Maintaining Motivation

Graduate school may represent the ultimate “delay of gratification”. Students spend many years waiting for the final prize of a degree and an eventual job, and while there are many gratifying aspects of grad school, it can become easy to lose motivation and engagement along the way. This is a normal aspect of the grad school experience; even the most energetic and passionate students may lose steam at some point during their studies. Therefore throughout your time in grad school, it is important to not only learn how to become an effective academic in your field, but also how to manage frustrations, and at times, the feeling that you lack the necessary motivation to move forward. Understanding the challenges and learning strategies to overcome them can help you succeed. Here are ten strategies we think can help you to maintain motivation and keep you going, even when the path ahead may look bumpy.

• Engage in goal setting. Spend some time and consider both your short-term and long-term goals. Achieving short-term goals can act as motivation to eventually reach your long-term ones. Take time to look reflect on your long-term goals in terms of your academics, your career, and your life. Having clearly defined aspirations in mind can help you to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
• Be as organized as possible. Have a solid game plan for getting through your program. Know what the requirements are for each stage, and how and when to accomplish them. You can also renew motivation in the short-term with clear to-do lists. This can serve to not only clearly outline your upcoming tasks, but what you have already accomplished thus far.
• Find a topic that you are passionate about. If you don’t enjoy your work, you’ll most likely struggle to be interested in completing your project. Choose a topic that really excites you or a substantive area you feel can have an impact on a community, issue, or problem you feel is important.
• Set deadlines for yourself. Even if there are no ‘true’ deadlines for you to complete, let your family, friends and peers know of the deadlines you have set for yourself to encourage you to stick to them.
• Keep a visual reminder of what you are working on. Try keeping a bulletin board of the things you have to do, things you are currently doing, and the things you have completed. This can serve as a reminder of the progress you have made thus far, and help you to avoid feeling overwhelmed or bogged down with the magnitude of your project.
• Trust the process. Part of what makes the graduate process so difficult is that it doesn’t come with instructions. In addition to trusting yourself, grad school requires that you trust in the expertise and guidance of your advisor. Try to remember that many students have been through your program before, and professors have also once been in your shoes. If they can do it, so can you!
• Let the guilt go. While you should set goals, priorities, and deadlines, try to remember that you may not always be able to meet them. Acknowledge that you may not be perfect at everything you do and you might not strike that perfect balance, but at least you are trying! It is that persistence that will be rewarded.
• Find some balance. Take time to have a life outside of your schoolwork. Pursue your hobbies, workout, hang out with friends and family – do whatever it is that makes you happy. Make sure to take a break and make time for activities outside of school; it will help you to come back to your project feeling recharged and ready to work!
• Don’t doubt yourself. You can complete graduate school because you are qualified to be here! You are working in your substantive area because it is a topic that excites you and you can finish your thesis/dissertation because you are now an expert in this topic area. Don’t waste time doubting that you are good enough to be here – just know that you are!
• Everyone goes through it. When all else fails, it is helpful to know that lacking motivation is entirely normal and a common component of student life. Don’t beat yourself up for not being the ultimate student all the time – motivation can come in ebbs and flows and it is just important to take advantage of it when it strikes.

To learn more about these tips and other approaches to maintaining motivation, please check out the information at that the University of Guelph has to offer at the following link: http://www.uoguelph.ca/tss/resources/onlineres/student_motivation.htm

This post was adapted from University of Washington’s ‘Staying Motivated in Graduate School’ by Alexes Harris (http://www.grad.washington.edu/mentoring/memos/staying-motivated.shtml), Stat Tr@k’s ‘Staying Motivated and Achieving Success in Graduate School: A Few Common and New Suggestions’ (http://stattrak.amstat.org/2012/04/01/staying-motivated/), Inside Higher Ed’s ‘Staying Motivated’ by Alexes Harris (http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/mentor/harris), 1DegreeBio’s ‘1DB’s Best of 2012: How to Stay (Relatively) Motivated Through Grad School’ (http://blog.1degreebio.org/?bid=582), and Michigan State University’s ‘Motivation and Engagement’ by Lisa Raphael (http://grad.msu.edu/wellness/intellectual/motivation.aspx).