Gav's Guide to Motivation (includes help with studying)

Warning: this post is very motivational and may result in you actually having a life!

This is mainly aimed at those who fail to reach their capabilities with studying, but effectively applies to anyone else who is not reaching their potential in ANY area of their life.

As far as studying goes, I have always felt it was absolutely essential to get something done on time. The ULTIMATE FAILURE in my life would be to refuse to study for an exam or refuse to make a decent effort with any assignment.

I know some people who don't care about not studying for exams (that count) these days and I know that I could never do that, although just recently, I decided to see what it would be like only relying on lectures to pass a mock exam. Yes, I passed it, but it felt REALLY painful since I didn't give anywhere near my best effort.

I have been reading and listening to a lot of Anthony Robbins over the past year and although i will not copy any of his material in this post, however i will use some of his basic principles in my own style.

Here are some principles/beliefs/convictions that have helped me. You should try to have complete conviction in these:

There is nothing so bad that I can't turn around

Instead of saying "I can't turn this around", say "HOW can I turn this around?" This immediately opens your brain up and gets it thinking about ways to turn things around.
What your brain links pain to, it will avoid.
What your brain links pleasure to, it will do it more!

Now, I'm not saying that I've been good at studying forever. I've had some disappointing moments of procrastination, where instead of studying, I’d either play games or go out and pissed or find some other way to keep me occupied, like go out and stay on the golf course all day. Keeping yourself busy is the most common form of laziness. But I've learned and made myself stronger from each experience of procrastination; hell, I even procrastinated for 4 weeks to get round to doing 2 essays, which were due this week. I did one of the essays the whole night before it was due and the other, 2 nights before. The important thing was that I learned from this. I felt pain on a very real level because I felt like sh!t having stayed up till half4 on Friday morning to write the essay.

Important realisation : You gain experience every time you feel pain.

So how do you create good habits with studying or indeed anything in life?

There are two things you must do: link pain to not studying and link pleasure to studying

Firstly, linking pain to not studying.

Creating a list of this is difficult, but you must nevertheless brainstorm, so get out some paper and think hard about all the bad things that will come from not studying

For example:

1. I will feel like sh!t because I have not performed my best
2. I will prevent myself from becoming smarter and more mentally agile if i don't do any work
3. I will not make as much money in the future
4. I will not be as valuable to future employers
5. I will be devastated when I get poor grades
6. Procrastinating is the worst pain EVER, because I am not becoming all I can be

These aren't all that good, but when I get back to my flat, I'll post you more

Secondly, linking pleasure to studying.

Create a separate list.

1. (Start getting greedy !) I will have so much money and success in the future. I will feel so fvcking proud of myself, feel so damn good and can look down on other dumbasses who never even bothered to take control of their life
2. I will get so much pleasure by having better grades than my peers because it will create an aura of superiority (I know this is very shallow, and on the verge of insecurity, but if it motivates you, just do it)
3. I will gain even more faith in myself if I can control my actions
4. I will become smarter, more intelligent, wittier, more eloquent, more appealing to employers if I study (also applies to reading and writing about anything)

Think along these lines and create some of your own links of pain and pleasure. They are very effective.

Now that you've linked sufficient pain to not studying and pleasure to studying, you will automatically want to study without feeling the pain formerly associated to it.

In addition, you should try to get all your work on your desk. Tidy the room or wherever you're working. Turn all distractions off or put them away. (I don't put music away though, unless I REALLY need to study). Stop doing ANYTHING. Just sit down in your chair or lie on the floor and bore the fvck out of yourself until you are prepared to start studying.

If you can't generate enough pain on a mental level, which is highly unlikely, move to a physical one: start hitting yourself on the head every time you put off studying when you know you shouldn't.

Short and Long Term Pleasure and Pain

One thing that Tony Robbins said that stuck in my mind was about short and long term pleasure and this is where you can develop the most motivation.

Long term pleasure is FAR more potent than short term pleasure. Why? Because it lasts a LOT longer. If you are getting long term pleasure from many areas of your life, what will happen? It will all add up so that you get immense levels of pleasure. This cannot happen in the short term, unless you can do lots of things at once, like watch TV, play computer games, eat lots of chocolate and masturbate simultaneously. If you can without creating a pulley system like in Freddy Got Fingered, I take my cap off to you (Bear in mind that even if you do achieve mass short term pleasure, you will also gain MASSIVE long term pain!)

