Final Motivation Project

Motivation is such a crucial issue in everyone’s life. Having a class that is devoted to learning and striving to understand it was just what any college kid should take. Many people use motivation every day in order to keep up with their lifestyle, needs, and desires. The want to achieve is something that can not only be affected by motivation, but can be altered when it is missing or a lack of motivation. Horrible side effects can occur when someone is not as motivated anymore to do something. This could be problems at home, school, and work which may result to the use of alcohol and other drugs which can completely destroy one’s life. Another of the most important topics are Maslow’s hierarchy of needs allows you to understand exactly where you are in the pyramid of life. Starting at the most basic needs and desires, the physiological needs (thirst and hunger) you then are able to move through the next level. At the very top is your peak experience and outlook on life which is self actualization. There are few people that actually receive full satisfaction of life. My goal is to be able to reach the top and this class is definitely one of the reasons why I have a good shot at it.

My favorite part of the class is when we covered the topic of impulse and self control. This can be related to numerous topics which are why I feel that was the most useful and thus favorite part of the course. For example self control is when you give up the bigger, larger reward that takes more time then to smaller, quick reward. One of the videos that we saw demonstrates this phenomenon with marshmallows. Not only were those kids really cute but it really did help you understand that when something is in front of you and you can reach and grab it, it is harder to resist and wait for the larger reward. Therefore, those children who resisted the temptation of eating the marshmallows received two where as those who were unable to do this task only ate the one.

I can extend my learning experience to apply it to myself. I feel that self control can be related to me right now because I am in college. There are many opportunities to seek out the fast and more than likely more fun decisions right away rather than to wait. But I can really see how certain things are just not worth it. For example; getting completely smashed during the week when I have homework and studying to do. While I will hate feeling left out and missing out on all the fun while I stay home suffering with work, I know that when it comes down to test time, my grades will reflect my good decision. You can even push it further to explain that better grades will let me graduate, get a great job, hopefully raise a healthy family and live an amazing life. This is what matters to me more than going out and getting drunk everyday in school so that I have fun now rather than having my larger, bigger reward in the long run.

I chose to have one of my most influential songs that have made me become the person who I am today. While I have had some struggles as everyone else has too, I strive to always do the best I can and I refuse to give up. My parents always told me to do my best, that way if it was not equal to what someone else thought the “best” was, I gave it my all and need to be proud of myself regardless. The song is “How bad do you want it” by Tim McGraw. I used to have it playing in my car and Ipod when I was getting ready for my cheerleading competitions that I did for about 12 years of my life. It motivates me and makes me pumped up. The picture that I have posted is my friends and I when we took home first place in Nationals. Hope you all like it :)I choose the video that had the lyrics so that you can sing along!
http://youtu.be/Fslbo8L3g5A