How do you stay motivated when you're studying? Maybe you're studying for the
bar exam and you got to memorize all these books or medical school and you've got so
much information that you're studying. How do you stay motivated when you are studying?
I think the first thing is to begin with the end in mind. Remind yourself of the goal. If
you're not motivated to study, remind yourself of this. We all pay two prices in life. You're
going to pay a price. We either pay the price of discipline or we pay the price of regret. You're
either going to pay the price of studying right now or you're going to pay the price of regret
later when you don't do well on the test. Remind yourself of this. You may think to
yourself, "Well, I'm not going to study right now. I'm just going to relax because I don't
want to pay the price." Well, you're going to pay the price. You're going to choose. Do you
want to pay the price now or do you want to pay the price later? Pay the price of discipline
now instead of the pain of regret later. I will tell you this. The pain of discipline
weighs ounces. The pain of regret weighs tons. The pain of regret of wasted time, of maybe having to
take the class again another semester weighs tons. The pain of discipline of doing the work weighs
ounces. The pain of regret weighs tons, and that's actually a philosophy I learned from a speaker,
a philosopher, a teacher named Jim Rohn. That's the first way to stay motivated. Remind
yourself of the end goal and what you want, but the next thing that you need to do is,
it's almost counterintuitive to what I just said, it's almost the opposite of what I just said,
don't focus on everything. I told you to remind yourself of the reward that you're going to get,
but now I'm telling you don't focus on everything. Focus on what's immediately in front of you.
When I have a large-scale memory project such as I'm memorizing the Constitution or I'm
memorizing the 7,500 words when I'm memorizing everybody who died in the war in Afghanistan,
I do 10% at a time, and I'm always telling myself, "You just got to get the next 10%. You just got to
get the next 10%. You just got to get the next 10%," and there's a feeling of accomplishment.
If I'm memorizing the Constitution, it's got 4,500 words, and I've got 450 words memorized, I'm like,
"Wow, I got 10%." That's measurable. Then I get the next 10%. I got 900 words down. I've got 20%
done. Once that momentum starts building by doing 10% at a time, that's huge, so remind yourself of
the end goal, but then break it down into chunks and figure out how you can do 10% at a time.
Number three, this next one is also going to sound counterintuitive to you.
Don't tell everybody. Don't tell everybody what you're doing. Now, if you're in school, clearly,
your friends are going to know you're in school. They're going to know you're studying for a test
and whatever, but here's what I mean. A lot of people will go on Facebook or social media and
they're like, "I'm studying to be a doctor. I'm studying to be a lawyer. I'm going to be blah,
blah, blah," whatever, and what happens? They get all the accolades. They get all the praise
from it, and people think that that actually encourages the likelihood of them reaching
their goal. It doesn't. It actually decreases the likelihood that you're going to hit your goal.
When I was training for the USA Memory Championship, I was intently training for this,
I was focused on this. I had hired a United States Navy SEAL. I wasn't purposefully keeping
it a secret, but I didn't post about it anywhere on social media. Two weeks before the tournament,
I called my mom, "Hey, mom, I need to tell you I'm going to New York in two weeks." She's like,
"For what?" I'm like, "Well, I've devoted my entire life of studying like a madman for
this tournament." I wasn't purposefully keeping it from them, but I did. Just
instinctively, I didn't talk about it. There was a study that was actually done,
a scientific study, and it says, "The people that advertise their goals, they think by advertising
their goals, they're getting other people to hold them accountable." This is a scientific study,
and I'll put the study in the description of this video because I know nobody's going to believe me.
By advertising your goals, you're getting the praise and you're getting
the recognition in advance for a goal that you may or may not accomplish and,
in that, it actually demotivates you a little bit because you've already got part of the reward.
One way to stay motivated is to tell your coach, tell your friends, tell your study group,
tell the people that are necessary to help you along with your goal and some other people, too.
There's nothing wrong with that, but as a thing, don't constantly broadcast and talk about it. Get
your reward after you've accomplished your goal. There's something so powerful about working in
silent and letting your results be out in the open. It also is going to increase the
likelihood that you hit your goals, so remind yourself of the end goal. Break it down by 10%.
Don't necessarily advertise your goals as much as you might think you need to, and then, next,
take breaks. Give yourself brain breaks. You might want to do the Pomodoro technique where
you study for 20 minutes. You set a timer. It goes off. You take a five-minute break. You study
for 20 minutes again. Do the Pomodoro technique. Take a five-minute break and then study again.
You got to give your brain breaks. There is no way your brain can keep up that momentum. Give
your brain breaks to stay motivated. Maybe reward yourself along the way. Hey, if I hit this goal,
I'm going to get to go to a baseball game or, if I hit this goal, I'll go see this movie. If
I hit this goal, I'll go eat some ice cream. I love ice cream. Maybe give yourself little
goals along the way to stay motivated for. Finally, you know what I'll say on this on
a way to stay motivated while you're studying? Treat this as your job. I
can't always tell you that you're going to be able to trick yourself into thinking it's fun.
It's not always going to be fun, but motivate yourself. You remind yourself of the end goal,
but treat it as your job, not just a hobby. In other words, when I was studying for a
large-scale memory goal and my friends would call me and they'd say, "Hey, do you want to go
hang out tonight and do nothing and goof off?" I would. Oftentimes, I'd take a brain break and go,
but it was also something I was treating as my job. If I wasn't where I needed to be,
I'd say, "No, I can't go. I am not where I need to be." Treat it as your job. Oftentimes,
we see these study things that we're studying and we don't take it as seriously as we should,
and that's probably one of the biggest problems. Staying motivated is crucial when you're studying.
Use these tips and stay motivated, and I know you're going to do well. Click the link down
below, and I have a free memory gift for a memory course. Give me a like, and I hope you subscribe
to this channel. I have plenty of memory and study tips. I'll see you on the next video.