• Motivated students persist at tasks and are more cognitively engaged in the material, which makes it easier to learn. People generally believe that a person is either motivated or they are not. In reality, motivation can change and those people who appear to be motivated in everything they do have just been successful in understanding how to motivate themselves in a variety of settings and tasks.
  • Students who effectively motivate themselves exhibit a variety of behaviors that lead to success. Motivated students will make choices that help them achieve their desired outcome. They will work hard to put forth the necessary effort and maintain that effort long enough to complete the task. Motivated students will think for more deeply about course material and engage in more elaborate processing in order to truly learn. Finally, motivated students can be recognized by their success in achieving their goals.
  • Everyone can become a student who displays these characteristics; it just takes more effort for some than others. When you learn the skills of motivation and recognize the obstacles to motivation you might be amazed at how quickly you can achieve your goals.
  • Two things contribute to your motivation for any task: what you expect from yourself and what value you place on achieving a goal. The key to motivation is understanding that you have the power to change both your expectations of yourself and the value placed on a task.

 

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