Introduction: Exploring Your Inner Motivation
“If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” --- Jim Rohn
“Setting goals helps trigger new behaviors, helps guide your focus and helps you sustain that momentum in life.” --- Leslie Riopel
You have the power to shape your life and your destiny, but that power only works when you take intentional action. Your dreams and desires are the seeds of your future, but without clear goals, they remain just that: dreams. By setting goals, you transform your vision into reality. Goals give you direction, focus, and momentum, empowering you to live your best life, reach your full potential, and inspire others to do the same.
Motivation is a big part of this process. Think about one of the college courses you are currently taking. Do you find the course interesting or valuable? Do you believe you will do well? Have you struggled in similar classes before? Do you feel you have the support and resources you need to succeed? All of these factors shape your motivation.
As we mentioned, nearly 40% of undergraduates do not finish college. Part-time community college students are often at the greatest risk of withdrawing, as they may be first-generation students balancing classes with jobs and caring for family members. In our experience as instructors, we have seen students navigate overwhelming responsibilities and challenges. The students who persevere and reach their goals often share one thing in common: high motivation. They believe in their ability to succeed, take responsibility for their outcomes, and learn from their failures.
In this chapter, we will explore what motivates you and how to strengthen that motivation through clear, meaningful goal setting, so you can design the life you truly want to live.
Theories of Motivation
Research on motivation is extensive, with many theories that explore why we are motivated and how motivation works. Across these theories, certain ideas appear again and again, including our belief in our abilities, our expectation of success or failure, and our sense of control over the outcomes.3 Researchers Eccles and Wigfield assert that these factors directly shape how we answer a key question: “Can I do this task?” If the answer is yes, we’re more likely to feel motivated, take on challenges, and persist when things get difficult.
Mindset is another important piece of the motivation puzzle, often emphasized alongside these core ideas. Let’s take a closer look at how these components work together to influence your motivation.
Self-Efficacy
Self-efficacy is your belief in your own ability to succeed in reaching a goal 4. Students who have high self-efficacy are more persistent in reaching their goals, and they also are more resilient when they face failure.5 Self-efficacy is different from self-esteem. While self-esteem is how you feel about yourself in general, self-efficacy is your belief in your ability to accomplish a specific task or goal.
For example, Marc was frustrated that he had to take an English class for his degree and didn't believe he was able to be successful. He struggled with writing papers in high school, and he knew he "just wasn't good at writing." When Marc received a failing grade on his first paper, he stopped attending class and thought to himself "what's the point?" Marc lacked self-efficacy; he did not believe he was able to succeed and when faced with challenges, he was unable to remain motivated.
Take another student, Gina, who also struggled with writing. Gina believed, however, that she could be successful if she worked hard and got help from tutoring. When Gina received a low grade on her paper, she was frustrated, but she knew the class was important and still believed she could be successful. After class she went straight to tutoring to review her mistakes and get suggestions for improvement. Her self-efficacy allowed her to push through her failure and continue towards her goal.
PRO TIP:
Tutoring isn't just for help when you need it and are struggling- it's also there for reinforcement, validation, and confidence-building.
- Cathy Rosenkrans, former Assistant Director of Tutoring
Resilience and Grit
Resilience is defined as the ability to recover from or adjust easily to adversity or change. Adversity is a difficult or challenging negative circumstance, either a one-time event or a continuing situation, as illustrated in the stories of students Marc and Gina described above. Looking at these definitions, we can see that resilience is the ability to work through and adapt when things go wrong in life. For example, in an academic setting, if you fail an exam in a college class but have resilience, you don’t give up or drop the course right away. Instead, you might seek tutoring, talk with your instructor, and find ways to improve so you can do better next time.
In her best-selling book Grit 6 Angela Duckworth discusses one theory of resilience called "grit." Here is a link to Duckworth’s TED Talk on Grit: Angela Duckworth Grit TED Talk [www.ted.com] Duckworth explains that grit is passion, perseverance and determination. Through her studies she has found that "grittier" students are more likely to succeed. You can investigate your Grit Score using Angela Duckworth’s Grit Scale assessment. Please take the assessment and record your score below.
