How to motivate yourself for study

Motivation plays an important role in everyone’s life, and students are not an exception, since they need to motivate themselves or be motivated by others, in order to study, and achieve any goals that they have set in the context of their study.

As a rule of thumb, people do things because there is a cause that motivates them; otherwise they wouldn’t do anything.

This also applies to education and study, whether a student attends primary school or an academic institute, i.e. university or college.

It may sound strange, but even when people read or study for fun, there is a reason behind it, for example, to entertain themselves, or spend their free time in a creative way, while they get some valuable food for thought, at the same time.

So how can you motivate yourself for study?

Identify what really makes you (or would make you) want to study

This is the first step in finding motivation to study, and you should not omit it, because it’s a vital step, although it may seem unimportant or obvious.

How many of us, however, have asked ourselves what really motivates us to study?

We just go to school and later to college, without even thinking why we do it; we just do it, because this is what most people do.

Through an honest discussion with ourselves, we may be able to find out the deeper reasons and causes that really motivate us to study at any level.

I don’t mean finding the right subject of study or career, but revealing the psychological reasons that make people study.

For example, a person may study, because, as I said above, he or she does not want to be different from others.

Another person does it, because he or she likes to follow rules and is a disciplined person in life, in general.

Someone else does it, because they want to excel and show that they are better than others.

Finally, there are others who study to improve their career prospects and salary; there are so many types of motivation to get ourselves to study.

By identifying those reasons, you will be able to understand what makes you study.

In this way, you will be able to improve how you study, study more efficiently, and achieve much better results.

Let other people motivate you to study

Of course, little children can’t identify the reasons and causes that make them study.

However, in this case, as well, young learners need motivation, and sometimes more than adults.

Incentives could be in the form of symbolic rewards, since it is not possible for little children to reward themselves for studying, other than praise that they get from the teacher, such as “You are a good boy!” or You are a good girl!”, which makes them happy that they followed the teacher’s instructions.

This type of motivation can work well with adults, too.

Everyone welcomes some praise every now and then, especially when this makes them feel that they have done something right.

As a result, they can try even harder and improve their studying performance even more.

The more you study, the more you want to study

Studying is a habit that is learned over time, but once you get it, it is difficult to do without it.

Studying helps you discover all of those hidden secrets and solutions to life problems that other people may never have access to.

Because you do something that proves to be so useful, fulfilling, and entertaining, at the same time, you feel good, and this feeling is what makes studying addictive.

Therefore, the benefits that you reap from studying itself are perhaps the best motivation that makes you want to study even more.

You only need to take the first step or someone else to encourage you to take this step; after that, studying will naturally become a lifelong habit of yours.

Further reading:

10 ways to motivate yourself to study

Develop my skills-Motivation

Ten ways to motivate yourself to study for a numeracy test-Dummies series

How to Find the Motivation to Study