Just Don't

[TL:DR] Always look at the bigger picture

You may be confused...

I was too, at first.

Last semester I was having a rough time with my studies. I got a few Ds and an F and almost got kicked out. Near the end of the year, a professor of mine told me that I should never do something I didn't want to do. Initially, I thought he was asking me to think if engineering, or university in general, was something I really wanted to do. Over the summer I rolled the idea around in my head, I enjoyed the work I was doing (Lumber yard at a large hardware store), but I definitely didn't want to do that for the next few years. I decided I would continue for another semester (only had to retake one course). When meeting with the same professor I told about how I thought about what he said, and he replied with "I paid the government a large ammount of money in taxes this summer, and I never do anything I don't want to."

This is what confused me at first, because nobody likes paying alot of money, and that's when he explained it. He paid the money because, compared to the alternative of going to jail, it was what he wanted.

When doing any task, always look at the bigger picture. That is, look at what you want to achieve, in my case it was graduating.

In order to graduate, I needed to stay in university.
In order to stay here, I needed to get off probation.
In order to get off probation, I needed to bring up my GPA.
In order to bring up my GPA, I needed to do well in my courses.
In order to do well, I needed to pass my tests.
In order to pass, I needed to put in the effort to study.

Even in HS, I never did assignments that weren't worth anything. My marks weren't that great, but it was easy enough that I still passed. That didn't work in Uni. I started doing the assigned practice problem in my free time instead of gaming of watching netflix. Next thing I know, I get an B or higher on 3 the three exams I had.

You don't... if you don't want to

Mine is a very cliche and rather cheesy example (they get cheesier), but it works with everything.

Be it paying taxes as above, or helping a friend in need because they'd do the same for you. Anything can be your motivation.

But that's the kicker, It's not just motivation. This also helped me look at other aspects of life that were taking up my time or energy by looking at why I was doing them. It also helped me prioritize many things.

Instead of spending hours deciding on the specs of a new gaming PC I wasn't going to build until next summer, I filled out the tax form because I wanted to get paid.

Many of you probably already realised this, or frankly you don't care, but if this post helps even one person with anything in their life, I will be happy.

Dog Tax

Odysseus and Stella