Enhancing Motivation

Do you ever procrastinate to avoid unpleasant tasks? Do you find it hard to get started? Do you struggle to stay focused on a task? Motivation is essential to study success, but unfortunately it does not always come naturally. Motivation is the drive to achieve your goals or needs. Staying motivated isn’t always easy but it is influenced by how much you want the goal, what you will gain and your personal expectations.

What is Motivation?

Motivation reflects something unique about each one of us and allows us to gain valued outcomes like improved performance, enhanced well-being, personal growth, or a sense of purpose. Motivation is a pathway to change our way of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Some benefits of enhancing motivation include growing interests, boost of engagement, function productively, change behaviour, develop competencies, be creative and allow us to thrive.

Self-determination is an important concept that refers to each person’s ability to make choices and manage their own life. Having self-determination allows you to feel that you have control over your choices and lives. At some stage we all encounter slow or challenging situations when it is difficult to stay motivated. It might be helpful to reflect on your reasons for pursuing your study goals. Your reasons might be influenced by internal, external, positive, or negative motivations. Intrinsic motivation comes from within. This motivates you to complete a task because it is interesting or has high value to you. Extrinsic motivation draws on external forces that influence our actions and is usually focused on either attaining a reward of avoiding punishment.

“When you change the way you look at things; the things you look at change.”

– Wayne Dyer

Strategies to Enhance Motivation

Here are some things you can reflect upon:

• What’s motivating you right now?
• Are you as inspired as you want to be?
• Would you be open to new experiences that can inspire you?
• Are you continually learning new and better ways to live?
• What things have you learnt that you could put into practice?
• Do you want to be more motivated and inspired?

According to the self-determination theory (SDT), psychological growth is derived from the practice and development of the following areas:

• Autonomy: You need to feel in control of your own behaviours and goals. Having the freedom to pursue things that are important and meaningful to you.
• Competence: You need to gain mastery of tasks and learn different skills. The opportunity to develop and display your skills.
• Connection/Relatedness: You need to experience a sense of belonging and attachment to other people. The closeness and understanding that comes from meaningful relationships with other people.

In addition to this, it is important to consider your needs and prioritise your health and wellbeing. Practice integrating each need in your day-to-day life and use them to increase positivity and enhance motivation.

• Self-actualisation: The desire to become the most that you can be. Practice positive self-talk and set realistic, achievable goals that project your wants and needs to success.
• Esteem: Boost the way in which you seek and practice respect. Attend to your self-care needs and positive self-talk to increase self-esteem. Furthermore, build strength and immerse yourself in freedoms that are available and accessible to you.
• Love and Belonging: Indulge in positive and nurturing friendships, relationships and family connectedness to enhance your sense of belonging.
• Safety Needs: Prioritise your personal security and health. Gain a sense of safety through steady and reliable employment.
• Physiological Needs: Inclusive of; air, water, food, shelter, sleep, clothing and reproduction.

Enhancing Motivation and my studies

While studying at university, motivation is important when striving to stay up-to-date and meet deadlines. Setbacks are common and can be discouraging, however it is important to develop resilience and find effective strategies to enhance motivation. Consider the below strategies and practice to see what will work best for you.

