Motivation

Motivation as explained in Oxford Dictionary is a reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a particular way. Most of the time, when we talked about motivation, we talked about acting or behaving in a good way.

I always told my children that they must have self-motivation, when they believe in themselves, then there is nothing they cannot achieve. It was no use depending too much on external motivation. My daughter had this problem. Last year, she had a very good form teacher and she was very motivated to work very hard to achieve good results so that her teacher would recognise her. She had a very strong motivation, she worked very hard and she did not disappoint.    

This year, she did not get the same form teacher. On her first few days of the start of this year, she was already discouraged. I heard her saying something, “Don’t recognise me then don’t recognise me. I will not work hard any more.” I was worried and had a talk with her. From our talk, I understood she was a bit frustrated that her teacher did not choose her to be a prefect. Because she was a “Character Award” winner last year, she had expected to be selected to be a prefect. Since she was in Primary One, she had always said she wanted to be a prefect. She lost her motivation by such a small setback.

I explained to her, “You do well not to show others but to prove to yourself. If you always need a good form teacher to study hard then it will be very difficult for you to get good results. You must try to find self motivation.” My daughter was a sensible girl and she had always listened to me and understood me so I believed she will be able to find her own motivation to do well in her studies. But before she finds her self-motivation, I am giving her some monetary motivation to keep her in the right direction. I told her I would give her the present she was always asking for if she maintained her good results.