Motivation Paper

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There are many stress inducing aspects of school. How we deal with stress relates directly with our personality. In this section I would like to provide ways of coping with stress in correlation to my personality characteristics that I have previously introduced. I have discussed that having (1) a high level of agreeableness has the ability to lower my overall grades when engaging in group work. As a full time student a busy schedule increases stress for everyone involved in a project. It is ideal to work efficiently in a group setting because it can save time and lesson the workload. Ways to avoid groupthink situations and increase our grades would be to allow more time at the initial discussion of the assignment to allow for maximum creativity. Engaging in brainstorming and other activities such as the six hats experiment (an experiment used to solve a problem from multiple perspectives) allows each student to have a voice and opinion in the assignment. Having a (2) low emotional stability during stressful school situations would create a high anxiety and a stressful environment. To cope with emotional instability there are a few techniques known to reduce stress and achieve maximum success. These techniques for coping include maintaining a healthy diet, getting the proper amount of sleep, and participating in regular physical activity Eating healthy foods gives you more energy. Regular sleep will help to reduce anxiety. Being active releases endorphins in to the brain making you feel stronger, happier and more energetic. Each of these strategies will help to overcome emotional stability, release tension and help you to better focus and complete the assigned workload to your full potential. Finally (3) having a low general self-efficacy can be overcome by setting smaller goals. Spreading out the course load gives you more achievable goals that are easier to manage and maintain. Self-efficacy will improve if the tasks are less intimidating.

Personality traits have a direct link to our level of motivation. What motivates us in school activities is our drive to succeed. High agreeableness, low emotional stability, and low general self-efficacy are traits that I believe are liabilities to my academic success. Coping with these potentially negative characteristics include increasing creativity in group work, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and making smaller more attainable goals. By actively engaging in these activities I will be giving myself a greater opportunity to succeed