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Cant be bothered attitude, what do I do...

Im in Year 13 doing A levels and right now I just cannot be bothered with anything. Since I started year 13 Its clear to me, my parents and my teachers that Ive lost the motivation and commitment from year 12 and I dont know why...
Im enjoying school and my lessons and I want to get into Uni and get a good job, but my motivation is non existent...I just cannot be bothered studying at home or in school when there isnt a teacher around to essentially bully me into doing work.
The only thing I can be bothered doing are the things I enjoy which is either being on my phone or on Xbox...
I didnt put in any effort revising for my AS's and I got an E and a U and yet im still not shaken by the fear that if I dont change, I'll fail my A - Levels, or even by the fear that If my predicted grades dont change by the Uni application deadline (January), that I wont even get into Uni. Ive been told time and time again by everyone that if I dont put in the effort then I will fail and despite it being true, it doeant phase me, I just find it annoying at this point...

What do I do?...

Any help on what I should do would be greatly appreciated.
Reply 1
Join Navy.
Reply 2
Thanks but no thanks
Reply 3
I think a lot of people feel like that so don’t beat yourself up about it or anything. For me it was always about having some kind of clear end goal to keep me going and motivated so I could think about it and say “that’s where I want to be so I’ve got to keep going”. Man that sounds so cringeworthy but still, it works for me😂 Also, if you haven’t already, you could try and organise your work and life a bit too that could help, you might feel a bit more productive and motivated if you have a nice study area and checklists and timetables telling you what to do and when to do it.

Hope that helps somewhat
(edited 5 years ago)
Reply 4
Original post by laurenl7
I think a lot of people feel like that so don’t beat yourself up about it or anything. For me it was always about having some kind of clear end goal to keep me going and motivated so I could think about it and say “that’s where I want to be so I’ve got to keep going”. Man that sounds so cringeworthy but still, it works for me😂 Also, if you haven’t already, you could try and organise your work and life a bit too that could help, you might feel a bit more productive and motivated if you have a nice study area and checklists and timetables telling you what to do and when to do it.

Hope that helps somewhat

Thanks
Reply 5
This was me. Wasn't til final year of uni where I understood what I wanted to do (when you find something you like, it doesn't feel like 'work')

Firstly, I wouldn't worry about what anyone else is telling you.
Secondly, forget about the grades and education. If you want to stop being lazy in any area of your life, you need to condition yourself to choose delayed gratification over instant gratification.

This, in essence, is the root of your problem -- your brain hasn't learned to associate doing the **** you don't want to do, with feeling good.
If you instead of doing your work, you watch a movie -- then you instantly feel good, so that behaviour gets reinforced. If you condition yourself to go to the gym, it will feel pointless at first, but eventually once you start seeing good gains and getting compliments from people etc. which make you feel good, only then does your brain realise that "doing **** I don't want to do right now will lead me to feeling good later". And depending on how good you feel as a result of putting in work, the stronger the degree to which you won't mind doing work in the future.

Once you learn to truly appreciate and experience the benefits of delayed gratification, you'll naturally do your work rather than going straight to the xbox.

So you need to switch up your behaviour in whatever areas of life you want doesn't really matter, set some goals that would be cool to accomplish and that require 'work' to get there. Achieve a few goals and experience how good it feels to do so, and the benefits of those goals etc. and you'll realise that actually that 'work' is actually worthwhile, just not right now.

Initially it's quite hard to discipline yourself and you'll wanna fall back into your old ways.
You can speed this process up by rewarding yourself for doing **** you don't want to do, and withholding rewards (punishing yourself) whenever you take the 'i cba rn' approach.

Having this instant-gratification mindset isn't really your fault, you would have developed it in your early years. And you have the power to change it if you want.
Here's a helpful video on instant gratification vs. delayed gratification: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47DmUM7MW7s
Reply 6
Original post by eightbo
This was me. Wasn't til final year of uni where I understood what I wanted to do (when you find something you like, it doesn't feel like 'work')

Firstly, I wouldn't worry about what anyone else is telling you.
Secondly, forget about the grades and education. If you want to stop being lazy in any area of your life, you need to condition yourself to choose delayed gratification over instant gratification.

