}
I have been hooked to a course that I've been doing recently. Normally, there is a self-imposed quota for me to write one post on Hive or Steemit every two days. However, recently, I got hooked to a course and it got me thinking, what is it that gets us excited about learning?
Necessity
I don't know about you, but I generally don't go learning something unless I really have to. That is the same with most students these days. Most students I've encountered have a genuine curiosity. This curiosity however never extends further than passing exams. There are pros and cons to this approach.
I think when you start with mere necessity, it can be hard to sustain any motivation in the long run. I have seen many students who have burnt out learning what they had to not what they wanted to. So let's talk a bit about learning what we want to.
Learning What We Want
I think it is always wonderful to learn what we want and not just what we have to. I think having that intrinsic motivation does help stop us from losing that drive to learn. I always admire people who managed to pursue their passion every day throughout their lives.
I for one did not enjoy studying to be a teacher. While I grew to like it eventually, I found learning about martial arts to be a wonderful pursuit and took it despite how busy I was. But, what if it is possible to marry both necessity and interest together?
Necessity + Interest
I find that marrying these two can be extremely tough. However, I found that necessity is something that can be very easily worked into the learning of a course. I remember I picked up a course on finance out of necessity. This was because I felt that it was important to know the ins and outs of an extremely important subject that were unfortunately not taught at school.
However, what got me interested as time went by was when I was able to successfully implement a lot of the things that I've learned. These things or concepts helped me improve my financial well being and helped me manage my finances just a little bit better. As such, I think it is important to have many small victories when one is learning. It is crucial to actively apply what was learned in one's daily life and if that application brings success, then this will lead to an interest in how to learn more about it.
This is closely related to merging the concepts of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation together. If you are keen, do apply this in your life. Learn about something you have to, apply it, and place yourself in situations where you can obtain small victories. This will greatly sustain your motivation to learn more about a particular subject.