• Goal Setting: A strategy to manage and enhance motivation is to set new goals. Think about what you want to achieve next week, next month and next year. Tackle one goal at a time so you don’t feel overwhelmed. Regularly reviewing your goals and progress acts as a motivator for further success and achievement.
• Develop routines/habits: Keep the momentum up. It takes up to 3 months to develop a new habit, so keeping the momentum and routine helps it feel more automatic over time. Start at setting a weekly goal, then expanding these goals to a month and continue striving for success.
• Visualisation: What it will look like after a certain situation or event. Creating a clear mental picture of your future success can give you confidence, motivation, and courage. Having goal pictures such as photographs of yourself that help you imagine that you’ve already achieved your goals.
• Create Vision boards: Creating a vision board is a fun and effective visualisation technique. You can create a digital vision board with an app or software program, or you can make a physical vision board out of printed images, magazine clippings and glue.
• Simplify: Delegating and eliminating activities that don’t motivate or excite you ensures you maximise your time and focuses your energy on achieving goals.
• Create a to-do-list: Mark off your goals as you go and reduce the list to increase motivation.
• Increase gratitude: If you express gratitude for what you have, you are less envious and fixated on what other people have. Gratitude increases your energy and feelings 0f abundance.
• Shift your motivation from getting to giving: If you come from a position of serving and helping and being more consciously awake to the world around you, your mindset can shift from receiving to giving. When you create this shift, your brain starts coming up with more creative ways to spread abundance.
• Find mentors: A mentor is someone experienced in the habit you want to change. Finding social or support groups with the same interest can help you find a mentor.
• Surround yourself with positive people: Positive friends and family enhance your positive self-talk, which also helps to manage the symptoms of depression and anxiety.
• Celebrate success: Reward yourself for the tasks that you have achieved and deadlines that you have met.
• Stay positive and optimistic: Here is a link for 7 Powerful Ways to Increase Self-Motivation
• Selfcare: Use exercise as one of your daily goals to improve your mental health.
• Sleep: Sleep is important to motivation. If you aren’t well-rested, it’s a lot more difficult to be productive and stay focused.
• Maintain healthy habits. Drink enough water, eat regularly, and don’t skip meals. You need energy to complete tasks and it’s easier to get started and stay focused if you are well fed.

University Support

If you are experiencing barriers that may affect your study or you want support to optimise your study then the WSU Counselling Service, Disability Service, or Student Welfare Service may be able to help.

• WSU Counselling Service

Students can access free, short term, confidential counselling services. Face to face, Zoom or phone appointments can be made by telephoning 1300 668 370. Our office hours are Monday to Friday 9:00am - 4:30pm. Alternatively, or email counselling@westernsydney.edu.au

• WSU Disability Service

The Disability Service is free to access with Disability Advisors assisting students to meet their full potential. If you have a diagnosed physical, psychological or medical condition that impacts on your studies, you may be eligible for an Academic Reasonable Adjustment Plan (ARAP), developed by the Disability Service. Contact the Disability Service on 1300 668 370, email disability@westernsydney.edu.au or make contact via WesternNow.

• WSU Student Welfare Service

For assistance regarding academic, personal and financial hardship, international support or accommodation, call 1300 668 370 or make contact via WesternNow.

• Multifaith Chaplaincy

Multifaith Chaplaincy can provide confidential conversation and care and support for stress management and anxiety with links to religious groups and faith communities. For more information, please call Daniel Jantos on 0402 771 543 or email d.jantos@westernsydney.edu.au.

• WesternLife

WesternLife - Join thousands of students at Your Virtual Community to share experiences, learn new things, connect with new friends, and engage with events or discussions that interest you!

• Disruption to Studies

Consider applying for Disruption to Studies and Requests for Extension if you feel as though your studies have been significantly impacted.

• Deferred Exam

Deferred Exam – You can apply for a Deferred Exam no later than 5:00pm on the second working day after your scheduled exam if you are unable to attend a final exam due to serious illness, misadventure or other exceptional circumstances beyond your control. Submit a Student Form and attach supporting documents online for application.

• Withdrawal Without Academic Penalty

Withdrawal Without Academic Penalty is an option available after the Census Date of the teaching term provided that you meet eligibility.

• Leave of Absence

A Leave of Absence is a temporary break from studying. Once you have completed one or more subjects in your enrolled program, you can apply for a Leave of Absence. A Leave of Absence can be taken as either six or twelve months. The maximum amount of leave you can take during your program is twelve months. Please note, you must submit your application before the relevant census date

If you are considering any of these options, please reach out to the counselling service for support and guidance. If you are an international student, please make sure you seek advice particularly if you are considering withdrawing without penalty or taking a leave of absence as these may have implications for your visa conditions.

Community Support

• Lifeline

If you are really struggling during the night when completing assessments or feel most alone, contact Lifeline (24 hours crisis counselling) - 13 11 14 or,

Lifeline SMS Counselling Service - Between 6pm and midnight you can text 0477 13 11 14 and somebody will text you back!

