Motivation is something that everyone needs in life. It drives just about everything forward, and it is essential, especially for younger people such as students. Personally, motivation is something that I often find challenging to find, and lacking it is always something that drags down my day.
One of the main things that drives motivation for me is guilt. Knowing that I can do something and choosing not to do it has a huge difference from being incapable of doing an assignment or activity, in my opinion. If I never even attempt something, I’ll never know whether or not I am capable of doing it, and the guilt will loom over me for days. The same thing applies to me for other things as well, including extracurricular activities such as sports and music. If anything, I feel even more guilty in these situations as I know even less about whether or not I would have been capable of doing something. On a similar note, the fear and guilt of disappointing someone is another element that effectively drives motivation for me. While this may not be the same for others, disappointing people such as parents, teachers, and myself is something that I try to avoid as much as possible. And if you do your best to try your hardest at whatever you do, you are generally less likely to disappoint others even if you don’t truly succeed.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, pride is another thing that helps to motivate me. Not wanting to fail at something and wanting to do well on something, while may seem similar on the surface, are very different things, especially in terms of motivation. Pride is similar, and yet vastly different from guilt. They both involve your feelings about something and while the feelings are similar, they are also completely different. Pride is an effective motivator for me because the better I do something, the more pride I feel, which drives me to do better on things that I feel passionate about. Like guilt, others being proud of you feels the same, except the opposite, and drives me to do more and better. Pride is a powerful motivator especially outside of school; in extracurricular activities such as sports and clubs because doing something different than others and succeeding, motivates me much more.
Motivation is an interesting topic. It’s a difficult thing for me to find, and the ways I do, I’m sure, are very different from what others do and what their stances on motivation are. Finding the urge and will to do something is always difficult to achieve, and failing to do so can completely change the dynamic of my day. While this article probably doesn’t connect to too many people, maybe you think about things similarly, or will after reading this.