Short Term Pleasure

Short term pleasure is only pleasurable for a short time (maybe 1 day at the very most). This is the type of pleasure that most idiots (99.9%) of the population seek. It is also the weakest and the type that causes so much pain in the long term.

Examples:

*Masturbation = 2 -30 minutes of pleasure. (Up to 5 days of pain though, because you KNOW it is reduces your sex drive and testosterone levels).

*Watching Television. What are you learning? Nothing in the long term at all! You may get a little insignificant laugh out of it, but eventually, it will not cause you to feel any better about your life; only worse!

*Playing computer games. Same as watching television. It may produce a little entertainment in the short time, but only dismay and frustration in the long term.

*Listening to music is an exception. I think it is necessary to get you motivated in the short term (provided you are listening to the right type of music, not depressing stuff)

* Eating junk food. It might feel good for about a minute or two, but you are ultimately shafting your health and ability to get fit (long term pleasures, discussed later)

So this is the type of pleasure you want to AVOID.

Long Term Pleasure

Long term pleasure, however, lasts a lot longer and is a sh!tload stronger for reasons above. This type of pleasure can add up over time. Think of it as the longest orgasm ever!

Most people never desire long term pleasure either because they cannot see far enough into the future to realise the gains, or there is a little bit of short term pain that is necessary before they reach it, which will aggravate them.

Examples:

*Studying. Studying gives you so much long term pleasure it is unreal!

-you become more intelligent
-you become quick witted
-you gain a dominance of words
-you can control other people with your mind.
-you become more valuable to your employer
-you have the ability to make more money.
-you have the ability to understand things about life that others cannot comprehend.
-you rise above the shower of idiots who walk this planet
-you gain so much more confidence in your abilities because you have worked hard to create your life
-you will have more success with women since your skills in conversation, c&f, creating rapport will all improve because your power with words will improve immensely.

(I am listing all of the above from the point from the perspective of studying law, but studying anything else, including engineering, maths, physics etc will have benefits of their own, such as improving your logic, increasing intelligence etc)

*Not Masturbating (for 5 days) thx to sammo for this stuff

This has short term pain in that you might get blue balls etc, but nevertheless, the long term gains far outweigh that short term pain

-testosterone rises
-sex drive rises
-determination to learn seduction material increases
-your will power becomes stronger
-you have a lot more faith in your own mental abilities

*Working Out and Eating Well (this is one with short term physical pain - very short term though)

-a ripped body
-more attractive appearance to women
-automatic improvement in posture
-physically feeling really good about yourself
-much more energy
-much more testosterone, leading to gains defined in Pook's post "Be a Man"

*Public Speaking

This come with short term pain of feeling nervous, embarrassed etc (A lot of people would rather chop off their arms than undergo this little bit of pain)

What many fail to realise is that the rush you get from doing this can actually feel good, so enjoy it at the time.

Long term gains:

-MUCH more confidence in yourself
-better ability to talk - eloquence
-more valuable to employers
-more appealing to women
-more able to talk to women
-more testosterone from the rush you get

*Improving your DJ skills
-women
-life skills

The long term gains from DJing should be so obvious and desired so badly that I don't need to write them all down here. The one thing mentioning about them is that they can only be acquired truly through practise (even though the theory is also essential). This practise comes with short term pain (nervousness (important to note that you should not use this word, say "excitement" instead), embarrassment etc), but like public speaking, you get a rush that can feel very good. Live for that rush! Going through this short term pain is necessary to reach all that long term pleasure.

*Improving your Memory

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Here's a little about the subject to get you started

By daydreaming, you are exercising your imagination. Imagination and creativity are functions of one hemisphere of your brain while logic and sequence are functions of the other hemisphere. Only by exercising both sides of your brain can you unleash your true intellectual potential.

Memory comes from imagination; there is a lot of material on this from tony buzan, ebooks on the internet and kaza@.

Naturally, studying only requires you to make use of the left half of your brain, so the schooling system is inherently flawed (they also frown on daydreaming).

It has been proven and is scientifically accepted now that genius comes from using both sides of your brain. For more reading, Tony Buzan, the creator of mind maps, speaks about it a lot in his motivational (many aspects of self improv included) book Head Strong. When you are studying, use mind maps because your brain does not operate in a linear way, but in a way that mindmaps adopt perfectly.

