My relationship with motivation would most certainly fall into the “it’s complicated” category. I always thought that by the time I got to college I would have it all. I presumed that I would be going to all of my classes, be on top of my college work, have a great social life, be taking part in extracurricular activities to pad out my CV as well as working part-time, and that just is not the case. I’m in my 2nd year of college and I have been finding myself struggling to do the bare minimum and that is not sitting well with me. At 21 years old I should not have such a hard time convincing myself to go to lectures and socialise, the only thing I don’t mind doing now is going to work and I have had enough.
Realistically, most of us will struggle to motivate ourselves at some point in our lives. It’s important to remember that you are definitely not alone, I am (without a doubt) right there with you! Recently I have been feeling awful about running low on motivation, but it is something that is out of our control. I cannot pull motivation out of thin air. There is no way for me to manually create motivation for myself. I cannot buy motivation in a shop. I cannot order motivation online. The reality of the situation is that sometimes in life I will have endless motivation and other times I won’t, and that is okay. I am not a superhuman.
So, I’m trying not to be hard on myself about it, if I go to work and do nothing else in a day that is okay and tomorrow I will try to do better. I’ve found that it can be easy to fall behind on college work when I’m feeling like this, so I have noted down all upcoming assignments for the next few weeks in a diary so that I have a visual reminder of the work that I need to do. It can help to break down tasks such as assignments into smaller tasks, for example doing one reading in a day. Breaking things down can make them feel as if they’re more achievable and it will contribute to achieving larger tasks!
When you’re struggling to find motivation, it can be really difficult to hear your friends talk about all the work and hours of study they’ve been doing. Sometimes it can be easy to feel bitter about the work they’re doing because you wish you were doing the same and you can feel as if you’re falling behind them. If you find yourself feeling this way just remember that people work at different paces. Later in the semester you may have bundles of motivation and they may be lagging just as you are now, and that is also okay! Just remember that it is as important to support your friends when they are doing well as it is to support them when they’re feeling unmotivated.
You are just one person, ass ideal as it may sound to have it all and do everything that you possibly can while in college, sometimes it simply is not possible. My advice is to take every individual day as it comes and just strive to do the best you can. Your motivation will return at some point and until then, do what you can. You’ll be back to having it all in no time!
Photo by Clark Tibbs on Unsplash