Grit Scale Assessment Link: Grit Scale by Angela Duckworth [angeladuckworth.com] My Grit Score:_________
After completing the Grit Scale Assessment, please read through the FAQ’s to find out more about what “grit” means. If you had a high grit score, why do you think this is? What factors may have contributed to your attitude of perseverance and determination? If your grit score was low, why do you think this is? Is your self-efficacy or belief in your ability to succeed lower than you'd like?
Mindset
Dr. Carol Dweck, a researcher at Stanford University, introduced the concept of growth versus fixed mindsets.7 People with a fixed mindset believe that we are born with certain abilities and skills which cannot be changed or improved upon. In contrast, people with a growth mindset believe that with effort and persistence, we can increase our abilities and skills in any area.
The chart below demonstrates the differences between the fixed and growth mindsets:
Table - Fixed and Growth Mindsets
| Fixed Mindset |
Growth Mindset |
| I am so bad at biology, and I will never understand the subject. |
I will get tutoring for my biology class this semester so that I can raise my test scores. |
| I am a horrible writer. |
I will practice my writing daily and seek help from my instructor or the Writing Center to improve. |
|
I have never been good with technology. I am going to fail this online class.
|
I am going to watch some tutorial videos so I understand how to navigate my online class better. If I still do not understand, I will ask my instructor. |
In terms of our academic choices, knowing that we have control over most of our outcomes is freeing. When we do poorly on an exam or an assignment, we have the power to study more next time, seek out free tutoring or ask our instructor for help. Choosing these “growth” actions will help us to be successful students.
“Growth Mindset” by EmployID Academy is licensed under CC0
Another theory of mindset is called "Victim-Creator." Individuals with a growth mindset also are referred to as “Creators.” Creators demonstrate the following behaviors:8
- Take responsibility for their actions
- Get help from those more skilled
- See failures as an opportunity to learn something new
- When they fail, they try something new
- Do not give up easily
In contrast, individuals with a fixed mindset are referred to as “Victims.” Victims demonstrate the following behaviors:9
- Blame others for their actions
- Give up when faced with challenges or obstacles
- Focus on their weaknesses
- Have self-sabotaging behaviors
- Do not believe in themselves
Locus of Control
Since self-efficacy involves believing you have control over your own success or failure, and people with a growth mindset view obstacles and setbacks as opportunities to learn, the idea of locus of control is an important part of this discussion. People with an internal locus of control believe they are in control, or are the cause of their success, based on their own effort or ability. People with an external locus of control believe outside forces, such as luck or fate, determine their success. Research has shown that people who have an internal locus of control are more motivated and more likely to succeed.10 Their expectation of success also is directly related to the extent they feel in control of their own success and failure.11
In the example above, Marc had an external locus of control believing there was nothing he could do; he "just wasn't good at writing." In Gina's case, she had an internal locus of control; she believed she could improve her writing ability with hard work and help from tutoring.
Personal Responsibility
There is much power in believing that we have control over many of the choices and outcomes that we experience in our lives. Of course, there will be events that are out of our control. For the purposes of this discussion, we are concentrating on those events over which we do have control. F For example, a pandemic is entirely beyond our control — none of us are responsible for it happening. However, how we choose to respond to the pandemic is within our control. Personal responsibility involves choices and focuses on making good decisions which help to further our personal and professional goals. Here is another story about two students to illustrate the concept of personal responsibility.
Erica is taking nine credits this semester. She works 20 hours a week and also has three children ages four, six and ten. Her life is very hectic, and when she decided to go back to school, she was not even sure how she would fit everything in. At the start of the semester, Erica made a plan that allows her to fit in a little school work and study time each day. She wakes up at 5 AM Monday through Friday to allow herself to get two hours of schoolwork in before her kids wake up.
Ronnie is taking 12 credits this semester. He does not work or have children. He is finding himself falling behind in his classes because he spends a lot of time playing video games and scrolling through social media. He does not have a concrete plan for how he approaches completing his schoolwork, and he often procrastinates and waits until the last minute to complete assignments.
