Uncovering the Secrets to Motivation as a High Performing Student

Struggling to keep up with all the work you’ve taken on for yourself?

As a high-achieving student and reader of Grad Excel, you’re probably trying to juggle a huge amount of responsibilities, including keeping up with expectations to do well in school, keeping on top of your sports and staying healthy, taking on leadership roles in clubs and societies at school, getting involved in other extracurricular activities, and managing your job/side hustle if you’ve got one.

I know that being able to stay motivated and keep that fire burning inside of you can be challenging with such a busy schedule.

Trust me, I’ve tried to do it, and seen others do it as well.

It can be extremely stressful and difficult to keep going, especially when everyone else around you is relaxing and chilling.

In this article, I’ll help you explore some ways for you to stay motivated and keep on pushing through to achieve a high performance, even when life feels like too much to handle at times.

Let’s get started.

The Difference Between Discipline and Motivation

First of all, it is important for you to be able to know the difference between discipline and motivation.

Because fundamentally, they’re pretty different things.

Discipline

Discipline involves staying dedicated to your commitments, continuing to work hard and maintaining your routines, even when you don’t feel like it.

It’s getting up early in the morning to go to sports practice before school, even though you’re tired from staying up late studying the night before.

It’s coming home and doing some of your homework because you need to, even though you had work after school and got off at 10pm.

Motivation

Motivation, on the other hand, is the driving force that encourages and propels you to keep pushing forward, igniting enthusiasm and passion for your endeavors, even when things get difficult.

While discipline provides routine and structure in what you do day to day, motivation provides the spark, and the ‘why’.

Understanding the difference between discipline and motivation is important for success, as often times, you’ll find yourself completely lacking in motivation, and needing to rely solely on your discipline to get things done.

How to Stay Motivated

Set Clear Goals For Yourself

You can gain a good sense of where you’re intending to do and what you want to achieve if you set definite goals for yourself, and know what you need to do each day, week, month, or even year.

These could include goals about your:

• Academic achievements
• Athletic performance
• Leadership roles
• Extracurricular activities
• Side hustles.

Visualize yourself achieving your goals and remind yourself why they matter to you in the first place.

This vision will be a powerful motivator.

For instance, if a student wants a chance at receiving a scholarship to university in a particular sport, they set a clear goal of adding an extra training session to their workout regime every week until the end of the season.

In this way, motivation can be maintained throughout the season, as this goal provides a solid target that they can shoot for, knowing they’ll either be able to stick to this promise they made to themselves, or not.

Break Tasks Down

It is significantly easier to accomplish your goals if you break them down into smaller, manageable tasks.

Well, it’s not literally easier, but it feels easier to manage in our heads.

And that’s all that matters, because life, and pretty much anything difficult that’s worth doing, is mostly just a mental game.

When you face a busy schedule, these bite-sized tasks that have been broken down are easier to complete, and they can motivate you to pursue your goals.

Seeing that you’ve completed 2/5 tasks is significantly easier on the mind than looking at the entire thing and thinking you haven’t even gone halfway yet.

Consider a student with a heavy load of coursework in a group project and an unfortunate responsibility to do the majority of the work as they’ve been paired with a bunch of students who aren’t going to be contributing very much.

Instead of feeling overwhelmed by the major project and complaining to the teacher, they break it down into research, outline, writing, and revision stages.

Then, as they progress through the stages and grow closer to finishing the entire project, they feel accomplished after completing each stage, which motivates them to keep going.

Look For Inspiration

Listening to and learning about the achievements of others around you or those who have done what you want to do can inspire your own passion and add fuel to your flame.

That’s right, all the time you spend on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram could actually all be put to some good use for once!

Instead of watching funny cat videos or try not to laugh compilations, try reading or watching some content that’s either educational and will help you on your journey, or motivational and will help encourage you to keep working harder.

Hold Yourself Accountable

You need to be able to learn to hold yourself accountable and keep realistic and honest with yourself when you’re doing good, and when you could be doing better.

You need to be able to learn how to be truthful to yourself, as if someone was there constantly criticizing what you do and always keeping an eye out for how productive you are.

If you find yourself slacking off, don’t allow it!

Don’t settle for mediocracy.

Always strive to be better, and the only person who’s going to genuinely care about that, is you.

Organize Yourself

Organize your workspace and schedule, make sure you know where everything is, and exactly what you need to get done each day/week.

Clutter and disorganization can seriously demotivate you, as it makes your tasks seem bigger and harder to handle.

Establish a Solid Routine That You Can Follow Consistently

If you’re following the same structured routine each day, you won’t have to worry about not knowing what to do next, or wondering when you’re going to be able to find time to do what you need to do.

For instance, a successful athlete will likely follow a routine that includes morning workouts, structured meal plans, and consistent rest periods.

This routine not only optimizes their performance, by telling them exactly when to get to work, but keeps them motivated to succeed by allowing time for breaks and time to recharge.

Ask for Feedback

You can develop upon yourself and stay motivated by regularly seeking feedback from teachers, coaches, mentors, or peers.

Seeking feedback from those who care about the work you produce or the things you do can really remind you of why you’re doing what you’re doing in the first place, and help you keep on top of your schedule/stress.

During the design and build process of a robot for a school project, a student actively seeks feedback from mentors and team members who are also involved in the same project.

This constructive feedback and input from their mentors helps them make the necessary improvements and fuels their motivation as they not only know they are close to finishing, but also getting the grades they want.

