Yesterday, at the close of our post on revision, we promised the thoughts of our Head of Spanish Mrs Maria O'Neill and the issue she highlights is a crucial one: motivation!
We all know revision is crucial but, without motivation, there are so many distractions that will draw us away from the revision path!
Mrs O'Neill comments: 'When we talk about revision, we usually concentrate on what to revise and how to revise; however we forget about one very important ingredient: motivation. For many of us it is often harder to stay motivated when we are away from school or work, out of sync with our normal routine. However, there are some tricks you could use in order to keep your motivation levels up.
First of all, you need to remember that motivation comes and goes. As one of my favourite motivational speakers Zig Ziglar points out: ‘‘People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing- that's why we recommend it daily!’’ The truth is, you need to work at being motivated and it’s natural to have some days when you just can’t ‘get going’.
Revision can be daunting and if you are not motivated, you won’t use all the wonderful revision techniques that we, teachers, told you about and will end up staring at the book for a couple of hours just to get your parents off your back.
The fact is that motivation and habit go hand in hand. In order to remain motivated, you need to make it a habit to use some strategies to keep motivated. At this stage it would be useful to ask yourself whether you have healthy or unhealthy revision habits; in other words: are your current habits helping you to revise efficiently or stopping you from doing so? Be honest with yourself: no excuses please!
Just like you and like everybody else, I too, struggle to be motivated all the time. And just like you, I’ve used to have some really unhealthy learning habits. The good thing is that habits can be re-learned; you can adopt or learn some healthy habits that will help you tackle revision successfully and remain motivated. Here are some habits that I’ve found particularly useful:
We are very grateful for Mrs O'Neill allowing us to present the information above that she has also posted as a blog.