The Free Goal Setting Video

Motivation in school is something most kids struggle with but if students, parents, and teachers cooperate with each other, studying won't be such a hardship.

The Importance of Positive Feedback

Believe it or not but there are teachers and parents indeed who have difficulty saying simple words like "good job" and "congratulations." They may be merely words, but never underestimate its impact on a child's morale. Knowing that their hard work, no matter how small, is appreciated always motivates a child to do better next time.

The Right Time, Place, and Reason for Studying

Kids can be more motivated by studying if they know and understand the importance of studying. You need to speak their language so that they'll appreciate your efforts in making them study hard. If you want them to study, the best way to do that is to make them want the same thing as well.

The right environment is also crucial for motivating students. Having their own study table in their bedroom is good, but a bed in proximity could make them feel more impatient? If possible, have them study in your library, office, or a place where there are no possible distractions.

Students won't be motivated if your demands are too excessive. Be reasonable with your expectations. Don’t expect them to devote all their free time to studying. Having them do so isn't healthy anyway. Choose the appropriate schedule and amount of time for their studies and your child will be more motivated to do what you want.

Help Them Develop Goals

Simply asking them to "study harder" won't be enough. Giving them a routine for studying at home is a good start, but it's not enough. People of all ages are more motivated when they have actual goals to focus on.

A good goal is SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.

General goals are difficult to achieve because they ask too much. Goals are more motivating if they state exactly what you should be after. Goals must also be measurable; if not, how can you know when you've achieved your goal? For students, goals are usually measured by their grades or certain academic or interscholastic achievements like being voted class president or winning a championship.

Goals must be realistic in the sense that they're something a person can actually do. Goals must also be attainable. Given the circumstances and resources of a student, is the goal still achievable?

Lastly, goals must be time-bound as time can also be a source of motivation. With a deadline to meet, your child will be motivated to work hard early and diligently.

Rewards and Repercussions

No person is too old for rewards. It's just a matter of choosing the right reward to motivate them. You'll have to speak with your child to know what kind of reward they'll be most motivated with. But there must be repercussions at the same time for additional motivation.
Repercussions, however, must be minor in comparison; you don't want to motivate your child by fear and coercion, do you?

Motivate by Example

Last but not the least, be a role model to your child. You may not have the same goals, but whatever methods you apply to reach your goal can be something your child could adapt for his own goals.

Do all these and your child will be properly motivated in school!

Labels: goal setting, goal setting video, motivation, positive feedback

For some people, waking up early is as natural as breathing. Lucky them. But for many others, waking up early is virtually an impossible thing to do. Luckily for them, using the motivational tips below can give them a better way to start the day.

Wake up to the right environment.

Believe it or not but the way your room looks can help or hinder your ability to wake up early. A messy room will generally make you disinclined to wake up early because cleaning your room will just be one of the many worries you have to tackle for the day.

But when you wake up to a clean room, just the sight of it can be energizing and make you jump out of bed. At least you've got one less worry to think about!

Give yourself a good reason to wake up early.

Waking up early come with instant benefits like better health, more time to spend on the things you want to do, and greater productivity. Give yourself ten minutes to think about all the good reasons for waking up early and you might never stop writing. Now, focus on these reasons the first moment your eyes open and you'll be up and about in no time!

Get the best sleep you can.

One common reason why people find it difficult to wake up early is simply because they didn't have enough sleep and if they had then it wasn't good enough.

To get the best possible sleep, the first thing you should consider changing about your night routine is your sleeping hours. How about sleeping early for a change? Can't the things you normally like to do at midnight be postponed for the next day?

Sleep as much as you need. This is different from being a professionally idle and sleeping the whole day away just because you want to and not because your body is demanding for rest and relaxation. Motivating yourself to wake up early is easier to do when your body is not clamoring for the opposite.

Sleep effectively.

A night's slumber is more restful and peaceful when you haven’t procrastinated at work and there weren't any problems at home you chose to sweep under the rug instead of solving them as they come. Definitely, where you sleep also matters. Try to be comfortable as you can. Change your bed, rearrange your room, or have air-conditioning if that's what will make you sleep better.

Reward and punish.

Let's focus on the rewards first. Remember how you used to get candies from parents or stars from teachers when you did something good? How about upgrading the reward system to motivate you to wake up early?

A reward system, however, should cut both ways. To make the system more effective, you need to set repercussions for yourself when you wake up late. You also need to be stringent in implementing the penalties. Don't rationalize. Don't justify. The more aware you are about the consequences of waking up late, the more motivated you’ll be not to do it again.

Get a partner.

Find someone who's also having trouble waking up early and work together to motivate yourselves to change. Don't think of this along the lines of misery loving company, but rather this is more of a case of two hands getting more things done. The two of you will get the results you want more quickly if you help and motivate each other. Be his personal alarm clock and vice versa!

Labels: goal setting video, motivation, motivational tips

There will always be times in your life when you have to perform tasks that you deem unpleasant for one reason or another - working with a co-worker you don't like, going to work on Mondays, taking the garbage out, driving to meet the in-laws at the airport, having dinner with the spouse's friends ...

Doing these things just siphons whatever motivation you have inside you and makes you feel sad, tired, sorry, even annoyed. But did you know that there are also things inside you that actually make it difficult to feel excited and enthusiastic?

Get to learn the factors that make you hard to motivate:

Your Mindset

Your mindset is a major factor that can make you hard to motivate. This is because it can severely limit your understanding of the world and all experiences in general. Your mindset can sometimes be composed of growth-inhibiting beliefs, prejudices, biases and standards.

If, for example, you believe that nothing good can come out of your staff, you'll fail to see that there is a clerk there that actually has management potential. If you refuse to believe that you can actually write for a famous magazine because you're a person from a small town, you'll miss out on an opportunity to expose your talent and reap its rewards.

Your Comfort Zone

We all have certain limitations in our minds. These limits are things we decide on based on our own personal beliefs, ethics and standards. Within these limits, we feel comfortable in and can pretty much do as we like.

Once we approach the outer edges, we begin to feel discomfort, shyness, embarrassment or annoyance. We do not wish to go further because we do not like what we don't know or haven't experienced. Because we have a fear of the unknown, we'd rather stay within our comfort zones because we feel safe there.

The problem here is that a narrow comfort zone can be a major factor that makes you hard to motivate. Each time you are presented with a new idea or experience, you check to see if it fits into your comfort zone. If it doesn’t, then you simply refuse, no questions asked.

This is unfortunate because many of these ideas and experiences can be good for you. But you'll probably never know because you don't have the motivation to try them.

Your Past Experience

Did you get burned by the stove? That's probably why you hate to cook. Did your former bosses fail to show appreciation for your hard work? That's probably one reason why you don't feel motivated about your job.

Your background - personal, social and professional experiences - has a lot to do with how you decide things in your life. They can also be factors that make you hard to motivate. If these experiences are negative, they tend to make you more hesitant and unsure of yourself because they affect your self-esteem and confidence.

If, for example, you've only been met with rejection or ridicule in your life, it wouldn't be hard to imagine if you don't feel a strong need to excel or to improve yourself. You'll probably be thinking - 'So what? Nothing I ever did was good anyway. Why would things change now?'

Unless you consciously make an effort to identify these past experiences and then refuse to let them rule your life, you will always be hard to motivate.

Labels: goal setting video, motivate, motivation