Find your why
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Try this
What's your 'why'? Think about all the reasons you're at Uni. What’s the common factor? Write it somewhere you can see it.
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Get help
Learn how to improve your motivation with these self-help resources.
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Learn more
'The impact of finding your why' by Simon Sinek - YouTube (1:38)
Improving Motivation – UTS Counselling self-help
Knowing why you are doing something and having a way to remind yourself of that ‘why’ helps you stay motivated when work becomes challenging. This ‘why’ will change over time so keep updating it!
There is a variety of reasons that you might have enrolled into a degree at UTS some are external motivators, and some are internal motivators.
Internal motivators include a desire to improve your skills, or drive to fulfil a personal aspiration such as starting a business.
External motivators include competing for a prize, receiving recognition or working to please someone else.
Having internal motivators makes it easier to maintain your effort in the long run, but having external motivators can help you achieve short term goals. Trying to identify why you are here helps you recognise what will motivate you and keep you working and making the most of your degree when assessments, deadlines and studying gets hard.
Setting goals
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Try this
Develop SMART goals and an action plan using the worksheet
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Get help
Book a one-on-one appointment with Careers
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learn more
Improving motivation with UTS counselling
Setting goals for success by UTS Student Hacks (5:50)
Skill building for undergraduates – Careers Blog
Without a goal to work towards it’s hard to grow and learn. Some goals are easy to achieve, but they don’t stretch us to improve. Goals that are too big can feel unachievable and be demotivating. Learn to set a SMART goal, and make a plan for how we’re going to achieve it.
Think about what you want to achieve while you’re at uni, big and small. This could be:
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A daily goal, like committing to doing readings before class
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An academic goal, like getting a HD for a class,
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A professional goal, like getting an internship,
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Or even aiming to get your dream job!
This is where you’ll turn your purpose/why into actions, by setting goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely:
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Goals (Specific, Relevant)
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Milestones (Measurable, Timely)
How do you know you’re making progress? What can you observe that lets you know you’re on track? Maybe getting a HD in a class will help you towards the larger goal of getting an internship? How will you celebrate when you’ve reached that milestone?
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Skills (Achievable)
What do you need to learn in order to achieve your goal? Maybe you need to improve your essay writing to help you achieve the first milestone of getting a HD?
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Actions & Habits – what are you going to do to make sure you achieve your goal?
What are you going to do to practice the skill you need to develop? Maybe the daily habit of practicing your writing?
Without a goal to work towards it’s hard to grow and learn. When you set goals that are too big, they are demotivating. Set SMART goals!
Design Your UTS is written by Alycia Bailey, Liv Day, Mia Turner and Jennifer Wen from the Student Learning Hub, with illustrations and templates by Megan Wong. DYU has been adapted from the Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation’s joint staff and student project, How to Uni, and developed in collaboration with LX.Lab.
