Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Having a hard time committing 100% to/Focusing on projects

zenda · 01-04-2011, 01:14 AM

Hi

I had a look at Snowy's Senioritis reference, and that makes a lot of sense. You've linked your present state with having not met your career goals as specified. As the Wiki article indicated, there is not enough work done on assisting students in the art and science of moving through transition stages.

Here are three perspectives on what you have shared.

1: Practical setback. If you have been used to simply working hard and succeeding, then the present setbacks will have shaken you. Someone who is used to Sometimes being on a roll, and other times messing up, has training in how to cope with setbacks BECAUSE they have had enough of them. In the realm of physical health, people who have been used to being ill at various times in their life are better able to cope with getting ill later .. they have had practise. If, as you examine the link you made, this is the main factor, then you may well be able to sort this by bucking down and pushing past.

2: Reduced probability of achieving your career goal. The above was about your capabilities as a student. This is about your reasons for studying in the first place. For a long time, a child's education is motivated by pleasing teachers and getting marks. 'In-house' criteria. Later, the 'values' which drive studying will include the outward and forward looking criteria of your Own goals, including career goals .. how they fit into your future - hopefully a future that you actually Want. IF that vision of the future has been shaken, then that may be detracting from the 'background' or 'foundation' sense of worth you may give or feel toward to your thesis.

3:End of Era. Have you ever heard the term 'Better to travel hopefully than to arrive' ? Sometimes the arriving can be an anticlimax, or worse still, a traumatic 'what now'. Up until arrival, the long applied skills of journeying and navigation will have been comfortably or uncomfortably implemented. Regardless of whether one is having setbacks or a smooth journey, this factor can sometimes cause the student to underachieve AS IF that can delay or avoid the arrival into what seems to be a more UNcertain, 'Post Educational-Environment' Future.

I offer these perspectives as 'generic possibilities' of where you are at, mainly in the hope that they will jog you to a more precise personal assessment of where you are at this moment. As you develop this assessment, I ask you to estimate how long per day you'd expect to be working on your thesis if you were on top of your game, and then to reserve 5% of that time to examining HOW your recent low marks were linking with your recent tendency to have become distracted, and to examine your answer to that in the light of what you have been wanting for your future and what ELSE, in addition, you could want for your future.

Press on with the thesis AS IF you were 'going on automatic' or utilizing the old proven abilities, but with a promise to yourself, that you are, at the same time, doing whatever you can to Understand and Rebuild your motivation and reasons for concentrating in the first place.

If you can do that, Good. If however, you are in the middle of some work for the thesis, and 'The Distraction' happens, then go into this analytical mode I have sketched out, and rather than going off and following the distraction [food .. film ... bath/hairwash etc], treat it like it is an alarm bell waking you up to questions and lines of inquiry. If it focuses you, put the Thesis to one side for a few minutes, get a blank sheet of paper or create a new text file, and entitle it 'My Distraction' ... and get to writing and thinking about it.

Important step: When you begin to get distracted from this thinking and writing about the Distraction Itself, return to working on the thesis ... even if only for twenty minutes before you go off for food or sleep etc. This is to 'sign off' this process with a reinforcement of your original reason for needing to engage with it in the first place. You'll be sticking to your guns - You Will Complete Your Thesis At The Same Time as purposefully and systematically reviewing your reasons and how it all fits in ways which more fully satisfy you.

Test this for a couple of days or so, notice where it works well, and also where it needs to be improved, then give feedback. You might immediatley tweak it to make it work better. If so, please give feedback on what you did to improve it. Best wishes to you as you embark on a New Way of doing your thesis and study.

01-04-2011, 01:14 AM	#3 (permalink)
zenda Crazy Location: London, England	Hi I had a look at Snowy's Senioritis reference, and that makes a lot of sense. You've linked your present state with having not met your career goals as specified. As the Wiki article indicated, there is not enough work done on assisting students in the art and science of moving through transition stages. Here are three perspectives on what you have shared. 1: Practical setback. If you have been used to simply working hard and succeeding, then the present setbacks will have shaken you. Someone who is used to Sometimes being on a roll, and other times messing up, has training in how to cope with setbacks BECAUSE they have had enough of them. In the realm of physical health, people who have been used to being ill at various times in their life are better able to cope with getting ill later .. they have had practise. If, as you examine the link you made, this is the main factor, then you may well be able to sort this by bucking down and pushing past. 2: Reduced probability of achieving your career goal. The above was about your capabilities as a student. This is about your reasons for studying in the first place. For a long time, a child's education is motivated by pleasing teachers and getting marks. 'In-house' criteria. Later, the 'values' which drive studying will include the outward and forward looking criteria of your Own goals, including career goals .. how they fit into your future - hopefully a future that you actually Want. IF that vision of the future has been shaken, then that may be detracting from the 'background' or 'foundation' sense of worth you may give or feel toward to your thesis. 3:End of Era. Have you ever heard the term 'Better to travel hopefully than to arrive' ? Sometimes the arriving can be an anticlimax, or worse still, a traumatic 'what now'. Up until arrival, the long applied skills of journeying and navigation will have been comfortably or uncomfortably implemented. Regardless of whether one is having setbacks or a smooth journey, this factor can sometimes cause the student to underachieve AS IF that can delay or avoid the arrival into what seems to be a more UNcertain, 'Post Educational-Environment' Future. I offer these perspectives as 'generic possibilities' of where you are at, mainly in the hope that they will jog you to a more precise personal assessment of where you are at this moment. As you develop this assessment, I ask you to estimate how long per day you'd expect to be working on your thesis if you were on top of your game, and then to reserve 5% of that time to examining HOW your recent low marks were linking with your recent tendency to have become distracted, and to examine your answer to that in the light of what you have been wanting for your future and what ELSE, in addition, you could want for your future. Press on with the thesis AS IF you were 'going on automatic' or utilizing the old proven abilities, but with a promise to yourself, that you are, at the same time, doing whatever you can to Understand and Rebuild your motivation and reasons for concentrating in the first place. If you can do that, Good. If however, you are in the middle of some work for the thesis, and 'The Distraction' happens, then go into this analytical mode I have sketched out, and rather than going off and following the distraction [food .. film ... bath/hairwash etc], treat it like it is an alarm bell waking you up to questions and lines of inquiry. If it focuses you, put the Thesis to one side for a few minutes, get a blank sheet of paper or create a new text file, and entitle it 'My Distraction' ... and get to writing and thinking about it. Important step: When you begin to get distracted from this thinking and writing about the Distraction Itself, return to working on the thesis ... even if only for twenty minutes before you go off for food or sleep etc. This is to 'sign off' this process with a reinforcement of your original reason for needing to engage with it in the first place. You'll be sticking to your guns - You Will Complete Your Thesis At The Same Time as purposefully and systematically reviewing your reasons and how it all fits in ways which more fully satisfy you. Test this for a couple of days or so, notice where it works well, and also where it needs to be improved, then give feedback. You might immediatley tweak it to make it work better. If so, please give feedback on what you did to improve it. Best wishes to you as you embark on a New Way of doing your thesis and study.