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by Jennifer Bowman
The New Year is supposed to bring a fresh start to all of us who keep screwing up the previous years. But everything seems to run in a cycle. All the changes we swore we'd make last about a month, and then everything slowly falls back into the same old same old.
I've never been good at endurance, or even motivation. I hate making goals because they change, or never end up being achieved. As soon as someone is better than me at something, I give up, because there's no point in even trying at something that I can't be the absolute best at.
However, that's really an unhealthy way of thinking. You can be good at something without being the best. There's a story in the Bible about it, even, with the talents - an appropriate word once used for currency, which meaning has now transcended onto one's abilities. A rich man has three servants. He gives one servant five talents, one servant two talents, and one servant a single talent. He goes away, and upon his return, he finds that the first two servants have invested their talents, and doubled them. The last servant dug a hole and hid his talent, and angered his master.
The point is to not let your talents go to waste. I really feel that I've done that - I used to dance, act, sing, and play a few instruments - and now I don't do any of those things. I honestly don't know how one can find the motivation for so much at once.
Psychologists disagree on the best way to motivate yourself to do something. Honestly, it would seem obvious that if you really want something, you'll do everything in your power to accomplish it. But there are some things that you need, but don't necessarily want directly - like losing weight or doing all your homework in order to be healthy or get good grades, which in turn are things that you do want. People seem to be struck with laziness - and don't be confused, I am certainly one of these people, but in order to gain the "ultimate goal", you have to make amends to your natural pattern of laziness.
Reverse psychology is something my dad considers a tried and true method. "Fine, don't get good grades and go to college. Work at McDonald's all your life; I don't care." But after a while, this gets rather irritating.
The only true way to really gain the ability of self-motivation is by putting Jesus Christ as your Guiding Light. It seems arbitrary, but really, prayer and constant meditation through God can ultimately help you accomplish things you couldn't accomplish otherwise. I had a "C" for the semester in AP Macroeconomics, and even though I don't know how, I am very happy. I worked hard in that class. I prayed hard about that class. I didn't understand any of it, but now I made it through.
My goal for the New Year is to be happy and stress-free while still getting things done. It doesn't seem like it's possible, but if a "C" is possible in Economics, anything is.
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