motivation....help 0.0

[phantome]

Lately, I have had zero motivation to do anything. This applies to every single area of my life. I find it hard to do things for school, hard to study chess, hard to uphold relationships with people, etc.
normally, I would wait for it to pass, but it's not. The lack of motivation to put effort into school work and chess has been showing in my grades and games. I'm still in high school, but I really want to go to a good college, and am afraid that if this keeps up that that will become unattainable =/
and I STILL cannot make myself do anything -_-
how do you spur your motivation...?

 

[Starfruit M.E.]

Well... sometimes it works to find someone you care about, and tell them what you're going to do. Ask them to keep you accountable for it. Then don't disappoint them.

 

[Minuend]

There's been a couple of threads about motivation. Maybe you'll find something helpful there as well.

Link

 

[sporeza]

Hi

I have found Tony Robbins' Awaken the Giant within to be tremendously useful. He discusses Neuro Linguistic programming, values, beliefs and a whole lot of other stuff that have helped me to understand myself and move my life forward.

Regards,
Leon

 

[Infinite Regress]

how do you spur your motivation...?

I use my fear of failure and think about the consequences if it doesn't get done.

Or sometimes make the task/goal a competition between me and my mates if possible e.g. If I'm feeling a bit lazy about exercise, I'll goad one of them and get things started. Male ego kicks in and next thing all of us are pushing it to the limit. Childish, I know.

That or go out and do sth different to get me energized

 

[Dormouse]

Find that one thing that refreshes you and brightens your outlook. For me it's often going on a walk. A bit of fresh air is all I've ever needed to reboot my mind.

(If only I could follow my own advice...)

 

[Arbitrary Prototype]

My answer is probably going to be extremely unpopular.

The problem with a question like this is that everybody is different. Thousands of books have been written on this topic, and I bet you could read every one and still nothing would change. The answer I have is physiological instead of psychological. The answer is amphetamines or a chemically similar drug.

Nature did an online survey (yes I know flaws are in it) which found that 20% of scientists use brain enhancing drugs. These scientific "brain dopers" are able to make a well informed decision to suffer through the side effects (which there are many) for the substantial performance boost. It's a love/hate relationship with me, but the accurate and thorough notes I take while studying easily outweigh one night a month where I feel like my heart is going to explode.

If you have an addictive personality stay away from these. Remember that Hitler was also an avid amphetamine user and many people think that it was his addiction and perhaps psychosis that made him lose the war. He made some horribly irrational decisions when it comes to retreats at the end of the war.

Obviously this decision shouldn't be taken lightly. I hope that you won't like this idea because most people can't handle addictive drugs. I, however, don't believe in censorship, and it is one answer you probably haven't thought of yet and also one that nobody else will suggest.

If you have any questions feel free to ask.

 

[phantome]

thanks for the advice everyone
sporeza, i'll make sure to look at the book
minuend, the link does not work... =[
AP, you do bring up an interesting point, though imo, not everyone is "unique" if I were to read thousands of books on the topic, I am sure that I will discover something. Forget thousands, i'm sure even a hundred would do. I do not think that people are that different. (not to say that they're all the same, far from it. But there must be similarities)
do you have a link to the survey? I'm not an addictive personality and I doubt that I'll try these drugs, but what exactly are the side effects? you mentioned there were many but you did not mention what they were-and my curiosity is getting the best of me x]

 

[Arbitrary Prototype]

The side effects are enormous. Anyone can look up the side-effects in a second, so I'll just tell my own.

I did mention one when I brought up thinking my heart was going to explode. It might have sounded like a joke, but it's completely true. I've had many hard nights where I'm up at 4 am and everyone is asleep with my fingers tingling and my heart beating a mile a minute. I'd be on webMD for hours trying to convince myself I wasn't going to die. It never worked; I always figured my loved ones would find my corpse with a website about heart palpitations and a notebook of NP completeness equations.

I never could leave the system I started. I would turn in to a computer, once I started something the idea of stopping was inconceivable. Later on I realized that after taking my pills I need to start something that's worthwhile. I'd either be studying game theory or picking out stems of cannabis from my carpet for four hours. Both seemed just as important at the time. Even knowing that I was doing something useless, I could never stop. I'd always say five more minutes. If you really want to understand what this feels like just watch A scanner darkly or better yet read the book.

Amphetamines were a lot like cocaine only without the feeling of power. If I did a line and had to buy cigarettes I wouldn't care if the clerk thought I was high. With amphetamines I had a lot more focus and obsessiveness without the feelings of superiority. With coke I didn't care if my right nostril was bleeding on my shirt while with amphetamines if I tapped my fingers too much I thought they knew and I'd feel horrible and ashamed.

Finally food disgusted me. It's important to remember that these were diet pills before anything else. I'm skinny enough so with my heart going so fast that I was experiencing hypertension and gagging at the sight of food, it's easy to see why it was so effective.

The survey I mentioned is strange. It was first conceived as an April fools joke to poke fun at dopers in baseball so they created "brain dopers" in science. The surprise was when they did an informal survey of those reading the scientific journal finding 1/5 use these drugs for non-medical purposes. Yes I know there are flaws as I said. Nature explains the whole thing but you either need to be a member or pay to read it. This link gives the gist.

http://sigmundcarlandalfred.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/scientists-brains-on-dope/

By the way thanks for calling me out on my bullshit numbers. I always have had a bad habit of throwing them out when I want to convince people of something. Usually no one spots them, but that's one of the reasons I'm loving this forum more and more.

 

[aracaris]

The scary thing is I've never done any illegal drugs, but a lot of what you (Arbitrary Prototype) describe sounds like me at times (aside from the food thing), either that or the opposite, it's like a pendulum swinging back and forth. It seems a bit bipolar, all though I know people whom have actual bipolar disorder well enough, and have been to enough doctors to know that's not what's going on.

I'm way too scared to take illegal drugs, because I care a lot about keeping my health, and everything seems to affect me in a way that's just so different from how it affects most people, that it makes things too unpredictable, that and I'd lose my job (drug tests are required).
Having your heart beat irregularly, and too fast is really not a good feeling.

phantome I can't think of much advice right now, but here are some thoughts. Really really think about what you want out of life, what your goals should be, and what you need to do to get there. If you are working towards something that you truly believe is worthwhile then it will generally tend to be easier to make the needed effort. Of course other things going on in ones life can make it more difficult to really keep your focus (health issues, social issues, various other distractions), if so find out what those particular things are that are causing problems, and figure out a way to deal with them if possible.

Then of course there will be some things you just have to put effort into that you really don't want to do, and that can be more of a challenge. I know that's something I really struggle with at times, but sometimes it's just a matter of making sure you set aside the time, trying to keep yourself relaxed, and your mind clear of other things, and let everyone know you aren't to be distracted while you're doing your work.