Thread: Suffering from a HUGE loss in drive/motivation...

Just a suggestion:

Stop coming on here and do your work!

I believe the cause of your lack of motivation is you are a procrastinator sp? You leave it to the last minute because you want to do other things first i.e come on here

Oi. I've always been a procrastinator but the point is that getting things done has never been this much of a struggle.

You make it sound worse than it is... I DO have a life outside DV. No really.. it's true!!

Originally Posted by Mes Tarrant

Oi. I've always been a procrastinator but the point is that getting things done has never been this much of a struggle.

You make it sound worse than it is... I DO have a life outside DV. No really.. it's true!!

haha, Sure you do

So whats really the issue, are you procrastinating all the work? Or you really just dont want to do it?

No but REALLY! Unlike you two...

The issue is I don't want to do it. I wish I could just go to sleep and wake up a month or so later.

Hey! I do have a life outside of DV?

rightt?

heh But anyway, whats up with not wanting to do it? Do you have classes you don't like or something? And, was it always like this..like did you always not want to do it. Or something happened that caused you to lose interest? *cough dreamviews! cough*

You shouldn't wish your life away like that. Something great might happen this month.

(Trying to think of motivating quote...)

Ha!

Wait. Why are youz making this quite so confusing. Xox, my classes are fine, but I have an inexplainable loss of motivation. No it wasn't always like this... just since the beginning of this school year.

*wonders if this topic was a good idea*

I can relate a little... Since getting out of high school, I have seen a MASSIVE loss of will on my part to do anything school related, but to make things worse, I have a minimum of many years left before I get out of this mess . However, I pretty much know the source of this disinterest, so I have a few solutions in the works...

In your case though, I don't think it really matters what has brought about this drop in motivation. You only have, what, 1 1/2 semesters left? I say you just tough them out and get it over with. It's best to give yourself some goals/rewards along the way too, both short term and long term. So the next few months may be a bit long and boring, but you might find that the closer you get to the end, the more you'll have to look forward to...

Another (slightly more negative) way to view things, is that if this attitude does have a bad impact on your performance, you'll be kicking yourself at the end of the year. You've spend a lot of your time (and money too probably...) getting to where you are now. Wouldn't it be a shame to screw it all up right at the end?

You say you really enjoy college... and once this year is over for you then you'll be out in the "real world" working a job in the career field you've gone to school for... becoming a real adult, so on and so forth...

Maybe you're not motivated to do your work because if you finish your work then that means your one step closer to being finished with school, and you don't want that because you enjoy it too much? Maybe your mind just wants to deny that a huge and amazing part of your life is coming to an end?

But you have to tell yourself that just because it's ending doesnt mean that it's over. Just think of all the amazing things that will come in your future, and then tell yourself that if you don't get your work done, and get done everything you need, then those good things wont come. I think it's a mind-over-matter game.

Originally Posted by Mes Tarrant

Yeah. I'm told it's "senioritis"... I mean I guess I had that when I was a senior in high school because all I could think about was how badly I wanted OUT of that hell hole. But I love college, and my classes aren't too horrible (I've had some better semesters but definitely some worse)... so why can't I do anything classwork-related anymore?? I'm still very active at work, very active socially, but I just have the most difficult time doing my homework/studying. It has also become exceedingly difficult for me to get up in the mornings, even though I get plenty of sleep. I end up wasting so much time during the day doing everything other than what I have to... *siiigh*...

What's going on? Help? I am open to any suggestions.

Welcome to my world. Lol.

The fact of the matter is (IMO); I don't think any of us actually want to do the things that we "have" to do. Our lives would be so much better if we didn't have to live up to some arbitrary standard that says we have to do this and have to do that (just to get "ahead" in our academic life). The more you find out how much the things that you do as hobbies makes you happy, the less you're going to want to devote your time to the things you "have" to do to get ahead in school.

The only way you're going to get passed this (as far as I know) is to seriously consider what you want to do with your life. If you want to live the kind of life where you pursue the things that make you happy and you just want to do, then you can do anything you want. You don't have to have a career. You don't have to live up to some arbitrary standard. You can do whatever you want. There are consequences to that lifestyle, though. I'm sure you know what they are. If, on the other hand, you actually want to try to live up to that standard, and get some place where you're most likely to reap some financial rewards (unless you say "screw the academics" and come up with some badass entrepreneurial idea like google.com or something) then you're going to have to force yourself to buckle down and take your obligations seriously. It's a lot easier said than done, though. I know.

I had something like that in university. Except my apathy came way before my senior years. In the middle, I just stopped caring about a lot of classwork. I totally ACED my first couple of years, and kind of realized that the 1-2 weeks where I'm losing my mind during exams are worth it, given that it means I can slack off for the whole rest of the semester. I always got my mandatory work done, but I would have needed to constantly study to do super well. I could have scored in the 90s consistently in every class, but instead, opted to cram (i.e. learn from scratch) pretty much the contents of the entire semester for an exam a few days before it. I still got in the 75-85 range, but took some hits.