Resilience in Practice

Stay motivated and committed to your work during difficult times by developing strong resilience traits.

Resilience helps you bounce back from setbacks and adapt to changes when you fail or face stress, so that eventually you can succeed and move on.

For example, an injury might temporarily prevent a student-athlete from being able to train and practice.

Rather than losing motivation or giving up, they focus on taking their rehabilitation very seriously and learning more about the mental aspects of their sport.

This resilience helps them stay motivated and recover more quickly, and also giving them the chance to be able to learn about their sport from a different aspect (mentally), allowing them to come back as a better player overall.

Make Self-Reflection a Priority

This goes hand in hand with keeping yourself accountable.

You can reaffirm your commitment and maintain a clear sense of purpose as to why you’re doing all this by reflecting regularly on your goals and your progress towards actually achieving them.

For example, a student involved in community service groups at their school might regularly reflect on their experiences and the impacts they’ve made through their social actions.

Their reflection reinforces their motivation to continue serving by making them feel proud of all the things they’ve done.

Set S.M.A.R.T. goals

It is easier to stay motivated when your goals are S.M.A.R.T.

That stands for:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-bound

You need to know exactly what your goal is (specific), be able to track your progress with it (measurable), realistic and something that can be done (achievable), actually be of use to you (relevant), and have a deadline or checkpoint you can measure against (time-bound).

For example, a graduating student might set a goal to apply for 50 jobs that offer graduate programs in their target profession by the end of the week.

This is specific as the student will know exactly which opportunities they should be be applying for.

This is measurable as they know they want to have applied 50 times by the end of the week, and they can check in on this halfway through the week to see how they’re going.

This is achievable as all it is if about 7 applications per day, on average. Usually, each one would only take a few minutes to submit.

It’s a relevant goal too, as landing one of these graduate positions would be an awesome start to the student’s career.

Finally, this is time-bound as by the end of the week, the student will either have submitted at least 50 applications, or not.

Distractions Should Be Managed

To maintain focus, motivation and discipline, identify common distractions that draw your attention away from your work, and minimize them.

This could include things such as:

• TikTok
• YouTube
• Snapchat
• Video games

If you’d like to learn more about being as productive as possible, check out this article:

Delegate Tasks to Others

You can stay motivated if you learn to delegate some of your less important responsibilities to other people, especially in leadership roles and in your side hustles.

For example: a student leader in a community service organization delegated tasks to sub-committees to ensure smooth event execution, preventing his own burnout and maintaining motivation.

This also gives others a chance to be more involved and rise to the occasion.

Establish a Morning Routine

Setting a positive tone for your day starts with a motivating morning routine that proves to yourself, you can get things done.

This can be as simple of a start as making your bed in the morning, before going off to do something productive.

Example: A student aiming to excel in academics and athletics begins their morning routine with some quick stretching, ensuring a healthy breakfast, and a brief meditation session before catching up on any homework, every single morning.

This routine energizes them and keeps them motivated throughout the day, as they’re off to a strong start, and know they’ve gotten the ball rolling.

Connect with Mentors

Mentors and professionals who have experience in your areas of interest and the things you want to do can keep you motivated and on track by constantly reminding you of why you’re doing what you are.

Get in touch and connect with people who have done what you want to achieve, whether that’s your teacher, a friend’s parents, a person you find on LinkedIn, anything.

Always Remember Your ‘Why’

Remember why you’re putting yourself through all this stress in the first place.

Always keep this reason in the back of your head, as one day, when you succeed, this is the reason that’s going to make it all worth it in the end.

For example, a student who’s pursuing a medical degree is certain to face an extremely demanding school curriculum that requires time, effort, and focus to be invested.

To stay motivated and prevent himself from losing hope of being able to finish his degree, he can reflect on his initial desire to help others and make a positive impact on the health of the people around him, as that’s what he cares about.

Oh, and possibly the lucrative salary too.

This is his ‘why’, and the thing that’s going to make it all worth it for him in the end.

Be Flexible

In the event that you have to suddenly overcome some unexpected challenges, staying flexible and adaptable can help you maintain motivation and stay on track.

Always be ready to adapt, and don’t be so quick to give up or look for a way out if things go south.

Embrace change, and learn to think quickly on your feet.

For example: rather than canceling a fundraising event due to bad weather, a student leader quickly adapts the plan, moving it indoors and modifying activities to maintain his motivation to meet fundraising targets for his school club or association.

To Wrap Things Up

As a high-achieving student managing a wealth of different responsibilities, it’s extremely easy for stress to pile up quickly.

However, through adopting a positive mindset and mentality, and effective goal setting techniques, you can continue to excel in all aspects of your life, and all the endeavors you chase.

No matter how big or small.

You can continue to be the high performer you already are.

Sometimes you will have to rely solely on your discipline and ability to get work done even when you don’t feel like it, but always remember that it’s going to be worth it in the end.

Apply these tips and techniques to maintain the motivation/drive necessary to conquer your busy schedule, and smash your biggest dreams and goals.

With dedication and the right approach, you can unlock the secrets to staying motivated as the high achieving student and future winner you aspire to be.

I hope you’ve been able to learn something from this article, and have found it useful to you!

If you’d like to learn more about becoming the highest performing student you can be, check out the rest of our Medium publication, Grad Excel!

Other than that, wishing you all the best for your student endeavors.