How do you get motivated for study?

Question

I seem to have given up.

Answer 1

I think about a life of working minimum wage jobs and living in cheap housing in a neighborhood w/ gang bangers.

Answer 2

The more school, business .and the more money you will probably make.............work sucks so I like getting paid a lot for it...........  

Answer 3

Give yourself little prezzies when you study for long periods of time. If you get a reward at the end of it you become more motivated.

Answer 4

I tend to leave it to the last minute then panic study...probably not the best advice though ;)

Answer 5

That is such a good question.  Here's how it worked for me.  

I went all through high school with poor grades.  I graduated in the bottom 1/3.  Then I went to college and law school, and graduated magna *** laude from both.  I'm not particularly smart.  There is definitely a trick to it.

The thing I learned is NOT to view look to the long term.  It's hard to be motivated for something that's going to benefit you in 5 or 10 years.  Very few people can do that.  The more immediate the reward, the stronger the motivation.  The immediate reward of going shopping, having a banana split or watching a movie is going to trump a 5-year goal almost every time.  So the way you make yourself want to put in the study time is by viewing schoolwork as a series of short-term goals, and rewarding yourself after each completed goal.  I don't mean have a banana split after every chapter--you'd end up weighing 800 pounds.  It's more like "OK, I've got this chemistry assignment to read tonight.  I'll read 15 pages--carefully with underlines--before I have dinner, and I won't eat dinner until I do that."  Or the reward might be just relaxing for 10 minutes before you start the next 15 pages, or even just going to the bathroom.  That kind of short-term discipline is possible for any person who wants to succeed, and I can tell by your question that you are one of those people.

Once you develop a routine of doing the work, your grades will get better and better, because most students will never figure out how to do what you are doing.  Once you start having success, that becomes the ultimate fuel for your motivation.  I can't tell you how great it felt to all of a sudden become the "smart guy" after so many years of coasting.  That was more than 30 years ago, and I still smile inside when I think about it.

Let me again just emphasize a very important thing.  I was not a genius just waiting for a chance to bloom.  I was born with very average intellegence.  Yet, all my life (since I started college), I've been able to outperform people much smarter than me.  If you do the work, it just happens, because most people don't do the work, or don't do it consistently.  They don't understand the rule of little steps.  I'm not a workaholic.  That'll kill you early.  I'm just consistent.  

If you learn the rule of little steps, you'll wind up with whatever you're after, including a great job, lots of leisure time, control over your life, and high self- esteem,  But don't use those as your motivators.  Just think about how good dinner is going to be, knowing you've done those 15 pages, and done them right.

Answer 6

money that you'll earn

Answer 7

think of the end result  

Answer 8

Just focus what you want to do later in the future and that you only can reach it with study =)

Answer 9

get into an intellectual conversation with someone( maybe with the opposite s*x)

Answer 10

keep on running away from  it?

Answer 11

get a picture of a tramp or something like that and stick it up on your wall & cieling when you go to sleep that will be the last thing you see so you really wont wanna be like it ... i hope

Answer 12

i've always had that motivation....something my parents planted in me. even if i want to i can't get rid of it. you know how some kids try to spite their pushy parents by rebelling? even if i wanted to i wouldn't be able to do that...i'm just an odd kid.

something that might help is this: think of all the people that have spited you in your lifetime and think of how angry and annoyed they'll be when they find out about your success. :)