How to get motivated! Parts 1, 2, 3 of 33

The challenge in math (and life) is being motivated in tasks you have to do, but don’t feel like doing.

Welcome to another edition of Coach Edison - Insightful strategies for math (and life)❕

The challenge in math (and life) is being motivated in tasks you have to do, but don’t feel like doing.

Why 33 parts to Motivation?

Because 33 parts increase the odds of you finding a motivational solution that works for you. And 33 has you understand motivation much, much better!

Teenagers, math and motivation! Welcome to my world. I get to work with teenagers in an area many don’t like, don’t feel they’re good at and don’t feel like working at.

Don’t like it, not good at it, don’t feel like doing it. The three-its!

If you had my job with teenagers and math, what would you do first, second, third ...? Tell them to ‘work harder, study more, get help’ doesn’t work. What makes a difference? Motivation! Specifically, understanding where motivation fits into their learning!

With my upper end, high achieving students, their motivation conquers those three-its. But when faced with the toughest of the tough questions, motivation is still needed, as that guarantees persevering and not giving up. Motivation, it turns out, is a core part of learning!

In this Part 1, 2, 3 of 33

I’ll introduce three motivation ‘moves’ to have you understand motivation better and your relationship with motivation. A ‘move’ is a motivational action you take to 1) understand motivation and 2) then followed by repetitions that move to make it part of you.

Part 1, YOU ARE MOTIVATED!

Every math student I have ever worked with has been motivated! Every one! Bet you weren't expecting that. Yes, 100% of them! It's not something you expect to hear when math and motivation are in the same conversation. Let me expand on this. They were

all motivated, but their motivation was split along two lines:

#1 They were motivated to do stuff they liked, were good at, and they felt like doing - like it, good at it, feel like doing it

#2 They were motivated to not do the task when they didn’t like it, when they didn’t feel they were good at it or when they didn’t feel like doing it - don’t like it, not good at it, don’t feel like doing it.

#2 is the opposite to #1, but they’re both motivations, it’s just that the second gets lumped together as ‘you’re not motivated …”.

So, the problem isn’t motivation, it’s how to redirect the motivation you have in you, to do tasks you have to do but don’t want to do (i.e. don’t feel like doing). Welcome to my world of motivation.

If you start with the premise, as I do, that all math students have the ability to self-motivate, the challenge/goal/objective then becomes redirecting their motivation when they come across a task they have to do but don’t feel like doing (e.g. an assignment or homework or studying for a test).

All math students have the ability to self-motivate … the objective then becomes redirecting their motivation.

Part 2, MOTIVATION IS AN EMOTION.

Motivation is an emotion, which means if you have an emotional attachment to the objective, as in it’s fun, love doing it, and feel like doing it, then the likelihood is greater that you’ll be motivated to do it. An emotion moves you (e-motion).

I’ve mentioned the word ‘feel’ or feelings multiple times to convey that for many math students, their motivations are tied to how they feel. Critical to grasp this. The push-pull, then, is that if feelings are emotional, what do you do when you have no emotional attachment to a task that has to be done?

On the math end, a possible, obvious solution is to make tasks more ‘likable,’ design tasks students want to do, and make math real and relatable, as those bridge a possible connection to making it emotional. This ‘movement’ is being done or ‘tested’ in some schools, so I will not speak to that.

To set and achieve an objective in an area where you have the three-its (don’t like it, not good at it, don’t feel like doing it) – would be wonderful and do wonders for one’s self-talk. But without a clear emotional attachment, it’s more challenging to make it a reality. So what do you do?

Part 3, MAKE MOTIVATION A HABIT!

Motivation is a habit, and once you understand that, your view of motivation is altered. Your self-talk shifts from, How do I get motivated, to What are the habits I can create, so I am motivated.

When you have positive habits that control your motivations, your feelings and how you feel (I don’t feel like doing that) influence you less, as the positive habit is in control of you, not the feelings (i.e. negative habit).

The habit is in control of you, not the feelings.

This is massive! I’ve coached numerous students in this: not having your feelings and emotions dictate what you’re going to do (e.g. I feel like playing video games now and won’t do my homework) versus I want to play video games, but instead, I will do my homework. It’s empowering to have that sort of control over you! Habits will win over feelings every time when you have the right positive habits!

Habits will win over feelings every time, once you have the right positive habits!

Motivation doesn't turn off. It's always on.