Also, Tony Buzan has another book called Use your Memory, in which he teaches you to use your imagination to enhance your memory, which in turn enables you to remember perfectly for exams without using that much effort to read and reread material. I highly recommend it. For law, it's really easy to use his techniques to study for exams (the whole course is basically about memorising stuff) -even the night or morning before an exam (if you're into that sort of thing).
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benefits include:

-much greater intelligence! GENIUS-LIKE if mastered
-makes studying a sh!tlot easier
-you can remember things easily, like DJ skills, information about people

There you go. There are so many more ways to gain long term pleasure that I couldn’t possibly list them all. Remember that long term pleasure should be your aim, even if short term pain is involved; short term pleasure that leads to long term pain should be avoided at all costs.

If you ever feel yourself being tempted by short term pleasure, look into the future; imagine and feel that long term pain crushing that mass of long term pleasure you’ve already built up.

Can you see the value of long term pleasure now?
Good. Live for it!

Gav

Great post Gav and something very close to my own heart. It's great to see you mention Tony Buzan. I worship that man!

I was a complete drop out at school because I was a daydreamer and couldn't fit into their system. I resigned myself to thinking "I'm just not an intelligent or academic person", but his books helped me transform my whole perception of intelligence and studying, and gave me practical help.

It's quite stunning what you are able to achieve when you know how. These days I can memorize and rewrite a whole 1000 word essay word for word and I'm on course for getting a 1st level degree. I owe a lot to his books!

It might not seem like DJ advice, but of course, I'm very proud of myself and my achievements and that's a good start when you want to become a DJ, right?

5 stars

Good stuff dude.

I was reading "Awaken the Giant Within" by Robbins and its really powerful.

I'm really gonna incorporate the advice. Although I feel like: playing games/masturbating/watching Sopranos, I will do homework and go to sleep earlier.
You just feel more powerful when u have self discipline and the long term effects do outweigh the short term ones.

Thnx for sharing man.

Excellent post, I'll +favs it now and rate it accordingly.

Clap clap clap for the post

*Masturbation = 2 -30 minutes of pleasure. (Up to 5 days of pain though, because you KNOW it is reduces your sex drive and testosterone levels).

Click to expand...

You may want to consider checking your sources

wow crazy good post ^.~ I think i heard it somewhere

Great post man

I'm studying law myself, and I got a year drop. I was very down and stuff, but I got really motivated after coming to this site. UI learnt that you cant change the past and I have been looking at the future since then.

Im going back to college in July and I will be working at a law firm as a trainee simultaneously. I cant wait for July to come.

Even though Im studying law in India, Im sure its not that different, coursewise at least.

I'll check out Tony Buzans stuff since you say it helps.

Good post once again.

Hey gav. i agree with you. Learning is good.... altough is very undepriced lately. many seems to see that other ways of becoming succesful are moresa satisfacatory.[as in easy money...]

Anyway.congratas if u really belive what u say.

One thing i would like to know. i want to catch this Tony materials. problem is that in my country his book hasn't been published... hence, i hope u can help me somehow. perhaps by sending to me some of the stuff u have, or maybe direct me to a site where i can find the infos i need..

Unfortunately. i have no money ...

Hopeing some help will be delivered, The Arhitect is out.

Cheers for the feedback guys

Dirtheart, that is immense! Being able to remember essays like that is photographic memory at its finest. You must have worked seriously hard to be able to do that, or maybe you're just a natural . Perhaps you could add to my guide to memory below. Btw, did you use tony's major system - the list of 1000 key memory image words?

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Firestarter, that's great that you're looking forward to it. Hope it works out for you. I'm sure law revolves around the same principles everywhere, so it should be similar. The way i found Buzan's stuff most effective was in remembering cases. Everyone else around me would be doing the usual read the names and facts over and over again until they remember them for a day. With Tony's method, which i'll show you down below, he teaches you to attach one case to one key word and use your imagination to associate that case to the key word (such as X v Y being attached to the key word "bun" (one)- Say the case was about monkeys being eaten: you would imagine monkeys eating buns or large buns that had mouths and ate monkeys. Anything to associate the images. This would be a particularly good image because it's funny and easily remembered.

Sometimes, that does not work however, and you have to rely on the name of the case to give you the appropriate association.
e.g. Shipman v Bell where Shipman had been fraudulent towards bell

I would associate this case to, say, number 8, a snowman.

