My final Post

What I learned most from this course definitely stems from the motives that surround our choices.  They are driven by a constant push/pull factor between our fears of failure and our need for success.  As someone else mentioned below me, the wonderful thing about this course and the text was that each topic built on the previous one and there was no "down time" in the course.  I feel that this may be one of the most important courses in my psychology degree because I want to ultimately end up in clinical therapy.  Much of therapy deals with pin pointing a patient's desires, goals, and the elements in their life that either inhibit or motivate them.  Our motives drive us in every single decision we make in our day to day from what we eat to what we wear to getting to class on time and showing up for work.  However the lack of motivation to lead a normal content life is often an effect of many psychological disorders, and the knowledge of how to restore or retrieve that motivation is essential for any type of mental rehabilitation. 

As far as myself, in a way I have learned that my thoughts and fears are natural.  I have often seen myself as unmotivated in many situations, however it seems that maybe I was letting my fear of failure hold me back (Maf).  In reading the text I have realized that i need to seek methods in which to counter those fears with postive reinforcement, and understand that fears are something that everyone shares, yet they still push forward to accomplish their goals.

I believe my previous post was my most heartfelt because it felt very relatable to me.  I often broaden my horizons and the goals attached to them for fear of not achieving them to the standards I had set for myself.  As a result I have realized that either my standards are not reasonable or even attainable in any situation but a story or a fairy tale, or maybe I am striving to discover a new destination all together. 

In my Personality psychology class I learned about how we as humans use a multitude of defense mechanisms to shied ourselves from the realities of our fears and situations.  One of them was mastery of our weaknesses.  In essence it means that when we are faced with a situation or a dilemma that we do not understand we strive to control it by understanding it in its entirety.  Being that I have had many anxiety issues throughout my life this course has helped me to put a definition and an understanding to my approach to motivations.  I feel that nothing is truer than the feeling of being able to understanding your feelings and where they come from.  In doing this we can find a way to change the ways in which we are motivated, or even better, re-prioritize what is important enough to give motivation to.  I will recommend this course to everyone I know, psychologically affiliated or not.  I hope to delve more into this topic in the future