Initiating versus Sustaining
But…. I’m just not feeling motivated.
Motivation is the ability to initiate and sustain goal-oriented action.
Initiate means to begin. Sometimes we need motivational tactics just to get us started.
Sustain means to continue once we’ve started. Sometimes we need motivational tactics to keep us at it.
Initiate | Sustain |
I’ll use these tactics to get me fired-up and started when I feel sluggish… | I’ll use these techniques to keep me going once I’m up and running.. |
Twenty motivation techniques we’ve seen students use before…
1. Scaring yourself by imagining failing everything.
2. Begging for a £20 cash payment for every good grade you get.
3. Devising a punishment for not doing work.
4. Telling yourself, “I’ll just do twenty minutes then I’ll stop.”
5. Developing a clear sense of why grades are important and the freedom they can give you
6. Listing the grades you want then telling other people that’s what you’re aiming for.
7. Looking in the mirror and shouting, “Come on! You can do this! Let’s go!”
8. Scheduling a small reward after every hour of work.
9.Comparing yourself to others who are working harder and imagining that they’re revising right now and you aren’t.
10. Removing all your favourite apps from your phone and choosing a date when you’re going to reinstall them.
11. Looking at your worst grade and feedback to make yourself feel so bad you do some work.
12. Making a list of topics and ticking them off one by one as you revise them.
YOU COULD TRY…
13. Visualising the consequences of success.
14. Making a list of all the family and friends who would be really proud of you if you worked hard and did your best.
15. Offering to revise something so you can teach it to someone else.
16. Putting an inspirational quote over your desk or using it as your phone wallpaper.
17. Keeping a scoreboard with every day crossed off if you’ve done some work that day.
18. Having a start-time that you stick to every single day, and alarm that goes off on your phone at that time.
19. Speaking out loud to yourself, going through a prepared speech that starts, “I’m doing this because…” or “I’m working hard now because in the future…”
20. Arranging to meet someone else so you can test each other once you’ve covered a topic.
I’m OK with these. But I have a better idea!
Share your motivational techniques with each other
I don’t like any. I’m just going to do nothing….
Tim Ferriss
Writer,
Teacher, Podcast Host
info@vespa.academy
Contact: info@vespa.academy�@vespamindset