skills can be applied in other situations.
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Attitude
A positive attitude is a beautiful thing: It makes you more resilient in the face of difficulties, helps you learn from your mistakes, and increases your enjoyment when you succeed. It’s also a powerful motivator that can keep you energized and focused on your goals. Use the following strategies to stay positive, even when a project, an assignment, or a class leaves you feeling uninspired.
FOR DISCUSSION: After reviewing the recommendations provided in the text, ask students to brainstorm other ways to stay positive even when they feel uninspired. What strategies have worked for them in the past? What strategies will they try in the future?
Identify something positive resulting from the work you’re doing. Even little rewards can make difficult tasks more pleasant. Look for those small moments of enjoyment or positivity, and take time to appreciate them. For instance, if you’re reading your art history textbook, you might unexpectedly find a photo of a painting that takes your breath away. Or if you’re working with a classmate on a calculus assignment, you might realize that you have a lot in common and that this person could become a good friend.
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If possible, take at least one course in your intended major each term. That way, you can spend some time each week focused on the content you most enjoy.
Think and speak positively. Monitor your self-talk: what you tell yourself about the courses you’re taking, the assignments you’re working on, and your goals. Positive self-talk — thinking positive thoughts and making positive statements — protects you from stress, promotes creative thinking, and can help you stay motivated.2 Practice turning negatives into positives by reframing what you think and say. For instance, if you’re unhappy about taking a required math course, you may find yourself muttering, “This course is a waste of time — smartphone apps can do these calculations.” Instead, try telling yourself, “I’d like to become less dependent on my smartphone. Learning how the math actually works will help me do calculations, rather than always having to rely on technology to do them for me.”
When your self-efficacy is strong, your task is relevant, and you have a positive attitude, you’ll feel especially motivated to work toward a goal. See Table 3.1 for examples of how these components fit together to help you achieve what is important to you.
| Goal | Strong self-efficacy | High relevance | Positive attitude |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conduct research in the library for an English composition paper | I used the online catalog successfully last week, so I should be able to find the materials I need this week. | This isn’t my favorite class, but I’ll need to conduct research in other classes, too. If I build my skills now, I can apply them in my other classes. | Instead of telling myself that this project will be boring, I’ll think about how good it will feel to check this task off my to-do list. |
| Read three chapters in my textbook for Foundations of Education | I’ve worked with a tutor to create a reading schedule, so I know what I have to do to finish the chapters on time. | I want to become a teacher, so this reading is relevant to my long-term goal. | I feel too tired to read all these chapters this weekend, but I do like the boxes in the chapter where real people share their stories. I’ll read those first to energize myself. |
| Do a group marketing campaign project for my business class | Last spring I worked with some neighbors to design a fundraising campaign for our local after-school program. I can apply what I learned about working in a group to this assignment. | I want to do creative work and eventually manage a team. This project will let me create something I can show employers as part of my portfolio. | One of my classmates on this project seems especially creative. I think it’ll be fun to work with her on this assignment. |
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Tap into Your Internal Motivation
FURTHER READING: A brief article in Psychology Today written by Leslie Becker-Phelps, Ph.D., entitled “Peak Performance: in the NFL, Fortune 500, and Life” (January 17, 2010), discusses how intrinsic motivation affects many areas of our lives.
In your school, work, and personal life, multiple motivations underlie the choices you make. Maybe you decided to go to college because you enjoy learning new things, but also because you need to build skills that will get you a good job. Perhaps you’ve joined a study group because you’ll meet friendly people, but also because it will help you get better grades. Each of these decisions reflects the two kinds of motivation identified by psychologists: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation stems from your inner desire to achieve a specific outcome. Extrinsic motivation derives from forces external to you, such as an expected reward or a negative outcome that you want to avoid. If you study hard because you enjoy the feeling of success, then you’re motivated for intrinsic reasons. If you study hard because you need to maintain a 3.0 GPA to keep your scholarship, then you’re motivated for extrinsic reasons. Sometimes you’ll be influenced by both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. For example, you may genuinely enjoy the subject you’re studying, but you also work hard to keep up your GPA.