But then, near the end, during the last two semesters, where I had full control over which courses I took (and they were all relevant electives and such), I could cut the bs and take stuff I was REALLY interested in, and knew were taught competently. You know what I mean... I've had profs who couldn't deliver a decent lecture if they knew the material. Anyway, long story short, I went back into my acing everything mode and finished on a high end.

Anyway, I guess the point is, when you're not taking something you KNOW you'll use this late in the game, it's VERY easy to become apathetic towards it. And I don't even think it's a bad thing, so long as you know where you're heading in life.

Originally Posted by meggyfayephotography

You say you really enjoy college... and once this year is over for you then you'll be out in the "real world" working a job in the career field you've gone to school for... becoming a real adult, so on and so forth...

Maybe you're not motivated to do your work because if you finish your work then that means your one step closer to being finished with school, and you don't want that because you enjoy it too much? Maybe your mind just wants to deny that a huge and amazing part of your life is coming to an end?

But you have to tell yourself that just because it's ending doesnt mean that it's over. Just think of all the amazing things that will come in your future, and then tell yourself that if you don't get your work done, and get done everything you need, then those good things wont come. I think it's a mind-over-matter game.

Hehe, I didn't even think of that, goes to show just how bad I want out of this place ...


Edit:

Originally Posted by Replicon

I totally ACED my first couple of years, and kind of realized that the 1-2 weeks where I'm losing my mind during exams are worth it, given that it means I can slack off for the whole rest of the semester. I always got my mandatory work done, but I would have needed to constantly study to do super well. I could have scored in the 90s consistently in every class, but instead, opted to cram (i.e. learn from scratch) pretty much the contents of the entire semester for an exam a few days before it. I still got in the 75-85 range, but took some hits.

That's EXACTLY where I'm at, spooky ...

Originally Posted by Mes Tarrant

Yeah. I'm told it's "senioritis"... I mean I guess I had that when I was a senior in high school because all I could think about was how badly I wanted OUT of that hell hole. But I love college, and my classes aren't too horrible (I've had some better semesters but definitely some worse)... so why can't I do anything classwork-related anymore?? I'm still very active at work, very active socially, but I just have the most difficult time doing my homework/studying. It has also become exceedingly difficult for me to get up in the mornings, even though I get plenty of sleep. I end up wasting so much time during the day doing everything other than what I have to... *siiigh*...

What's going on? Help? I am open to any suggestions.

You love us too much, that's why you can't break away! Give into the Sloth mes, give in to the sloth!

Mes, that is exactly what happened to me last year. My senior year in high school I finally developed the motivation to do my homework (more or less ), but that gradually decreased through my senior year of college (last year). I loved my classes, too, but just had other things that I'd rather do, so homework usually went by the wayside... well, the long, tedious, major-point assignments went by the wayside until the last minute.

The main thing for me was I realized that I just had to buck-up and do it. For the longer projects, I would sometimes even write out a schedule for how much I would study (ie. read X# of pages on this day, etc.). Granted, I didn't always stick to it, but it essentially gave me a goal or a deadline for having something done. Even if I didn't finish it, I'd have some idea of how much more work I'd have to do, and the prospect of that was sometimes enough to "encourage" me to do the work.

Perhaps you can just find a place to go study, or set up a specific time to study every day. It's hard to be motivated to stick to a schedule, but sometimes you've just gotta do what you gotta do.

Okay, this post is kind of useless... Take Nike's advice regarding homework: just do it.

There could be a lot of reasons you are unmotivated. Some of the common things; and you might not be aware of them are high workloads, fatigue, fear of failure, lack of personal relationships, lack of encouragement, poor diet, inefficient study methods, lack of encouragement.

You could try some simple things like not spending too much time on the same subject, for example, I don't know how many classes you have to study for right now, but stick to like 2 hours study max for a subject, Break your time up into manageable periods. A concentration span is usually somewhere between 20 and 50 minutes. Consider studying subjects you like least, or find most difficult, first, when you are fresh. Leave the things you like best or find easiest until last. You only have a few months to go too, surely that is motivation enough to want to put the maximum effort into your studies now over the next few months, because this would determine the rest of your life. Throwing in the towel now, would just be a waste of all the time and effort and money you have already put into school.

But then you already know this. Sometimes we feel a lack of motivation for reasons we don't know - It happens to us all, too much of the same thing, feelings of life becoming monotonous or lack of excitement - I would have thought the amount of study you put in, and time you dedicate could well make you feel like this?

Maybe you just need to make a few simple changes? Like get a new hobby, a new routine to your day, join a gym, a new social activity? Maybe take a holiday when you have some time?

A change is as good as a rest, and I am sure it would do you wonders. Hope you feel more motivated soon, and my post didn't send you to sleep

Mes, i'm actually experiencing what your feeling at the moment. I mean you actually get your work done previously, whilst i just do it at the last minute. But over this week off i have just not had the motivation to do anything, i have loads i could be doing yet i ignore it and sit around all day. I suppose i could use reading some of this advice aswell. I got college work and study to do for my mock exams next week. They came shockingly fast, i need to study. But the advice here sounds good so you should be alright