• Mental Health Telephone Access Line

Mental Health Telephone Access Line - 1800 011 511

This Mental Health Line is staffed by mental health professionals that can help and provide you advice about your needs and discuss referrals to local mental health services. It is available to everyone in NSW and operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

• Beyond Blue

Be you – Beyond Blue: General information about building resilience and facing adversity.

• This Way Up

THIS WAY UP – Self-paced online programs that teach clinically-proven strategies to help you improve the way you feel and boost motivation

• Therapist Aid

Therapist Aid – Free evidence-based education and therapy tools.

• Reach Out Australia

Reach Out Australia helps young people to recognise signs and symptoms of mental health issues, understand mental health concepts, and get guidance on how to seek help or build skills for coping and resilience. Our trusted self-help information, peer-support program and referral tools save lives by helping young people be well and stay well. Accessed by more than 2 million people in Australia each year, ReachOut is a free service that’s available anytime and pretty much anywhere.

• MyCompass

This free online treatment program has been developed by the Black Dog Institute to help people better self-manage mild-to-moderate symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress.

• Procrastination Workbook

This Procrastination Workbook helps you identify procrastination excuses and learn how to challenge, test and change your excuses. This also teaches you how to motivate rather than criticise yourself.

• Healthy Eating Active Living

Tips for staying motivated and information on what your body needs.

• Maintaining Motivation

The University of Newcastle has developed an interesting presentation/module on Motivation.

Podcasts

Denzel Washington – Best Motivational Speech

Denzel Washington’s famous motivational speech can be used to uplift and motivate individuals to delve into their goals and strive for success. This speech can be found on YouTube or on Spotify in podcast form. Listen now on Spotify.

Videos

• Keep Going
• How a student changed her study habits by setting goals and managing time | Yana Savitsky | TEDxLFHS

Apps

• Talk Campus: There is a 24/7 support app called TalkCampus, which is free and available to download on iOS devices (App Store) and android devices (Google Play). WSU students can connect and talk with other students about anything.
• Smiling Mind: Smiling Mind offers a free app to help you practice your daily meditation and mindfulness exercises from any device. There are dozens of exercises tailored to different demographics and desires. All the content and programs are free, which is the perfect app for beginners to try mindfulness. Free and available on the app store and google play.
• Headspace: Learn to manage feelings and thoughts with the lifelong skill of everyday mindfulness, any time of the day. Free and available on the app store and google play.
• My Compass: myCompass is a free app that is available to download on iOS devices (App store) and android (Google play). Interactive self-help program designed to address mild to-moderate symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression through personalised treatments delivered entirely online.
• Think Up: Think Up is free and available on iOS and android devices. This is a great app to find motivation and positive mindset you need to succeed with daily encouragement. This app is designed to inspire you with positive affirmations and self-talk.
• Motivate: This app is free and available on iOS devices. This app helps you make the first steps towards a more driven, focused, and inspired life. The app includes thousands of motivational videos from mentors.
• Strides: Goal & Habit Tracker: This app is free and available of iOS devices. This app is great as it can keep your goals, habits and routines together all in one simple to-do-list. You can track anything on this app – good or bad habits and goals.
• Be Focused: This app is free and available on the app store (iOS). This app helps you to get things done by breaking down tasks into separate intervals with short breaks. It’s an effective way to retain focus and motivation.
• Google Calendar: Available on IOS, Android, Webs Price: FREE/PRO, $6 a month. Google Calendar is perfect to manage your tasks and projects on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Google Calendar gives an overview of meetings, work, and more which helps to plan your tasks smartly and save time. ClickUp allows you to connect with your Google Calendar to give you a much clearer picture of your day.

Still struggling?

Asking for help is an important step in managing these feelings and realising your full potential!

If you are still struggling, reach out to the WSU counselling team for support and advice. If you prefer to seek support from a service outside of the university, it may be helpful to speak to your General Practitioner regarding a Mental Health Care Plan and referral to a psychologist, or you can speak to a counsellor or other health professional. Remember you are not alone and there will always be someone out there who is willing to stay with you through your hard times.