why can't i do work???!?!??

[rudder]

It's called self control. It's called not being lazy. It's called not finding excuses not to do it. The only person you can blame is you -and, likewise, the only person that can actually help you... is you.

What maladroit is describing could be a symptom of ADD. Rather than rail on him for being a slacker maybe we shold suggest he visit a medical professional.

 

[Geekbabe]

What is this "work" you speak of ?

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

<< It's called self control. It's called not being lazy. It's called not finding excuses not to do it. The only person you can blame is you -and, likewise, the only person that can actually help you... is you.

What maladroit is describing could be a symptom of ADD. Rather than rail on him for being a slacker maybe we shold suggest he visit a medical professional. >>

LOL - ADD is an excuse for lazy people :Q

 

[lawaris]

<< every.....day....of....my....life.... >>

 

[bandXtrb]

<< FFMCobalt - Instead of ending your posts with "Nik", you should be ending them with "Prick". >>

 

[rudder]

<< FFMCobalt - Instead of ending your posts with "Nik", you should be ending them with "Prick". >>

 

[Kev]

<< I just had my final in my Psychology of Human Motivation and Emotion today. Great course. A lot of the stuff I learned seemed intuitive, like in any other psych course, but a lot of the stuff we learned was very revealing as well. I couldn't diagnose your situation without more details, but, like myself, you probably suffer from a lack of intrinsic motivation with regards to the work your doing. Intrinsic motivation is motivation that stems from an innate desire to do something for the pleasure of doing it. External motivation is when you are compelled to do something because of an external force. For instance, perhaps the midterm is in a class that you find really interesting, in a subject that you would like to learn more about on your own time. Maybe because of this you resent being tested, which interferes with your normal procedure of conceptual learning by memorizing facts to do well on a test. Or perhaps you don't care about the class at all, and hence have no reason to study for the test besides not wanting to fail. Either way, the test represents an external control, and external controls, while increasing external motivation, tend to decrease internal motivation. This is why you procrastinate, because these two forces are in conflict, until finally at the last minute the stress induced by procrastinating causes the EM to win out and make you study.

btw, I'm not a psych major but I really got a lot out of this course. It was taught by a guy who's a huge name in psychology...Ed Deci. Wrote the textbooks for the course and everything. >>



Wow, you just annihilated me with your post, annihilator. Maybe thats what it is. I tried to wake myself up early so I would have enough time this morning to write the paper and study, but "sleepy me" took control this morning and wouldn't let me get out of bed for 1 hour.

So I cranked out a 4 page piece of crap (which I will probably somehow get above a B on), and skimmed the text for my test. I think I did allright.


Or maybe Prick is right and I am the worst person ever.

 

[annihilator]

<< I tried to wake myself up early so I would have enough time this morning to write the paper and study, but "sleepy me" took control this morning and wouldn't let me get out of bed for 1 hour. >>



Man, I can totally sympathize. This used to happen to me all the time, especially when I had 9 a.m. classes sophomore year. If you want to make yourself get up at a specific hour, the first thing you have to realize is that you can do it if you really want to. We've probably all had nights where we go to bed at six and get up at seven, just because we can't _not_ get up at seven, because it's a matter of life or death...like, you have to get to work at 8 or you'll lose your job, or you have to get to a final for a class that if you don't pass you won't graduate. You do it because you have to. Once you realize this, the trick is to induce the state of mind where you believe you _have to do this thing_. So far, you've been accomplishing this by procrastinating. If you can do it through a rational thought process instead, you'll be a lot closer to having a good work ethic.

This isn't psychology anymore, btw, just my own personal opinions. I myself am still struggling with this. Your environment really plays a huge role in how motivated you are and the feasibility of changing your lifestyle on such a fundamental level.

ffmcobalt, I totally understand where you're coming from and on the one hand, I totally agree. If you want to improve yourself, you have to accept responsibility for your actions. On the other, things aren't as cut and dry as you'd like to believe. It's easy to exert a minor amount of self control and force yourself to do something if it only requires a small amount of mental exertion, such as physical labor or paperwork. However, your motivation plays a much larger role in what you finally do if you're attempting a complex procedure, such as writing an analytical paper or lab report -- especially if you have high standards and you really want to do a good job. Some people slack off and accomplish very little; sometimes it's because they're lazy, but sometimes it's because they won't do something if they can't do it well, and there's something preventing that from happening. It's very hard to do your best on an assignment that holds no interest for you.

Ultimately, I believe you are right, that once you recognize what is causing you to be unmotivated, it's just a matter of will power. Can you exert the will to overcome your external controls and do what needs to be done? But just because you seem to have your sh!t together doesn't mean you have the right to go around preaching to everybody else. It's possible to give support without being critical or demeaning.