I would imagine a Ship dressed up as a snowman, running into a bell constantly.

These are simple image words and you would have no trouble linking them to another image. I've explained it all below.
Sometimes it's really hard to associate but it just takes a little more effort to find a connection.
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For Architect and everyone else who wants the principles on memory, here is the general idea:

1. Your memory and your entire creative brain hemisphere improve when you improve your imagination.

2. When your analytical and logic brain hemisphere improves in conjuction with your creative side, a synergetical result is produced and you find yourself becoming a much more intelligent person who uses the full potential of his brain, instead of only only one side (a half wit)


So imagination is the key to your memory. Improving your imagination, by such simple exercises as daydreaming improves your creativity and therefore your overall intelligence.

One exercise that will work is: take any two things in the world and try to connect them in your mind.

For instance, take a set of curtains and a mountain. Imagine a gigantic blanket of a curtain covering the face of a mountain.

That is one difference between the "half-wit" that schools have created and the genius; the genius does not limit his imagination. I have taken the image of the curtain and made it extremely large (simple, eh).

Tony recommended this exercise: Think of a coat hanger. How many uses can it have? You have 2 minutes to do this. Well, do it now and see how many you get...I'm waiting.



Now divide the number of uses by two to get your uses per minute rate. The genius has 15+. The average person has from 0-4.

I'm not going to give you many examples, suffice to say that if you, like the general population had an inflexible idea of a standard coat hanger, you will end up with 2 or 3 uses. Parrot perch was the best i came up with when thinking like this.

How about this one - a 15 tonne coat hanger made of gold that was melted down and turned into bullion. That's how imaginative you should be. Don't limit yourself.

Here's a list of things to enhance the scope of your imagination:

In the above exercise: size, shape, type of material, weight, height, flexibility etc.

In general imagination, your images should be exaggerated, moving, sexual, colourful (make them very bright), humourous. Add sound, imagine feeling the object, tasting etc (use your senses)


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So how does this relate to studying?

There are a variety of systems for remembering things.
Firstly, here's the number system

For every number 1-10, imagine an object that rhymes with the number.

e.g.
One. Bun
Two. shoe
Three. tree
4.door
5.hive
6.bricks
7.heaven
8.gate
9.wine
10.den

These objects are key objects in that you associate whatever it is your are trying to memorise to that object.

Now, say you are trying to remember the following shopping list:

shoes beans eggs bread bacon toiletpaper carrots butter toothpaste apples

You would take these images one by one and link them to the key images numbered one to ten

eg eggs - linking to 3.tree. - imagine a tree that has eggs hanging from it, dropping onto people that pass under it in the wind getting splattered.

I don't have time to go on, but it's fairly straight forward. remember, there's nothing you can't link to another object.

so then you check that you have successfully associated the images by covering the shopping list and going through the numbers one to ten. e.g. three (think tree) then remember that image of the tree with eggs on it.

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Another number system: One to ten associating images that LOOK like the number

e.g.

1. Sword
2. Swan
3. Tits
4. Yacht
5. Hook
6. Golf club
7. Cliff edge
8. Snowman
9. Axe
10. Ping pong ball and bat

Then do the same thing as before with linking

If you want to increase the number of things you can memorise to 20, use the rhyming system for numbers 1-10, then the lookalike system for numbers 11-20

eg 11 sword
12 swan
etc

So this is the gist of it.

I've found that i can actually associate complex ideas to the images, such as emotions or political ideas (needed in my course).

Not so easy, but it can be pulled off

For instance, proportional representation. Linking to erm number 5 - a hook

I would imagine different groups of people in different colours (representing different parties) on different size of hooks (representing proportional division of votes)

or

eg linking pain to 2 - a swan

gory image of a swan crying for help as its webbed foot is pierced by a stake going right through it and the blood coming out (don't know if swans bleed that much though)

How can you study for an essay type exam? Make a list of all the main topics that you need to write about. Then link each topic to a different number. Simple

How can this apply to DJing?

You can get a list of girls you know in one day as someone recently posted as a tip and associate images/characteristics of these people to different numbers.

