Most students think that their biggest problem when studying and learning is a lack of motivation. They compare themselves to other, more successful students and think that these students do better mainly due to their strong and constant motivation to learn, something that doesnt seem to stick around for them. The truth however, is far more simple than that. Motivation isn’t what drives these students, in fact, relying on motivation is one of the fastest ways to stay inconsistant. Disipline is where the real academic gains are made. Motivation is purely an emotion, it comes and goes based on a variety of factors in your life, how you sleep, your energy, desperation, stress, or even something as simple as the time of day. If your goals and habits depend on that feeling, your progress will be unpredictable and lack any consistancy. This is why some students dont have trouble studying one week and and the next, they are majorly struggling. Successful students dont wait to feel ready, they build solid routine that carrys them through any wavering motivation, making their study habits become unaffected by mood. Building an effective routine is actaully quite simple, all it takes is a fixed study time with a controlled enviroment, a planned schedule, a small daily workload and a method of learning. When you have this level of structure and organsiation, motivation goes out the window, you arent depending on an emotion, you are simply following a system. The suprising part of all of this is that despite this process aiming to remove motivation, once you sit down, with an actual realistic plan and a clear path ahead, both confidence and motivation tend to kick in. From there momentum takes you way farther than you thought was possible. This is why consistancy beats motivation. Every single time. Small steps like 30 minutes a day always beats the monthly 6 hour burst. You dont need motivaton, all you need is structure routine and small daily goals. Thats what builds the real results, its what keeps your progress up without relying on unpredicatble emotions.

Lishai Rubinstein