the encouragement lounge: Staying Motivated

Monday, November 16, 2009

Staying Motivated - revisit your early goals

There are a range of feelings that can make this time of year challenging for students. A few that come to mind... feeling overwhelmed and lacking motivation. As we near Thanksgiving, final papers, projects, and tests are on the horizon. This intense amount of work along with the regular responsibilities of life (not to mention any crisis that may have emerged!) can be overwhelming. Other folks may be looking toward winter break and having trouble staying motivated. One approach to counter these feelings is to revisit the goals that you set when you began graduate school. What were your motivations for engaging in graduate study? Personal goals? Academic goals? Career goals? Reviewing these goals can help us refocus and also remind us that we are progressing along the path.

keep at it!

Harriet

Photo by HLS

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Working adult students, on my mind...

I hope this blog will be helpful to friends and others involved in a variety of endeavors. However, I created the blog with students in mind and continue to develop it with that specific group as my focus.

I believe that with the increase in evening, weekend, and low-residency programs, students are working more and more in isolation. If we were all full-time students on campus, we would have the informal support that comes with being able to go down the hall and talk with a colleague, etc. But instead, we are working late nights and weekends at home in front of the laptop.

With that in mind, I hope the encouragement lounge provides brief moments of respite and energizing connection. This does not at all replace valuable face-to-face contact. Many aspects of the academic journey can only be addressed via in-depth conversations with colleagues and teachers. And I would always rather sit down and talk with someone than to communicate online. Nonetheless, my aim is to give you one more channel for quick hits of support.