Also, imagining yourself succeeding before you go out can boost your confidence. Imagine that you are about to go into a club, walk up to the first hb you see and start flirting with her, kinoing her. imagine her receiving your attention warmly, imagine the feeling of that fine body, imagine the perfume she has on. Imagine it VIVIDLY. Make colours brighter, sounds louder, smells smellier, feelings intense. now, why wouldn't you want to approach her?




I know a lot of you are sceptical and think this is utter bullsh!t. But so did i when i first started reading it. Improving your memory through imagination will result in increased intelligence. Who wouldn't want that?

cheers guys,
gav

Hey gav

This is the most usefull post I've read at sosuave.com for almost a year. 5 stars, without a doubt !

Great post!

Bump.

Good Post

picks up course work* Cheers man

attempts to pick up course, heavy post man, but i still never wrk. ahh well, its all in my mind.

Hey bro,
This is some awesome stuff here, i've heard about it but never really looked into it that much.

I'm not sure i follow tho- I'm studying medical stuff and there is heaps of material however it is all linked and related. For instance, i need to know everything about prion diseases for an upcoming exam. How can i remember the pathological process, the symptoms, the treatment, whats going wrong... they are all related and its pretty much all pathway type material. How can i go about linking images here? Even if it is a basic memory jogger?

What if i forget the image its meant to be associated with? haha.
Does it pay to really memorise those linking numbers and words?
I'm going to read this post again cos i fear i've already forgotten some of it

Oh, and the motivation stuff is awesome, can u please post some more pain and pleasure things? Right now i have to write an essay about otitis media but i'm not keen or desire to start typing. Infact i could be procrastinating right now typing this!

I like that lie down thing til your f'n board.... but if i did that, what if i fall asleep? haha!

Cheers,
Felony.

Hey Gav,

Wow, really neat stuff man, thanks for sharing!

Can you recommend some books/eBooks from mind-maps.com that are good for beginners? If you can give us a breakdown of the books you've read on this subject matter, and how they apply to different levels of this stuff, that'd be much appreciated as well!

Thanks,
Ant

I think I'm motivated but in the wrong direction. For instance:

1) I don't work hard at work because I feel ****ty that I'm being used.

2) I don't work hard at school because I feel that the teachers can't teach and are wasting my time.

etc..

cheers for the responses guys

i don't have time to add a lot to this thread but i'll tell you the most important things:

1. Elevate everything you do to an art form [Thank you Fingers]

Whatever you do in life, be it study, play sports or an instrument or anything else that you want to do, BE COMMITTED TO IT by elevating it to an art form.

Here's how this applied to me studying. I would set the mood perfectly, by making the room spotlessly tidy with every distraction out of the way. I'd sit up straight (100% effort into it). Take out a book that i knew i had to read and i would start and not stop for 30 mins. 2min break, another 30 minutes and I'd keep on going until the day ran out.

2. Knowing is not enough; you must apply. Willing is not enough; you must do. [Bruce Lee]

Knowing is not enough; you must apply - study first, then apply that knowledge by doing examples - easy;

read dj theory, put it into practise

Willing is not enough; you must do - get the motivation so you feel that you are really going to do something and feel good about it. THEN you have to actually go through with it. I've come up short here a lot - feeling good about starting something and then suddenly i get distracted and pick up my guitar and rattle off 20 songs - not good enough. You must actually do it.

3. Not masturbating is a great thing

Just now i'm on day 19 of it. It has been hard (no pun intended ) and i did crack once after 7 days, but it is worth it!

Why? The most important thing is improving memory (among many many others- http://www.sosuave.com/vBulletin/showthread.php?threadid=47898). Every night for the past 15 or so days has produced some very vivid dreams. Dreams = greater memory. Memory = intelligence and brain power. As a result, i have having more success remembering and understanding things in my studies and life.

4. Health in body goes hand in hand with health in mind.

I don't think i mentioned this before. Basically, a healthy body = a healthy mind and vice versa. Exercise hard (i'm currently bulking up), eat well and sleep well and your mind will become more alert and more able to process information.

5. Drink lots of water

NOT fizzy drinks. I can't remember the last time I had one because they do nothing good for you at all, save quench your thirst in the short term. Water is the way to go. Above all else, it increases your concentration and ability to think well.

6. Breath properly

Thanks to Fingers for this.
http://www.sosuave.com/vBulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37709
Breathing gives you the same advantages as those in points 4 and 5


That's all i've got to say just now. Good luck with your exams. i'm off to study for mine just now.

Gav