Motivation struggles
Lately, I’ve been having a really hard time with school. Specifically starting assignments. It’s my second year of college so it’s not like I’m new to anything, but I cannot get myself to start things even when I wait till the last minute.
I have a somewhat busy schedule with work and have no off days. I’m either at school or work everyday. But I don’t necessarily want to leave or change either of them. I like work and love the environment and people there a lot. And I do have a genuine interest and care for my education and a lot of time enjoy the topics that my assignments are about.
I just haven’t been able to get into a routine of getting things done. My classes aren’t all that difficult either, besides a math class. I just constantly put things off and when I start to feel the pressure and consequences of doing so I get overwhelmed and overthink.
When I’m feeling especially overwhelmed, my thought process seems to become much more emotional and short term. I start looking for the quickest way to make the feeling stop rather than thinking about things the way I normally would. I assume the worst and jump to conclusions and can’t trust myself to make rational decisions.
I just don’t know why I’ve been struggling with this recently. I’m a relatively happy person and there’s a lot of things and people in my life that give me joy, and I do like to be productive and to grow, but I have little to no desire to do actual work for school. This has just been a really persistent cycle. And I’ve tried so many things to get myself to just start and nothing ever sticks.
@bakedbarbequebeans
Are you having anxiety?
Motivation is very tricky in a sense and it's different for everybody. Seeing your situation, working and studying at the same time, is already very time consuming and draining all your energy. I would think, are you feeding yourself enough nutritious foods to keep yourself energized to do both? It seems that you enjoy the field you're studying, so, based on that, do you have a goal as to what you'd like to do upon graduation?
Sometimes, setting a goal, will help with creating that drive into feeling motivated to make small achievements to reach that goal. Assignments, I've always had trouble starting them too. I recently finished a short 2-month online course, where I had to submit weekly assignments. I work part-time, 4 days of work, with 3 days off. So, for me, I only had 3 days to do my assignments. With that short time frame, I've forced myself to use my days off more wisely. So that I can finish my assignments. My motivation came from the reason I took the course. It was to help me develop more professional skills as I continue to work as a Clinical Instructor in my additional career.
For you, I'd say, try and make small goals with your assignments. At the same time, try and imagine how you'd like yourself to be like upon graduation. What you do now, will help you get to who you want to become in the future.
You've experienced feeling overwhelmed when you've left your assignments to the last minute, if you think about it, you can turn that into a form of motivation too. Now that you know you will feel overwhelmed, and that your thought processes are affected, make that into a reason to start your assignments earlier. To prevent yourself from feeling overwhelmed, or have your thoughts altered. Starting your assignments earlier will help relieve those emotions compared to leaving it last minute.
A lot of the times, our mindset plays a role as to how we see things. For myself, I like finding purpose in the things I do or have an idea of how I'd like to see myself as. That, becomes my motivation, and I will do what it takes to become that person. Even if it means I'll need to take a course here and there to achieve it, then, that is what I'll do. I'll keep my part-time, and study on the side when needed. My motivation comes from the passion I have in my careers.
You need to find yours.
@bakedbarbequebeans
