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11. Motivation

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"I read the articles on your blog but my issue is motivation".

Sanele Shazi, one of the first year Bcom Accounting students at the University of the Western Cape (UWC ), came up to me earlier this year and said something along those lines. With an appalling attempt in responding to him, I shared what Mr Graeme CA(SA) said when he came to UWC. He said that to keep us motivated to attend to our studies, we can have a picture of what we aspire to achieve/ dream of having. For instance, a dream car.

Fortunately I had recently gone to a "Lead a leader" program that was held by UWC's Leadership and Social Responsibility department. The facilitators Lubabalo Ntlokwana and Jaclisse Lorene Mayoma shared incredibly useful information on motivation; to the extent that I even discovered what motivates me to continue finding useful ways to get through my course, even when I had failed the previous year and not doing that well in the current year. In this article, I share what they communicated.

Motivation is defined as the reason(s) for acting in a particular way. It's an internal process that makes one move towards a goal. Interestingly, motivation can either come from within us, termed 'intrinsic motivation' - for example passion/an interest; or from outside, termed 'extrinsic motivation' - for example poverty.

Such examples of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, like passion and poverty, supposedly should drive/ push us to behave in a way that will enable us to reach our goal. On a personal note, the intrinsic motivation - my fear of failing again - is what pushes me to find useful ways to study throughout the year to reach the goal of not failing again and eventually obtain my degree.

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Of course, staying motivated is not easy. There are times when one can feel de-motivated. De-motivation is the result of obstacles that get in the way of us achieving our goals. There are a number of obstacles that demotivate one in their journey to achieving that goal. It may be that one person, that one text, a disability, the 'haters', the cold weather, the supervisor at work.


A typical solution to de-motivation is to not let the obstacles get to us; to always remember where we are headed; and to surround ourselves with those in the same mission as us. Self-motivation is key.

What keeps you motivated to reach your goals? Be sure to share your thoughts on this topic with us on the comments section below.

You can also follow the blog on twitter : https://twitter.com/student_blog and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Student-talk-blog-For-learners-and-students-496094020519505/

Thank you so much for your time and consideration. Until next time :)


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