Solutions to aid uninterested students
By Jessica Mitchell
As every fall semester approaches its closing stages, a window of relaxation opens for each student. Winter break brings forth everything from holidays to unwanted family members to New Year’s parties, but most importantly it brings students an overwhelming lack of motivation.
Many psychologists believe it takes a mere 21 days to form a new habit. Seeing as students are winter-breaking for an entire month, many negative and lazy habits can instill themselves in students that otherwise wouldn’t have surfaced.
“Coming back to school after break is always difficult,” said student Kristen Buendia. “I’d much rather sleep than go outside in the cold.”
Students have and will always be faced with the classic debate of what sounds best at the time over what is best overall. Counselor Melanie Roberts urges students to stay active and to remember their goals.
“It helps to be focused on what you’re doing – on your purpose for being here,” she said. “Maybe even have some goals in mind for this semester and longer term.”
Goal setting is a sure way to keep your eye on the prize. Every student is attending college for one reason or another, and remembering those reasons can easily become incentive enough to face winter and go to class.
Another motivational tool that can aid students is practicing a weekly calendar or routine. Fight fire with fire and form a positive habit over the negative habits formed over winter break. Setting a morning routine can help avoid the snooze button cycle that ends up making you feel more tired than when you started.
Normally once up and out of bed, waking up early never ends up being half the chore as was expected. That is why it is important to directly start showering or getting ready once the alarm goes off– maybe even have a morning work out routine. Working out in the morning does not only burn more fat than working out in the evening, but it also supplies major energy and happiness throughout the day.
“Physical things like getting your sleep and exercising can help with motivation,” Roberts said. “Getting a little bit of exercise always keeps you going.”
Another simple solution to the unmotivated is to simply have another person hold you accountable. Make a carpool schedule with a friend so your attendance is vital to someone else’s. Once that is set up, you no longer have the luxury of debating school absence because the option has become obsolete.
Becoming motivated for school doesn’t always have to be a challenge. It ultimately just relies on the frame of mind each student holds. Becoming unmotivated first blooms when the student allows school to become an option rather than a necessity. Not every student has allowed this change to happen.
“I have to go, ‘What else am I going to do when school starts?’” said student Emilee Troll.
Winter break becomes the playing field for negative habits to form but positive habits can be acquired just as easily. The lack of motivation that plagues students after lengthy breaks is not only evident, but most importantly, fixable. Necessary changes can always be made to a routine in order to form a habit that will make the frigid winter months breeze by and the fresh semester seem less cumbersome.
Contact Jessica Mitchell, reporting correspondent, at jmitch54@jccc.edu.