Intrinsic Motivation: Motivation that stems from your inner desire to achieve a specific outcome.
Extrinsic Motivation: Motivation that derives from forces external to you, such as an expected reward or a negative outcome that you want to avoid.
Both types of motivators can prompt you to meet your goals, but intrinsic motivation has some special benefits over extrinsic motivation. First, intrinsic motivation is usually more reliable because you control it. How? You stay focused on the positive feelings you’ll experience when you achieve the goal, and that keeps you motivated. Also, intrinsic motivation is especially helpful in unfamiliar or confusing situations — like your first year in college. Your professors assign course material, but they may not tell you how to learn it. You have to figure that out, and intrinsic motivation can spur you on.
The more you know about yourself — your goals, interests, and values — the more you can tap into your intrinsic motivation by seeing how a goal or task is relevant to who you are and what you want. For instance, let’s say you’ve always loved solving puzzles. After your first month at school, you feel overwhelmed by all the coursework. You decide to look at your situation as a big puzzle that you know you can solve, and that motivates you to identify resources that can help you manage the workload — such as a tutor or a study group. When you understand what makes you tick, you can figure out how to keep yourself moving forward.
But how can you find an approach to building intrinsic motivation that works for you? There are many approaches and lots of people giving advice about the best ways. Many techniques are covered in this chapter: using positive self-talk, identifying positive aspects, and finding something interesting in challenging situations. Leaders of industry, professional athletes, psychologists, salespeople, Navy SEALs, and others often use another powerful technique — visualization.3 In visualization you imagine the outcome you’d like to happen and the steps in getting there, using all your senses, including sight, sound, smell, and feel. Visualizing a desirable outcome can stir positive emotions and motivate you to work hard. It prompts you to think about your values, the importance and relevance of your goals, and the steps needed to reach them. To visualize effectively, relax and clear your mind. Imagine your future self accomplishing the goal you set out to achieve. Where are you? Who are you with? What are you doing? How do you feel? Use these images and feelings to maintain motivation. You’ll have a chance to try a visualization activity at the end of the chapter.
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voices of experience: student
STAYING MOTIVATED IN COLLEGE
| NAME: | Erin Smith |
| SCHOOL: | Chatham University |
| MAJOR: | Foundations of Higher Education and Student Affairs |
| CAREER GOAL: | Working in a college or university to support student success |
“If you connect your passions to each of your courses, it’s easier to find something meaningful in every class you take.”
I’m in my sophomore year, and I’m currently feeling unmotivated in some of my classes. I want to pursue a master’s degree that will prepare me to work with college students at a university. I’m so happy that I found my passion early in my undergraduate years, but sometimes it makes it hard for me to focus on classes that seem unrelated to my professional goals.
For example, it’s sometimes difficult for me to see how my Shakespeare class relates to my interest in higher education institutions and student learning. However, even if I don’t immediately recognize a connection between each course and my professional goals, gaining new knowledge intrinsically motivates me. I know that I’m learning important skills in every class, such as how to manage my time, take notes, think critically, and reduce stress. In addition to developing these skills, I’m learning more about complicated issues such as gender, race, class, and identity. I can then apply what I’ve learned about these issues to my work with college students. In the future I’ll appreciate what I learned in these classes and how I’ve developed as a well-rounded, lifelong learner.
It can be tough to stay disciplined and remain focused in classes that don’t strongly capture your interests. But if you connect your passions to each of your courses, it’s easier to find something meaningful in every class you take.
YOUR TURN: Do you use particular strategies to connect seemingly irrelevant courses to something you’re passionate about? If so, what are those strategies?
FOR DISCUSSION: Ask students to share what motivated them to go to college. With the help of the class, categorize their motivations as either intrinsic or extrinsic. Discuss why intrinsic motivation can be particularly beneficial.
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