For me, motivation is a very deep concept. When asked when was the last time I felt really motivated I couldn't think of anything. I do things because that is just what I do. I do my homework because that is what I need to do at school. I go to work because I need an income in order to go to school. My life is pretty easy going. I am pretty easy going. I never really think about things too much.
In soccer this past season, my coach would try to get us fired up or motivate us and ask "Why do you play soccer?" or "What motivates you?". I didn't really know the answers to those questions either. I love the sport. I love competition. I enjoy the group of girls that I get to spend my time with, they have become a family to me. But is that what motivates me to go to practice every day? Is that what motivates me to give all I've got and leave everything on the feild?
Motivation is too huge of a concept for me to grasp. I'm not a very deep thinker. I sometimes feel unintelligent around my peers who have so many smart and deep ideas about so many topics I barely even think about. I'm fine kickin' the ball around and singing whatever song is in my head or telling a really corny joke.
The only time I guess I really feel motivated is when I am doing something related to sports. I can feel so motivated I cry. Why do I play soccer? I don't know the exact reason but I know that I do. I bleed blue. I have so much Norse Pride and so much love for the game I don't know how I can't. (Which as I take this next season off, I am watching to see if I don't die of a broken heart by not playing.) My heart is in it.
I can be motivated by things not related to soccer. Anybody see "The Express" when it came out in the fall? I took my dad. He likes football, but he likes movies more than he likes football. He's a baseball/hockey man but that is besides the point. Now I can't say that I will ever be a 6 foot 2 inch tall, 212 pound football player that will beat tons of records and overcome the obstacles of my race and become the first black man to win the Heisman Trophy. But boy was that movie and his story motivational. There are a million football movies I could describe that are motivational. What about hockey.... remember the movie "Miracle"? It is one of my favorites. Now that is a pretty motivational movie.
I don't really remember where I was going with this blog. However, here are a few motivational videos. The first is a clip from Any Given Sunday (a football movie). I actually haven't seen this movie but it is a clip that has been used to motivate the soccer team last year. Please, excuse the profanity. The second is one that was shown to our Educational Psychology class about ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
(I'm also currently in the course Coaching of Soccer and I have learned/already knew that as a coach you need to motivate your athletes- just as a teacher needs to motivate their students. Maybe I was thinking of the wrong class when writing this blog? Who knows... maybe it can motivate me to blog about the brain lecture we went to!)
Just like you, I find motivation to be a really complex area. It may be that I lack motivation for myself, but what I've been struggling with most is imagining trying to motivate a classroom full of students. I was never unmotivated in school; I always got my work done and worked hard for my grades. But how can I instill that same motivation into my students?
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