Dear Blog,
Sorry I haven't written to you in a while. Things have been weird and I haven't had the motivation to do much besides video games. Which is what I want to talk about today; motivation. Every day, it seems, I think about the word motivation and what it means to me. My thoughts on it are as pretty plain as they can get. Motivation is what keeps you driven and what makes you accomplish what you dream to accomplish. The only problem is, how do I obtain it?
I've asked this question before on social media. The responses I received were pretty typical and nothing I hadn't already known. They all make sense and I understand that the words of advice they gave me can help, but they haven't. The problem I'm having with motivation is entirely that; motivation. I'm motivated but not in the direction I need to be. I'm motivated to nap, to procrastinate, to engage in social activity, and to even sit and play video games for six hours straight. The reason behind all of it is obvious, especially from a behavioral point of view. Those things are reinforcing to me. I want to nap because I'm tired. Video games are a fun escape. Social activity is validating and carefree. All of them don't involve a lot of work, or any at all. So how do I take the things I need to do, like homework, work, chores, and make them just as reinforcing as the non-productive items? Again, from a behavioral point of view, you reinforce them. And again, I ask, how? How do you make reading 50 pages of dry text for a class you couldn't care less about reinforcing? How do you make writing five to ten pages on a topic you don't like reinforcing? A lot of people say to use the end goals as a reinforcement but as I've seen countless times before, long-term goals and rewards are not as effective at reinforcing as short-term goals and rewards. Typically, behaviors need to be reinforced as soon as possible. The more time between that behavior and the reinforcer, the less reinforcing it will be. So my question for the public is, what kind of practical reinforcers could you use?
Warm Regards,
Josh
On a side note, since I'm awful about updating routinely, if you care to know when I post and such there's an option somewhere on this blog to follow me so you are alerted when I actually write something. Thank you to those that have actually kept up with my thoughts. I write these to get things off my mind and the feedback is just an added bonus.
I like to use things that I really want to do as incentive to complete a task that I'm reluctant to do. For example, if there is a party on saturday that I really want to go to, but I have a 5 page paper to write by monday I will give myself goals to meet for each day (i guess this is like the short term reinforcement?). I can work ahead if I want, but if I dont meet the goal by saturday, say 3.5 pages, then I wont go to the party and instead stay and work on my paper. I guess I feel like you can't really have good motivation without some self control. I can't relate too well with the whole long term reinforcement not working, because that's typically how I go through life. But if that doesn't work for you, then maybe the whole splitting up a task and reaching smaller goals more frequently will.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. I have heard of doing that, breaking up the goals into smaller ones. The only problem I have is actually staying committed to those goals. So self control. I think if I find a better reinforcer for my work I'll be able to get more done.
DeleteI think you are right about the importance of motivation! I wonder how you develop interest in the class, or what the class/professor has done to drive interest away...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reply Dr. Webb. I think the problem I'm having with motivation in my classes isn't the teacher's fault (most times), but just the fact that I'm not interested in the material the class has to offer. It's all based on the situation though. For example, your class has had some great material that I was very happy to read and learn about but there's also been some material that just didn't strike a chord with me the same way the others did.
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