Looking at both of these students, which one would you say shows greater personal responsibility? Who seems to be taking control of the situation and making choices that move them closer to achieving their goals? The answer is easy to see - Erica is. Even though Erica has much more on her plate than Ronnie, she is making choices that put her in a better situation. She is choosing to make school a priority. She is taking responsibility for herself by waking up early and completing schoolwork. With all that Erica has on her plate, she easily could make excuses. However, Erica knows that excuses do not help anything and only bring temporary gratification.
Although Ronnie and Erica are not real people, their stories reflect students' experiences every day. Some students make choices that lead them on a path to success, while other students self-sabotage by making destructive choices. Successful students take personal responsibility for their actions and believe that their success in college is within their control.
PRO TIP:
Time management is the key to success. Take out your phone on day one. Schedule 1 hour a day for 6 days a week (do this for each class you are taking). Have your phone notify you when the time approaches. Leave your phone in another room when it goes off so you don't get distracted. Work completely on HACC for that one hour. Within 10 days you will have created a habit of studying for 6 hours a week.
- Kristy Vukoder, Adjunct Instructor, Foundational Studies and Assistant Director, High School Partnerships
Expectancy and Value
As discussed above, many aspects impact your motivation including your mindset, sense of self-efficacy, and sense of control over your actions. Two additional aspects of motivation are your expectation of success and the value you place on a goal. This theory is referred to as expectancy-value theory and can be seen as the formula: Expectation x Value = Motivation.12 In this theory, expectation refers to how you think you will perform on a particular task or goal.13 How you perceive yourself and how you perceive the challenge of the task will influence your expectation of success.14 Additionally, the value you place on a goal will influence how appealing the goal is and how motivated you are to achieve it.15
In the student stories above, some students may have had low expectations of success and/or placed low value on their college classes so their motivation was also low. Other students had higher expectations of succeeding and knew their classes were valuable so their motivation was much higher. This expectancy-value theory will be explained in depth on the next page.
1 National Center for Education Statistics. (2020). The condition of Education. National Center for Education Statistics The Condition of Education [nces.ed.gov]
2 National Center for Education Statistics. (2020). The condition of Education. National Center for Education Statistics The Condition of Education [nces.ed.gov]
3 Eccles, J. S., & Wigfield, A. (2002). Motivational beliefs, values, and goals. Annual Review of Psychology, 53(1), 109–132. https://doi-org.ezproxy.hacc.edu/10.....100901.135153.
4 Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman
5 Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman.
6 Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit: The power of passion and perseverance. Scribner/Simon & Schuster.
7 Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Random House.
8 Downing, S. (2008). On course: Strategies for creating success in college and in life. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
9 Downing, S. (2008). On course: Strategies for creating success in college and in life. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
10 Eccles, J. S., & Wigfield, A. (2002). Motivational beliefs, values, and goals. Annual Review of Psychology, 53(1), 109–132. https://doi-org.ezproxy.hacc.edu/10.....100901.135153.9
11 Eccles, J. S., & Wigfield, A. (2002). Motivational beliefs, values, and goals. Annual Review of Psychology, 53(1), 109–132. https://doi-org.ezproxy.hacc.edu/10.....100901.135153.
12 Wigfield, A., & Eccles, J. S. (2000). Expectancy--value theory of achievement motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25(1), 68–81. https://doi-org.ezproxy.hacc.edu/10....ceps.1999.1015.
13 Eccles, J. S., & Wigfield, A. (2002). Motivational beliefs, values, and goals. Annual Review of Psychology, 53(1), 109–132. https://doi-org.ezproxy.hacc.edu/10.....100901.135153.
14 Eccles, J. S., & Wigfield, A. (2002). Motivational beliefs, values, and goals. Annual Review of Psychology, 53(1), 109–132. https://doi-org.ezproxy.hacc.edu/10.....100901.135153.
15 Eccles, J. S., & Wigfield, A. (2002). Motivational beliefs, values, and goals. Annual Review of Psychology, 53(1), 109–132. https://doi-org.ezproxy.hacc.edu/10.....100901.135153.
