5 minute read
A guide for student's to gain study inspiration and motivation that lasts.
How come some students are inspired, motivated and full-out eager to learn while others are drawn to procrastination, laziness and lack of ambition? Before we assume that they chose the wrong course to study, we need to understand the quote below.
"Successful and unsuccessful students don't vary much in their academic abilities, but simply their desire to reach their potential."
That’s right. Study inspiration and student success has nothing to do with academic abilities or skills. Being educated well in a topic you’re learning plays very little part in a student’s success. In fact, I’ve seen dozens of straight A students struggle to find work after graduating simply because they’ve ignored the most important aspects of their education.
So, what are those aspects?
As we can read from the quote above, desire is one of them that makes a student successful. You might be asking, “yeah butttt, how does one gain desire to study something they don’t enjoy studying?”. And to be Frank, that’s not an easy question to answer. Some students look to study inspiration or motivational videos, others set aside rewards for when they do X amount of hours of studying, some people punish themselves if they find themselves procrastinating. From my experience, I believe these methods for inspiration aren’t going to stick. In fact, you’ve probably tried one or two of these before and found the same thing:
Motivation doesn’t last.
Motivation generally works like this . . .
So, how can we get lasting study inspiration and motivation?
I believe true desire and inspiration to study comes from mindset. What I mean by this is that when you are feeding your mind positive thoughts about studying, your mind is going to want to do more of that because you’re releasing dopamine and serotonin to your brain, which stimulates it. When the thought of studying pops up your mind automatically thinks happy thoughts. This encourages you to do more of it because you gain joy from it.
You can then imagine what happens in the opposite scenario. When you relate studying to bad thoughts and negative emotions you are feeding your mind that negativity. It removes all motivation from doing that activity and your subconscious will find ways to avoid it, whether it be through procrastination or removing that activity altogether.
“Ok Ok, but Kyle . . . I simply don’t enjoy studying so this is just not going to work.”
The idea above makes logical sense but simply attaching positive emotions to the thought of studying will not make it something you want to do. Do not fret young sir or madam. Through my 15 years of schooling experience I’ve come up with a way to trick your mind into being inspired for success. A manipulation of your mind that encourages it to want to study.
The Method
Positive thoughts and emotions attached to the idea of studying makes you want to do more of it. So what’s to say you can’t fake these positive thoughts? In fact, a majority of the “successful” people I’ve talked to in my life have stated that this is the method they use to bring about the success they dreamed of. That’s where the quote “Fake it ‘Till you Make It” comes into play. With this method, you feed your mind with positive thoughts on a recurring basis. For example, when you wake up you tell yourself “I’m getting better and better every single day, in every single way. No matter what happens today I know that I am going to go to bed wiser and stronger than as I woke”. This is a positive mindset and requires faith in yourself.
However, I’m not such a big fan of this concept of “faking it ’till you make it”.
What I’ve found to be the most effective approach to gaining study motivation is the idea of having less negative thoughts. Every student is a victim of complaining, condemning and criticising, and that’s fine, it’s the way we’ve been brought up. But these are the main catalysts for negative thoughts being attached to the idea of studying when we think about it in our minds. Complaining, condemning and criticising strips us of motivation, inspiration and ambition. It destroys all enthusiasm like a fire destroys a forest. It starts as a spark and the more it grows, the more it consumes and the more it grows, the more it consumes . . . until there is nothing left but charcoals and ash.
If we stop complaining, condemning and criticising ourselves and others, we’ll find negativity leave our minds. What’s left to fill the empty space is positivity. This benefits you because positivity produces serotonin and dopamine, as we talked about earlier, and provides you with this magical inspiration or desire required to succeed.
With negativity gone and positivity in its place, we no longer despise the idea of studying. In fact, we make the link with our subconscious that it’s actually something we enjoy doing and as a result it wants to do more of it. This is that desire you’ve been searching for.
Now that the theory requirement is done, I present you with the difficult part of this.
How do you stop complaining, condemning and criticising?
This is where gratitude and perspective becomes relevant. When you understand that the probability of being born a human being is one in 400 trillion . . . and you understand that you have not just the opportunity – but the privilege to be educated . . . and you truly believe that you are fortunate enough to be alive in the best time in history for education, understanding that 2 generations ago children were punished physically for being wrong, women didn’t have the opportunity to study equally to men . . . and you realise that you have the freedom to choose what you study or if you even study at all . . . and realise that your future is in your hands, and not your parents, your professors, your best friends . . . you understand that being alive is nothing less than a miracle . . . that is when you stop complaining, condemning and criticising and studying becomes a desire and the “inspiration” or “motivation” to study becomes a consistent characteristic of yours.
"Mindset" Motivation generally works like this . . .
"Success lies in your daily routines"
Ultimately, study inspiration can come in various different forms and realisations. But true success and motivation that lasts is built from your every day routine, your habits. If you have a habit of saying “screw homework I hate it” then that is what your subconscious will continue to think about the generalised thought of studying.
When you start to make it a habit of saying “This isn’t normally a topic I’d enjoy studying, but I’ll give it my all because I at least have the opportunity to learn and am grateful for this.” That is when your subconscious does the opposite and encourages and inspires you to study.
"Without commitment, you'll never start. But more importantly, without consistency - you'll never finish".
Success Requires Sacrifice.
Watch the 10 minute video that will inspire you to go and study while doing backflips. 10 Minutes for the next 10 Years of your life.
Kyle Sinko, Founder of Successful Archi Student // Architecture Student from South Australia
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