I know the requirements and assignments of this course can seem quite overwhelming at first but take it from me as a fellow unmotivated college student, you'll make it through. The true key to survival in this course is willpower, self-motivation in a sense. You need to be properly inspired to do anything good in this world, I believe, so I would recommend a daily dose of doing something artistic. Listening to poetry online, reading the Quotations of Mao Tse-Tung, whatever it is you need. Don't think of it as an indulgence away from work but rather a key factor in understanding the world and what problems need to be solved within it. I often spend hours in the library just reading random books to accumulate a wider perspective on life and as a result I find most questions in this course more interesting to me than problematic.
The parts that gave me the biggest trouble were the interviews. I'm a really shy person when it comes down to it, and when faced with having to give interviews I honestly just considered making some crap up and posting it on the blog. What got me out of it, though, was self-reflection. I spent some time just sitting and chain-smoking and thinking about myself and why I am how I am and what I wanted from life and found that deep down I did want to connect with other people. I enjoy talking to them, and even if I didn't I still understand that I live in this world with them and couldn't live without them. Because I continually attempt to self-reflect in my life, I find the drive I need to complete assignments and generally do my best in everything I do.
My three tips to you would be this: look inside yourself, look at the world around you, and look at how you fit into that world. There's an overwhelming sense of connection and family in all the interactions we engage in, and simply put it was enough for me. If it isn't for you then sorry I wasn't much help at all, but that's my honest answer for how I find the motivation to do things. I hope you at least try to consider these things, but more so I hope that your future finds you well.
I like how you strategize your assignments in this class to something you do creatively every day. I am in the Innovation Academy and last year I had to take a class that required me to do something out of my comfort zone for 40 days straight. During this period, I found that it got really difficult to find something outside of my routine but towards the end of the 40 days, I was able to come up with something nearly instantaneously.
ReplyDeleteYour post is so inspirational, I know I do not spend enough time to just sit and self reflect on my own life. But I think a lot of people in our class have also had struggles interviewing so many people. I am also shy when it comes to talking to new people so hopefully by the end of this class we can both have the confidence to talk to more people!
ReplyDeleteI loved your post, everything you said in here is the truth. every single little detail is what the future students will find and I also loved the way you did this post
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting you touched upon the interviews, which are definitely the most time consuming (and possibly uncomfortable) parts of this class. I think a lot of people probably did fake them (or at least didn't perform them on random strangers). Hopefully next semesters students will realize that interviews can help you develop the most out of all the exercises for this course.
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