So the problem isn't that you're not motivated or can't get motivated to do tasks you should do; the problem is that you have not made being motivated a habit. Most students get stuck at 'motivation is an emotion,' so when they don't feel like doing it, they don't do it.

Repetitions/moves you will need to do to deepen your understanding of Parts 1, 2, 3 and make this real. Aka recommended homework.

Three-ways to move your motivation in a different direction:

#1 Recognize that you’re always motivated, always!
It’s just that for some tasks, your motivation is in the opposite direction to where you’d like them to go (e.g. you need to do your homework, but instead, you’re more motivated to play a video game or go on the internet). With this move, you’re paying attention to how often you lose control of your motivation. Just observe yourself, and then do #2.

Find an emotional attachment to your objective.

#2 Find an emotional attachment to your objective.
Why? Because as you’ve proven thousands of times, when you have an emotion, when you have a strong feeling (like it, good at it, feel like doing it), there’s more fire in your belly, and you move to do it!

How do you bring emotion into tasks you have to do but don’t want to do? Find an emotion! How? Write reasons why you need to achieve that objective or want it. And not one reason, many. If your objective is to complete your homework each night, write 20 to 30 reasons why achieving that is important. The writing is like a brain-search, and you’re aiming to find a reason where you have an emotional attachment. You’re aiming to come up with a reason that you have feelings about, where there’s a thump in your heart or something that ‘moves’ you to do that thing. I have over 100 reasons for writing Math by Edison, and yeah, there are some days I don’t feel like writing or ‘don’t have the time’ or ... but … I still write! Why? Well many of the 100 reasons, and #3 below.

If you come up with many reasons and none have an emotional tug, the odds are your motivation will stay in 'sleep mode.' So, what to do when you're struggling to get 'emotional' about doing, let's say, math homework? Well, that's where #3 comes to the rescue.

Make being motivated a habit!

#3 Make being motivated a habit!
If emotions enhance motivation, habits are the replacement when there is no emotion.

Let me explain with an example: I love watching sports highlights, reading about sports, learning about strategies in sports. It’s fun and a mental break. For the 31 days in January 2024, I watched zero sports, read no articles, did nothing around sports! Why would I take away, deny, or forbid myself this ‘fun’? One reason! Because I said I wouldn’t! And it’s the practice to prove that I am in control of my feelings and not the other way around. As I wrote in a previous article, I have a hobby of creating habits, so those 31 days were me doing my hobby - practicing solidifying a habit. Fun stuff 😊.

Can you imagine not doing a task you love for a month, a week, a day? How about for a day? Can you tell yourself that tomorrow - I will not do … that thing, and then tomorrow, when all the feeling fangs and pangs are pulling you to do that thing you love, you say no. You push it away and say, No, not today! That’s how you start with making motivation a habit!

Read how to create UP habits 101 👆🏽☝🏽👍🏽⬆️🆙?, as that’s the starting point to understand your habits, and you creating up/positive habits.

For math motivation: If you want to complete the homework, then start small - if you have a habit of spending 15’ each night, then tomorrow keep it at 15’ … then at some point up it to 20’. Of if you have a habit of starting your homework late in the evening when you’re tired, then tomorrow pick a time to start it earlier – read what I did on this back in my high school days.

Final thought

If you’re thinking, Edison, I don’t want to give up a day doing that thing I love (I love it too much), or I don’t think I can do 20’ of homework, or I don’t want to start my homework earlier. Got it! That means those three are too big a jump to start. Go smaller, begin smaller, start tinier, really tiny. That’s how I started.

That’s it for Motivation’s first three Parts of thirty-three. Do the recommended work, and it’s possible by the time Part 4, … gets posted, you will be more in control of your motivation.

Time to start moving … in the direction you should be moving!

Coach Edison
Insightful strategies for math (and life)!

by Edison Hopkinson BSc Mech Eng, B. Ed

P.S.

i) If you’re wondering why, I didn’t do Parts 1, 2, 3 of ‘y’, as I did with Edison’s Math School: Part 1 of ‘x’ (where ‘y’ is not equal to ‘x’). Yeah, I thought of that, as would have been another Algebra teachable moment. I didn’t as I wanted the article to stay focused on Motivation.

ii) If you’re thinking, did Edison make a mistake by leaving the strikethrough, ‘challenge/goal/objective’? If you start with the premise, as I do, that all math students have the ability to self-motivate, the challenge/goal/objective … That was by design as I have some readers who are writers, and I wanted to share a tidbit of my thinking process.