How can I get motivated to go to school? First have a think about WHY you don't want to go to school. What is stopping you from going there? Or is something holding you back at home? Are there any difficulties with your classmates, your teachers or any other person? What about school work? Are you having any problems with homework, not completing it, for example, or with a particular project - maybe in getting it started?
Perhaps the work is too easy or too hard? What about school tests, or maybe school exams or public exams? Are you finding it difficult to study for those? Do you have a problem with your health, or at home that is worrying you? Maybe a problem with a friend outside school? Perhaps a problem with a parent or guardian is worrying you.
What do you THINK is stopping you from going to school? Can you put your finger on the problem? It's especially important to consider whether there is something you may be pretending isn't happening, or would like to hide away from. If your school has a counsellor or pastoral adviser, you may find it helpful to talk to them if you have a difficult problem, or even if you don't know WHY you don't attend. Listening to ourselves talking through a problem can help us find out what it is and perhaps identify ways of overcoming it.
Sometimes, the problem is not with school or with anyone else in particular. Some people can suffer from depression, even a deep depression. This means they don't want to do anything or go anywhere at all. If so, talk to your medical adviser.
Could the problem be with the school itself or with the subjects? Perhaps school is just boring? Or maybe some particular classes are boring? Maybe it doesn't cover the subjects you like or you have to take classes in subjects you dislike? Could you be one of those people that already knows exactly what they want to do for the rest of their life and already has all the knowledge, skills and contacts to do that?
Writing down your likes and dislikes about going to school can be helpful. It means you can work out what any difficulties might be so you can work on those. And you can see which things you like and improve on those too. Not going to school can mean missing out on some good stuff. For instance, just mixing with other people, whether friends, teachers, or others, means you learn how to get on with others and how to recognise other people's feelings and emotions.
Discussion and debate with your peer group is important in developing your own thoughts on life, your own value system and testing out friendships and relationships of many kinds, some, or many, of which may last your whole life. Another important positive benefit in going to school is that physical exercise is normally included.
Now not everyone agrees in that being positive! But exercise helps you learn, as well as teaches you co-operation with others and helps keep you fit and healthy. These aspects can all be found elsewhere, besides school but that often means making a deliberate effort to seek out opportunities which could already be part of everyday school life. On the negative side, taking subjects you hate or don't understand can be boring.
You now have two lists, one of good points, one of bad points about going to school. Which list is the longer? The plus points or the minus points? If you check out which list is longer and find that there are more bad points than good about going to school, then it is not surprising that you are not motivated to attend. Can you change some of those minus points into plus points? If you can make the plus list longer than the minus list, you will be more likely to WANT to go to school.
Changing minus points into positive ones is not as easy as it may sound. Change can be hard because it means taking action now, for the promise of something good in the future. That's not always easy to do or to keep up but it is very worthwhile. Taking action means deciding on a goal and starting to work towards it. A goal has to be something you can measure, something you can touch or count. A goal is not an airy-fairy aspiration such as "improve myself".
A goal is something like "improve all exam results by 10%". You can measure that! If your attendance record is not good, you could make your goal to be to improve that by a certain amount. For instance if you have only attended school for 50% of last term, your goal might be to attend for 75% (three quarters) of the time next term. On the other hand, you may want to set a goal for the marks you want to get in a test or exam, or for actually completing and putting in homework or set work.
You can find out more about setting and measuring goals at
FREEDUP - setting goals and you can find out how to create and keep a motivation chart to measure your success at
FREEDUP - creating a personal motivation chart To achieve any goal you must really want the goal and keep going after it. Not achieving your goal right away doesn't matter. If you fall, pick yourself up and jump straight back in.
The goal you are aiming for must always be achievable - difficult maybe, but it has to be possible and you have to BELIEVE that it is possible, otherwise you will never even start. Break the goal up into small bits that can be tackled in turn. You will be able to measure each step you take and see how far you have travelled. Every step is an achievement.
For some people, a really big goal might be to run a marathon and to just consider running one might seem impossible at present. But by breaking it up into small manageable goals, such as running 500 metres or one kilometre and improving from there, you can eventually reach the goal. If you need to improve your school marks, again you need to set achievable goals and keep at them. This might include a goal of learning 10 spellings or vocabulary words a day.
Or it might mean doing an extra amount of homework each day. If you want to make more friends or learn better social skills, you could join a club or take up a sport or activity and take part. Alternatively, you volunteer with a charity or some organisation that needs help.
Set yourself some big goals, break these up into smaller steps and measure and mark your progress. You'll soon find plenty to celebrate as you achieve what you want to do. You can find out more about setting and measuring goals at
FREEDUP - setting goals and you can find out how to create and keep a motivation chart to measure your success at
FREEDUP - creating a personal motivation chart