Motivation

We all know what it feels like to lack motivation. To put off a huge paper until the day before it's due, spend 12+ hours slaving away at it until it's somewhat decent, and swear that you will never let this happen again--that next time, you'll start it a good week before, and finish it with time to spare. And then you ignore your promise, putting through the torture of procrastination all over again.

Or maybe that's just me.

It doesn't seem to matter how good my intentions are in the beginning--I just don't have the motivation to start something until mere hours before I'm due to hand it in. It's not that I necessarily want to put it off. It just sort of...happens.

But that shouldn't happen in writing, right? I love writing. I should want to do it every minute of every day. It should be as easy as breathing.

Except....not really.

Am I the only one who has these problems? I do want to write, I really do. It's just....hard, sometimes. There's no motivation.

Last semester, I had motivation. Last semester, I was in a Creative Writing class. I had a new piece of writing due every two weeks. I was always writing, and I loved every second of it.

In November, I had motivation. November is National Novel Writing Month--or NaNoWriMo, for short--a global event in which writers everywhere drop everything they're doing and write a 50,000+ word novel in 30 days. I wrote every day in November, and I had a blast.

But now? I barely write once a week. I'm too busy worrying about homework, and where I'm going to live next year, etc etc. I just don't have the motivation.

But how do I find it?

Everyone has a different way to motivate themselves. Some people bribe themselves with chocolate, or do something special at the end of a busy week for completing a job well done. Some people don't even need any form of external motivation--they work hard just because they like to. (Ambitious jerks.)

For those of you who don't know, I'm a huge fan of the Sims franchise. I started playing the Sims 1 in 2005/2006, and have been hooked ever since. (And by "hooked," I really mean "slightly obsessed.") This past Tuesday, the Sims 3: University Life expansion pack was released. Needless to say I almost peed my pants in excitement.

Problem was, it was released during what happened to be the biggest week of the academic year. I had three papers due, a quiz to study for, and a presentation to start planning. Not exactly my luckiest week. Still, I wanted to play that game. Badly.

So I used it to my advantage. I used it as motivation.

I printed a copy of the cover art and taped it above my desk.

 Every time I felt stressed

or frustrated

or positively overwhelmed with the amount of work I still had to do

I took a post-it, wrote "Friday" on it, and stuck it up around my desk, among the reminders, to-do lists, calendars, and essay tips I already had clogging my work space.

By the time Friday finally hit, I had written the word 44 different times, on 25 different post-its, in 3 different languages and at least 9 different fonts.

And y'know what? It worked. It freaking worked.

I locked away my phone. I stayed off of the internet. And I got stuff done.

Amazing what motivation is actually capable of doing. Now all that's left is to figure out how I can motivate myself to this extent every week--and in terms of writing.

But for now, I'm not worrying about that. I've waited all week. I've been incredibly patient.

Now I've got some Sims to play.


Until later,

- Justyne