Motivation & Self-esteem
"Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
~ Winston Churchill
Motivation and self-esteem are important for L2L competence.
​
Ask yourself: Why do you study the subject? What do you expect from it? How to excel in the subject? If you are personally interested in the subject, you have internal motivation. If you only aim to fulfill the partial requirement of your program imposed by the university, this is external motivation.
​
Both sorts of motivations are important. They help strengthen your self-initiatives and achieve a positive image of yourself associated with the study of the subject. For example, you may feel proud of yourself for successfully completing the assignments and have your personal confidence boosted.
​
Many people are easily de-motivated because of their diffidence resulting from previous failures. In this connection, it is appropriate to ask what you have learnt from your failures. Can you gain a new insight or even benefit from a failure? Did you not gain more self-understanding? Did you not acquire knowledge of what did not work in this world (as Thomas Edison would call this knowledge)? Has your experience not been enriched? Finally, have you not matured (and become smarter) because of the failures you experienced and now know how to avoid them?
In the extended tasks and questions below, you will learn from a famous person regarding how she benefited from her "epic" failure and becomes one of the most successful and richest authors in the world. Espousing positive attitudes towards failures is a key to your success in L2L.
Extended tasks and questions
​
1. Imagine you are an exceptionally effective learner. What would your learning
strategies be? Think first, with no commitment whatever. Getting early in the morning to
prepare for a test in two weeks? Browse through course materials before lectures? Review
the questions you have jotted down from the lectures while you are on MTR back home?
Hold weekly meetings with your fellow students to explore topics? Spend regular hours in
the library? Manage the time to use your mobile phone? Any other things? Write them
down and try to work them out bit by bit during the semester. You may not be able to
accomplish all of them. Yet, remember this: any fulfillment of a single item from the list
is already proof that you can (and indeed have) become a better and more competent
learner than before.
​
2. Recall your previous success in any activities or hobbies. This will refresh your mind
and boost your confidence. Do not forget your prowess and high calibre already
demonstrated by yourself. Your past success constitutes who you are now. The question is
only the way to further unlock your potential for success in a new context.
3. Identify 3 possible reasons that can motivate you to perform well in the subject. To
meet the expectations of your parents? A matter of self-image? To meet your
curiosity in the subject? To challenge yourself? To graduate with flying colours? Write
them down. Bear the reasons in mind so that you can recall them whenever you doubt the
value of your diligence and hardworking.
​
4. Project your success in the future, and you will understand that your present hardworking
is worthwhile. Whether you might obtain the projected success or not, you would have
already cultivated diligence.
​
5. Reward yourself with a little gift after you have completed an assignment or a test.
Positive reinforcement is important to sustain your efforts in the long term.
​
6. Watch the first part of JK Rowling's speech delivered at Harvard University in 2008 (up to
the video segment at 14:14) and discover the benefits of her "epic" failure. Can you apply
any of the benefits as she identifies to your own learning experience?
​