Hopefully you’re not here but I’ve been here and know plenty of students who’ve been there, or who are currently feeling unmotivated.

So what do you do, when you’re in college and find yourself unmotivated?

The problem is that many of us, me included want to be able to get our motivation back when we want it. You know take a nice relaxing evening, a bubble bath our favorite movie and then we’re ready and motivated to do and get better.

Well unfortunately I’ve found that our minds don’t tend to work that way, it’s a bit more of a puzzle than that. It took me a few years to have a better understanding on how our minds do work.

When we acknowledge that we have lost our motivation, often by that time it’s been gone for a bit.

So to get our motivation back we have to sit back and think where or when we actually lost our motivation.

One of the best ways to do that is to write. Perhaps you have a blog of your own, or a friend you can e-mail. The reason to write is because this involves a physical processing of ideas, we can work out frustrations in our mind but when we work through them by writing we can filter through the mess and get to the truth easier.

Once an event or feeling has derailed our motivation we have to analyze or understand the reason. Typically when we’re motivated we’re very excited, energetic and enthused, we can’t wait to tackle the big project and get the result we want.

• The first why: Unfortunately we often don’t stop to think that the emotions we’re feeling could get derailed. It’s easy to feel that the energy and excitement we’re feeling will carry us all the way through college.
  Now while that’s true for some it’s not true for others. I unfortunately had Senioritis my sophomore year in college. I had a lot of friends who were graduating so thinking of another two years was not appealing to me. I was tired of working a couple of jobs, attending class full time and having very little left over for myself.
  I had to take time to think about what really caused me to start college.
• The second why: The other thing I had to do was to understand why I was feeling like this. I was tired. When we’re tired it’s difficult to find anything that truly motivates us. My favorite thing to do seems unappealing.
  So I have had to take time, step aside and understand why I no longer like my favorite things.
  Here’s your key, understanding why you feel the way you do takes the power out of the cause for feeling so down.
• Why Write: This is why you write, you need to get to the bottom your loss of motivation before you can begin looking for a solution.Once you understand why you feel like this then you can take these frustrating feelings and turn them around. See the irritating situation as a way to better understand yourself and where you can improve.

Assess why you had the motivation in the first place

1. Was this because you felt you should do something or is it because you really wanted to go to college for yourself

Often by the time we’re adults considering college the reason we’d go to college is to improve our self or our situation.

Mentally recreate the reason you felt motivated in the first place. This is key to becoming motivated again.

Separate yourself from the emotion as much as possible, both the good and the bad. Think more about the reasons you started pursuing your education.

2. Are they still true, or have they changed

If the reasons are the same then separating our minds from the highs and lows of our emotion will be key to finding true motivation again.

If they’ve honestly changed then take time to really think about what you want, where you want to go and use this to create motivation in a new direction.

We can talk to friends, and family, but in the end we have to work through this and answer these questions for ourselves.

I had to acknowledge that I needed to succeed; I really wanted to have a career of my own. I didn’t want to be without options, I knew for myself that this meant that I had to finish my degree.

And do you know what, I do have more options.

I can help you find all the tools, money, etc to get into and through college, but I’ve always told my students the one thing I cannot give you is motivation.

Please pass this on to encourage other friends and family who might feel unmotivated, re-tweet, Digg, this and grab a copy of your free thank you guide.

Let me know what you think, ask questions and let me know what you’d like to see me chat about.

Sophie

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