Motivation

"I have come to the conclusion that my subjective account of my motivation is largely mythical on almost all occasions. I don't know why I do things." -Anonymous

While I find this quotation funny, I hope beyond hope that I do know why I do things more often as not. However, motivation has been on my mind a lot lately, primarily because I've been feeling an extreme lack of motivation in my own life. Further, I'm beginning to realize that it's hard to motivate others when experiencing such a lack.

I am tired, my students are tired. I can chalk most of it up to it being spring semester, and having many graduating seniors in my class. But I have to also take responsibility for some of it. It's always more inspiring when your teacher is excited. I've been spending a lot of time trying to justify my annoyance at their low-grade performance, but I need to practice what I preach. We see each other through other people's eyes, right?* So, I am going to try treating them like the brilliant students I know they are,** and see what happens to their motivation.

Wish me luck! At the least, I just don't want to de-motivate them.

"It's not my job to motivate players. They bring extraordinary motivation to our program. It's my job not to de-motivate them." - Lou Holtz

*This is one of the many social psychological principles they are supposed to learn by the end of the semester.
**I know that the people who inhabit my fiance's office will likely differ with my assessment here.