“Don’t be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be led by the dreams in your heart.”
― Roy T. Bennett
Studies, especially academic ones are generally boring. It has been proven scientifically that the brain retains and recalls information that is entertaining to it. The other information that does not bring about information is generally relegated to unrecoverable alcoves which we term as been “forgotten”. In such a scenario when most of the information that we gather from our texts of academics are deemed to be boring and generally gets lost within the irretrievable alcoves of memory, how do we keep ourselves motivated?
- Rewards: Well, there are a lot of factors that can be summoned upon to gather the fleeting emotion of motivation. First of all, we should accept the fact that everyone loves to be rewarded. Even the brain yearns for rewards. Therefore, it is important to feed the brain with the kind of reward that keeps it enthusiastic. When you are into a dragging routine of studies, plan for breaks and try to reward the brain during the break. The brain loves the taste of dark chocolates, walnuts and almonds. So, during a break, instead of treating yourself with a cup of coffee, try a dark chocolate. Give the brain a pat at the back for working hard. It will surely reciprocate. Each time reduce the duration of the break but remember to reward the brain genuinely and generously.
Align the two brains: As we might know that our brain is divided into 2 hemispheres; the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere. With a clear-cut division in between, it looks like a walnut kernel. Each hemisphere has a dedicated set of responsibilities assigned to it. The left hemisphere controls the right side of the body and the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body. Though both the hemispheres work in coordination with each other, each hemisphere has its designated job assigned to it. The left hemisphere does everything related to numbers, analysis, planning strategy making and is thus called the logical brain. These are the kind of tasks that we do at school. The right hemisphere is however responsible for everything creative like drawing, coloring, imagination, visualization, day dreaming. Therefore, the right brain is called as the creative brain. These are the kind of work we are not much inclined towards. Slowly and gradually we get trained for using only our left hemisphere majorly and the right hemisphere is left mostly under used leading to a major imbalance inside our heads.
It is very much possible to avoid this imbalance in the first place and restore the balance in case it exists. The simple process is to engage in activities throughout the day that balances the use of left and right hemispheres equally. Remember, how we take care of a balanced diet throughout the day by consuming food from each food group. Few food components in the morning, few in the afternoon and few in the night in the same way we need to balance our brain hemispheres throughout the day by sometimes engaging in activities involving the right hemisphere, sometimes involving the left hemisphere, and sometimes involving both. It is therefore useful to stimulate both the hemispheres of the brain to function properly and energetically. There are specific exercises that align both the hemispheres. One example being putting the index finger and the thumb together with the other three fingers erect on one hand and making a “L” with the index finger and thumb of the other hand simultaneously. Swap the signals rapidly from one hand to the other and continue this for at least 5 minutes. Exercises like this are called brain gym exercises.
Apart from brain gym exercises try to involve yourself in activities such as:
- Learning to play new instrument
- Reading fiction
- Playing
- Sound sleep
- Learning a new language
- Learning a new skill
- Traveling
- Making new friends
- Doing any form of exercise
There are numerous other modes too to keep oneself motivated.
Nowadays, there are numerous videos on YouTube regarding successful ventures of simpletons which might exemplify great efforts and achievements. Listening to motivational talks also prompts the brain to stay alert and perform extra.
As I said before, the brain craves for entertainment. Therefore, it pays off to bring in some kind of rhythm to studies. The brain remembers well when one can form mnemonics out of formulae or other facts that can be remembered easily.
Writing is a very important exercise that affects the brain positively. It creates new neural connections when you write.
Writing vs. Typing:
Writing wins hands down and will have long lasting positive impact on you as compared to typing. Unless you are authoring a book where typing becomes much sensible thing to do or writing is not possible with you for whatever reason then you may type, but if you have the option to choose between the two then go ahead with hand writing.
Learning is an activity of participation. Unless you participate in the process you cannot learn. Keep writing important words as the teacher is teaching and be actively involved. Read the words again once the class gets over.
Notes should never be made by just copying the content from the textbook. Notes should ideally have keywords for a particular answer. No one expects you to write the answer word by word, same from the textbook. Even if you write the entire answer in your own language as long as the meaning is conveyed it is considered the right answer. Therefore, if the keywords of the answer are known you can easily draft your answer.
The more we behave in sync with the brain, the more motivated we become.
We should also note that we should not let the brain be disturbed too much, too often. Disturbance of the brain brings about de-motivation. It is advisable to keep 1 hour of each day called the “spoil hour” for all distractions like engaging in social media etc. Concentration motivates and encourages the brains. Distractions bring about drudgery to the brain.
Sleep is also thought to be the time when we find solutions to our problems.
Often when we go to sleep with a problem in our mind, we may even wake up with the solution to that problem. People who have been consumed with some problem and working towards finding its solution sometimes find the solutions in their sleep.
In today’s time even software engineers confess that when they are faced with some challenging problem like finding a bug which is too stubborn to be sorted, they consider it best to take a break as this increases the chances of them finding the bug and its solution with much less frustration.
lastly, believe in yourself. Do not compare the lives of others with yours. Talk to yourself and congratulate For students, a tip to make learning stronger is by sleeping over the newly acquired information. Make it a habit to read the newly learned things of the day just once loudly before you go to sleep. It helps in consolidating the new information during sleep.
Generally, it has been a practice for students to study late into the night and wake up late in the morning. This practice demotivates the brain. It is paramount to provide the required rest to the brain when it requires the most. Morning hours are refreshing and the brain rewards itself after having a healthy sleep at night. Therefore, it is important to abide by the right times for sleeping and waking up.
And yourself for every minuscule milestone achieved.
“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.”
― Lou Holtz