This, in essence, is the root of your problem -- your brain hasn't learned to associate doing the **** you don't want to do, with feeling good.
If you instead of doing your work, you watch a movie -- then you instantly feel good, so that behaviour gets reinforced. If you condition yourself to go to the gym, it will feel pointless at first, but eventually once you start seeing good gains and getting compliments from people etc. which make you feel good, only then does your brain realise that "doing **** I don't want to do right now will lead me to feeling good later". And depending on how good you feel as a result of putting in work, the stronger the degree to which you won't mind doing work in the future.

Once you learn to truly appreciate and experience the benefits of delayed gratification, you'll naturally do your work rather than going straight to the xbox.

So you need to switch up your behaviour in whatever areas of life you want doesn't really matter, set some goals that would be cool to accomplish and that require 'work' to get there. Achieve a few goals and experience how good it feels to do so, and the benefits of those goals etc. and you'll realise that actually that 'work' is actually worthwhile, just not right now.

Initially it's quite hard to discipline yourself and you'll wanna fall back into your old ways.
You can speed this process up by rewarding yourself for doing **** you don't want to do, and withholding rewards (punishing yourself) whenever you take the 'i cba rn' approach.

Having this instant-gratification mindset isn't really your fault, you would have developed it in your early years. And you have the power to change it if you want.
Here's a helpful video on instant gratification vs. delayed gratification: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47DmUM7MW7s

This actually helps and explains a lot. Thanks
Original post by Nath Cu11er
Im in Year 13 doing A levels and right now I just cannot be bothered with anything. Since I started year 13 Its clear to me, my parents and my teachers that Ive lost the motivation and commitment from year 12 and I dont know why...
Im enjoying school and my lessons and I want to get into Uni and get a good job, but my motivation is non existent...I just cannot be bothered studying at home or in school when there isnt a teacher around to essentially bully me into doing work.
The only thing I can be bothered doing are the things I enjoy which is either being on my phone or on Xbox...
I didnt put in any effort revising for my AS's and I got an E and a U and yet im still not shaken by the fear that if I dont change, I'll fail my A - Levels, or even by the fear that If my predicted grades dont change by the Uni application deadline (January), that I wont even get into Uni. Ive been told time and time again by everyone that if I dont put in the effort then I will fail and despite it being true, it doeant phase me, I just find it annoying at this point...

What do I do?...

Any help on what I should do would be greatly appreciated.



I remember feeling that way in my A-levels too. I'd actually put a lot of effort in AS but when it came to A2 I just did not care at all. I'd put effort in the previous year and done average. The course's I chose were Economics, Maths and I.T. and the only one I really cared about was Economics but I could not even be bothered to do that.

If I remember, I was very much a last minute, revise a couple days before the exam type of person and I seemed to get through ok as I'm now doing my Masters in Economics and Financial Analysis, so I wouldn't worry too much.

My advice to you would be that you will have to force yourself to do it. Attend all your classes, even if you're not an active participant. Put yourself in a productive environment. The people surrounding you make a bigger impact than you think. Being around and listening to people who are constantly talking about what they are doing educationally plays with your subconcious. If there's a library or study area, go there during your free periods, you're more likely to do a little bit of work that way. When you're home, try to do even half an hours worth of work or put on a youtube video in the background for which ever subject you need to study that night. It's amazing how much actually goes in. Break things down into digestable chunks and just work your way along. Try experimenting with different revision techniques too, coloured paper, recording yourself and listening to that, documentaries, for certain subjects there will even be online games, try anything that may engage you.

I'd also say, learn the framework of how you need to answer. Make things as easy as possible. This is especially true for essays. Just Practice the formats so you can easily get the marks in the exam, no waffle.

Hope you do well. Cheer up. Even if you don't do so well, it's not the end of the world. There's always other options for you to do well and by the time you get in your early 20's, the social pressures and judgements don't matter anymore as long as you're living your life, doing what you enjoy. University isn't for everyone and that's fine. There are more apprenticeships that are of good quality and give you life skills you need. Some people defer and take a gap year working before trying again. You can always transfer and do them at another college. Some people get low level jobs in a good company and work their way up with company support for training and qualifications. Just don't stress yourself out too much, everyone has their own path in life and that doesn't have to be that same as everyone else.

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