Question: I’m so tired of wasting time,and money and having no motivation to do well in school, I dont even know what i want to do anymore, I wish i was capable of doing something, I’m not good at anything nor have I found something of my interest. All I know is i have to a degree but not which one. I want to find motivation and become something and have goals. I need someone to push my limits. I always regret it after and feel useless and left behind but in the moment I never do my work and get lazy.

Thank you for submitting this question. Our counselling team would be able confirm that you are not the only student experiencing uncertainties and frustration. Just yesterday some of our counsellors met to discuss a program that I think is designed to address the kind of experience you describe. So there is some nice synergy between your post and our very recent conversation.

Let me begin with responding to some of the things I hear in your post. You describe how your uncertainty about your abilities and your interests lead to you feel, day-to-day, little sense of purpose and motivation. It makes sense to me that it is pretty difficult to get yourself going day-to-day for a degree that doesn’t feel meaningful to you yet. The motivation you mention involves our biology, emotions, cognitive states, and our social world. Ideally we reach a state where we feel energized to behave in ways consistent with our values, ideas, and goals.

Your post seems to suggest some motivation is already in place and that there are also some important ingredients missing. When you say you want to be capable of doing something, when you feel regret over not doing the work, and then you action that with your post here, I hear some emotional and mental resolve to make a change. There is a social element when you say you need someone to push you and I think I hear this as well when you say want to become something and have goals. The sticking point seems to be having some sense of what that actually looks like.

So the good news is that you can engage in practices that ready your mind and body for action toward your goals and, importantly, there are ways to gain more clarity about those goals. Here are two suggestions to begin the process.

First, I would recommend you attend the Career Passion Workshop to get a better understanding of how to develop a vision for your future that will guide educational and career choices. There will be many ideas from this three hour workshop to help you begin to understand yourself better and learn about the additional steps you might take to understand the interests, values, and inclinations you want to consider when doing career and life planning. Just go to our webpage and our new workshop schedule for the Winter semester will be up soon. There may be other workshops there that appeal to you.

Second, I would encourage you to take part in our new initiative: Student Success Teams. You mention wanting to be accountable to someone so that you feel that push to take action, that you need achievable goals, and it sounds like you are ready to develop strategies for improving motivation.  Student Success Teams will offer all of these elements. We are inviting student to sign up for a success team by calling our front desk (403-440-6362). A team will be created when we have six students whose schedules align so they can hold weekly group meeting with a counsellor. These weekly meetings will focus on helping group members to identify goals, learn whatever they need in order to accomplish them, and to support and encourage each other. I hope you’ll call and join one of these teams.

Hope that helps get you started. If you find you can’t act on these suggestions, do feel free to make an appointment with one of our counsellors who can explore the barriers with you.

All the best for now,

Mirjam