The Road to Self-Motivation

Humans by instinct usually like freedom and the ability to work on the activities that interest them the most. Unfortunately, for the most part, life responsibilities make it difficult to do such activities because they contradict with other important requirements. That’s why it is important to have the ability to mix interests with responsibilities whenever it is possible. Of course in such circumstances it is difficult because you have to deliver some stuff at your work which you have to finish by some deadline regardless if you like that or not.

I always wondered during my school days why I hated doing homeworks. It was actually a mixture of the lack of motivation and procrastination. Some of them were actually boring so that is another story. Procrastination in the first place kills the motivation because it usually results in a pressure that affects your interest dramatically. Suppose for example you have a project that you really like and would like to read more about and do many interesting stuff to investigate. However, you just delayed everything till it is too late. When deadlines arrive it is difficult to have the motivation and interest you had initially because you just care about finishing it asap. This is a big problem because your motivation just wears out and the common goal becomes to just finish. Working with things earlier preserves motivation and gives you the energy to pursue your interest. I remember in my bachelor degree that I liked some courses and I just regret not reading more because I got caught on homeworks and exams and didn’t have the time to enrich my knowledge more. This is a common problem because students usually look at the end result of getting a good grade and don’t have the motivation to understand the subject more. That’s why it is important to mix the things you have to do with the interests that you like. For instance, suppose that you like a certain sport and you have to choose a topic for your term paper. Why not mix these things together instead of working on a very boring topic that your instructor just chose for you. The importance of such decisions really escalates when you have some important projects that you have to work on for a long period of time, like a thesis for example. Long term projects are really tricky to work with because if you lack the motivation you will just quit. That’s why it’s important to choose wisely especially if you have some ‘say’ on what to work on. This can also be generalized at work even though the decisions might be completely to your boss. Sometimes you will have the chance to suggest an interesting project for your company that really aligns with your interests. Of course, that might get rejected but at least that tells your employer about your interests and how much they could help in the workplace.

The perfect scenario of working on the things you like might not exist in real life, but the reason might not because it is not there, rather that you didn’t really try to find it. It is ok to explore many options till you find something you really like and intersects with your daily deliverables. Not to mention that you can work on other side projects ‘maybe smaller’ to keep yourself motivated and maybe apply your knowledge in that field at your workplace or school.