How I Maintain Motivation

It can be difficult to maintain motivation at times. Occasionally, I ask myself why I take on so much. It feels like I am always busy. Sometimes I catch myself looking at other people's lives and get a little jealous. Like, I don't even have to put myself through this! I could be relaxing and going where the day takes me. Currently, what I need to maintain motivation for is school. School is optional so, it's like, if I wanted to drop something then it would have to be school. I took on a bachelor's degree, worked through it, finished it, and then thought "well, maybe I'll get into a master's program. Why not try?" Now here I am, three classes into a three year program. Below are a few ways I maintain motivation.

Regularly Review my Goals and Progress

Regularly checking on my goal and my progress towards completing it helps me stay motivated because it reminds me that things won't be this way forever. So for my master's program, I can look and see that to reach my goal of graduating I need to complete sixty credits worth of classes. Having completed two classes already, I can see that I am six credits closer to completing my goal. That means that with just two classes done, I am done with ten percent of the program! So, after nine more times of completing six credits, I can wear my cap and gown and participate in the graduation ceremony. By breaking it down like this, it seems more bearable. Because, really, it wasn't bad taking those two classes. I just wouldn't want to be doing homework and readings forever.

Understand my "Why"

Really understanding why I am doing something helps me to keep doing it. If there isn't a good reason for doing it, then why do it? And when I say "understand your why," I don't just mean listing off some vague reasons. Really dig deep and understand why it's important to reach that goal. For my schooling, there are many reasons why I am doing it. One is that I want to set a good example for my son, "A." I want to be able to show A that it is possible to accomplish things that seem impossible. To be honest, I never thought that I would make it this far with school. It seemed unrealistic. Another reason for getting a master's degree is that I want to be able to provide a good life for my family. I want to be able to get a good job and afford everything that we need. There is nothing I want more than for A to grow up in a home that fits his developmental needs. That includes having parents that are not frequently stressed due to financial insecurity. I also want to be able to provide more than just the basic necessities. I don't need a life of luxury but I want to be able to provide family vacations, extracurricular activities, and fun family outings.

Use a Chunking Strategy

Usually when I take something on, I find myself working on it nonstop. So, with my schooling, I would do all the readings and then work on assignment after assignment, thinking that I had to do this to stay ahead. (I usually try to keep ahead by a week or two in case something comes up that causes me to not have time to work on school.) Eventually, I realized that I really dreaded working on things for school and it seemed to take me longer than necessary to get things done. I would find little reasons to procrastinate and take short unproductive breaks. Within the last few months, I tried something new. I would read a chapter for school and then do something else, like spending time outside with A. Then I would do another thing for school like reading another chapter then I would take another break to do something like doing a workout with A. I was scheduling out less of my time for working on school, yet I was getting just as much done! And I was doing other things that I wanted to do to! Before, I had always made excuses to myself that I didn't have time to do much else other than school and I really believed it. I found that breaks did not only help me get more done, but were necessary to keeping me motivated so I could prevent burnout.

How do you maintain motivation?

• Regularly review your goals and progress
• Understand your "why"
• Use a chunking strategy
• Other

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