motivation

I do things last minute, but I do them very well. Especially college papers. I need the fear of an inconvenience to get anything done, usually.

How is that possible to do things at the last minute and still get good grades in college? They always say its not good to procrastinate.

I pay enough attention in the classes to not have to study too much. I have a very good memory. So when it comes time to write out an assignment I can pull off a B and in many instances an A or A minus.

I pay enough attention in the classes to not have to study too much. I have a very good memory. So when it comes time to write out an assignment I can pull off a B and in many instances an A or A minus.

In my case, people think i have a good memory and pay attention. My memory in the normal sense is horrible. Like if you say call this number. 456 7875567. i have to repeat it till i write it down or call it.
if i miss a number, its gone. I cant remember it. or if you say we are going to 123 west bld and terrace. Its when im trying to pay attention and "learn" i have the hardest time. Once to help a student in one of my classes i advised her to stop taking notes. Look around the class room. at the pics on the wall, only loosely hearing "the main points" of what the teacher was saying and to day dream and to doodle in her notebook. If she heard a word that she didnt know. take notes about it. And to only "Review the material a day or 2 for an hour for a major test. I know sounds counter productive. but it seems to work 4 me anyway

I don't know if I am motivated by anything here in life. It's a tough question. For my main interests, it's interest that that motivates me. Like my DVD collection. Im motivated to expand it because I like watching movies.

sigh. I wish I could give you all an intellect answer to that question but there simply is none. I don't have any motivation. Well maybe fear. Fear of not having a stable environment (steady economy, somewhere to live, etc).

In psychology, motivation refers to the initiation, direction, intensity and persistence of behavior (Geen, 1995). Motivation is a temporal and dynamic state that should not be confused with personality or emotion. Motivation is having the desire and willingness to do something. A motivated person can be reaching for a long-term goal such as becoming a professional writer or a more short-term goal like learning how to spell a particular word. Personality invariably refers to more or less permanent characteristics of an individual's state of being (e.g., shy, extrovert, conscientious). As opposed to motivation, emotion refers to temporal states that do not immediately link to behavior (e.g., anger, grief, happiness).



Intrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation is evident when people engage in an activity for its own sake, without some obvious external incentive present. A hobby is a typical example.

Intrinsic motivation has been intensely studied by educational psychologists since the 1970s, and numerous studies have found it to be associated with high educational achievement and enjoyment by students.

There is currently no 'grand unified theory' to explain the origin or elements of intrinsic motivation. Most explanations combine elements of Bernard Weiner's attribution theory, Bandura's work on self-efficacy and other studies relating to locus of control and goal orientation. Thus it is thought that students are more likely to experience intrinsic motivation if they:

* Attribute their educational results to internal factors that they can control (eg. the amount of effort they put in, not 'fixed ability').
* Believe they can be effective agents in reaching desired goals (eg. the results are not determined by dumb luck.)
* Are motivated towards deep 'mastery' of a topic, instead of just rote-learning 'performance' to get good grades.

Note that the idea of reward for achievement is absent from this model of intrinsic motivation, since rewards are an extrinsic factor.

In knowledge-sharing communities and organizations, people often cite altruistic reasons for their participation, including contributing to a common good, a moral obligation to the group, mentorship or 'giving back'. This model of intrinsic motivation has emerged from three decades of research by hundreds of educationalists and is still evolving. (See also Goal Theory.)

[edit] Extrinsic Motivation

Traditionally, extrinsic motivation has been used to motivate employees:

* Tangible rewards such as payments, promotions (or punishments).
* Intangible rewards such as praise or public commendation.

Within economies transitioning from assembly lines to service industries, the importance of intrinsic motivation rises:

* The further jobs move away from pure assembly lines, the harder it becomes to measure individual productivity. This effect is most pronounced for knowledge workers and amplified in teamwork. A lack of objective or universally accepted criteria for measuring individual productivity may make individual rewards arbitrary.
* Since by definition intrinsic motivation does not rely on financial incentives, it is cheap in terms of dollars but expensive in the fact that the inherent rewards of the activity must be internalized before they can be experienced as intrinsically motivating.

However, intrinsic motivation is no panacea for employee motivation. Problems include:

* For many commercially viable activities it may not be possible to find any or enough intrinsically motivated people.
* Intrinsically motivated employees need to eat, too. Other forms of compensation remain necessary.
* Intrinsic motivation is easily destroyed. For instance, additional extrinsic motivation is known to have a negative impact on intrinsic motivation in many cases, perceived injustice in awarding such external incentives even more so. (See also work by Edward Deci and Bruno Frey who discusses crowding theory.)

r wrote:sitcoms, wild life documentaries, hollywood movies?

movies usually don't hold my attention - unless i've specifically wanted to see that film. it's why i normally see films in the cinema - there there is no option but to watch the whole thing (i don't like to leave early if i've paid money).

i really don't like wildlife stuff so... those are out.

not documentaries - i suppose i mean things that are vacuous, that require no real brain power.

i mean things like sitcoms, reality contest shows - stuff like america's next top model, which has pretty pictures and lots of bitching to keep me vaguely amused but the kind of content which it doesn't matter if you don't focus on it completely.

r wrote:what drives you, if anything?

a mixture of

a) not being totally anhedonic;
There are still a bunch of things I can enjoy

b) curiosity, wanting to understand stuff

c) a dash of narcissism;
During high school and this year, I could have picked easier courses. If I would have picked 4 hours of math instead of 8, I would have had more free time (last year) , but I guess I wanted to prove that I could do it.

d) greed
One of the reasons for picking med school is “cause you can make a buckload of money when you graduate”. My parents would have preferred hearing “cause I want to help people, cause I like the social aspect of the job, blah blah blah…”.
What can I say, I don’t really care about the vectors, it’s the disease that makes it interesting. But that’s not what people want to hear ( so I usually keep all of that to myself )

e) guilty concience
I try to be more thoughtful, friendly. I don’t want to disappoint the people I care about, but somehow I manage to do that anyway.

Mike Jones wrote:The same thing that drives man to go to the moon.

Rocket fuel?

I agree curiosity is a good motivation.

I have no motivation.

Anything i do for an extended period of time becomes boring to me

Even something i like!

Focusing on complex things bores me because they're not simple, focusing on simple things bores me because if they're simple, why should i focus on them.

What drives me is necessity. I'll do something i must do, but if it is not necessary i may not do it

By necessary i mean my own, personal vision of it, and all my personal rules and ethic i may force myself into
Let's say I comply to my personal code of pride.

The only MAJOR DOWNSIDE of the lack of motivation:
It is really a PAIN when you want to find a decent job.
I think it's true anywhere in the western countries though I'm not sure.But believe me, It is so very true in France at least!

But We're not stupid folks, we'll manage somehow to find a decent job one day

Jérôme M wrote:I think it's true anywhere in the western countries though I'm not sure.But believe me, It is so very true in France at least!

But We're not stupid folks, we'll manage somehow to find a decent job one day

It's true in Spain too. I don't want to work. I only want the paycheck and I know I won't enjoy a second of it, given my former experience. Now that I'm unemployed I can't be bothered to read job offers and send curriculums on a schedule, I just don't care. I don't know if my attitude shows through when I'm doing an interview, but the "off-beatness" of my schizoid personna will sabotage my options for a job that requires me to do anything more complicated than mope the floor and clean the garbage, at least in the private sector. I thought the whole "the company is a family" thing only happened in satires. I don't even care about mine!