You are your own best motivator. Your motivation must come from within yourself. Others may try to encourage you, but you are the only one who can attain what you desire. You must convince yourself - you can!
Throughout your college years you will have to make many choices; view these choices as opportunities. Don't allow yourself to be burden with problems; they are really only challenges. Train yourself from the start to put your time and energy into finding solutions to your challenges, not in complaining. You must adjust your attitude and retrain your thought process.
Start with surrounding yourself with positive people. They will encourage and nurture you. Stay away from negative people because they will discourage you and sabotage your dreams and goals.
You need to hold yourself accountable. Write a letter of intent to yourself, date it, and sign it. Put this letter some place where you will see it everyday. Go to a friend or fellow student and make a commitment to each other. It helps to be accountable to someone else.
If you develop your dreams into goals, and your goals into realities, then your realities will become your successes!
Goals are like road maps; they get you from one point to another. Goals provide the direction you need to reach your destination, the motivation to sustain you on your trip, and a way to measure your progress. The best way to get results is to plan for the future, but live one day at a time.
Think about the future. How do you define success? What makes you happy? What drives you? What makes you get out of bed in the morning? Does success mean family, money, security, prestige, to help others, improve the environment, solve problems, a career, a degree? Whatever you decide, the key is to strengthen your will to succeed. To succeed, strengthen your will - to strengthen your will, succeed. This sounds circular, and it is - it is a positive feedback loop.
To get this positive feedback loop started, develop a long-term plan. Where do you want to be 3-5 years from now? What do you want to be doing? Where do you want to live? What kind of vacations do you want to take? What is your house going to look like? What kind of car will you be driving? What color will the car be? Get very specific with your dreams and your plans. If your dreams are specific, your goals will be specific. Never ask yourself the questions - "What if", or "What would happen if". Make the questions a positive affirmation of what you will do! Prioritize your goals - what is the most important goal for you and what is the first thing you need to do to start towards that goal? Then plan backwards in time and outline the major steps it will take for you to arrive at that future destination.
Once you have the big picture, break your outline into
individual, short-term goals. Short -term goals should range from daily
goals to one-year goals, midterm goals should range from 2-3 years, and
long term goals are up to 5 years. Make your list very specific and
realistic. You want to be successful in reaching your goals, but at the
same time, these goals should challenge you. At the end of each day
reward yourself and strengthen your resolve for tomorrow.
No one can teach you how to think,
you must motivate yourself to learn how to learn!