Personal Development for Smart People Forums - View Single Post

MrGuyUK · 02-26-2007, 07:14 AM

Hi.

I'm new round here

but that's not the point of this thread.

A short while ago (about 6 months ago) i started at Greenhead College (one of the top 10 college in england

.) I live in the UK, so college here is pretty different from the US as far as i know. But i made the mistake of picking subjects for the wrong reasons. I chose maths, physics, computing and psychology.

Computing is really the one thing i want to do and psychology was my "fun" lesson. maths and physics i chose because i felt pressured by my dad and that i had been told on numerous occaisions its the right thing to pick. So i picked maths and physics, even though i knew from my highschool years that maths an physics were my least favourite subjects (e.g. in biol n chem i got A at GCSE, phys i got a B, i did maths AS a year early because i'm clever and got a U... so i'm not THAT clever.)

I realised this was a mistake after the first 3 or so weeks at college. I changed my physics for something i enjoy more, theater studies. I'm glad i did. the ammount and type of work from physics was horrible. theater studies was a god send!

But now i'm lumped with maths. It is my ambition to study computing at university. I would like to study computing or computing science at imperial college, london. The grades i need to get on the course i want, are 3 A-level grades: AAB. But the snag is one of them has to be in maths. Now i can definately get an A at computing, i can probably get an A in theater studies or psychology. However at current, my grades in maths are D/E.

Maths doesn't interest me, but i need it. But because it doesn't interest me, i can't do it, and i can't remain motivated or focused in the lessons or when im supposed to be doing the work else where. It's the worse feeling ever. I'm really good at computing (top in my class by far) and it's frustrating that i want to do something i'm really good at and i want to study it at the most prestigious university for it in england, yet i can't because i can't remain motivated in another subject.

This conundrum is really getting me down, every long holiday (half terms etc) at the end, in the last 2 - 3 days or so, i just get insanely depressed about going to college. i want to drop out, and if it wasnt for friends and family i would. It seems that because of my failure in maths, college isn't actually going to get me where i want to go - so why should i go there? but the reason i want to drop out is because i'm not doing as well as i could, and i'm not doing as well as i could because i'm not motivated, and i'm not motivated because i'm not interested, but i need to be!

So i suppose my question is how to i force an interest in something? and if that's not possible, how to i stay motivated when not interested? And a 3rd and final question, how do i beat procrastination?

Thanks in advanced!

02-26-2007, 07:14 AM	#1 (permalink)
MrGuyUK Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 3	Staying motivated when uninterested Hi. I'm new round here but that's not the point of this thread. A short while ago (about 6 months ago) i started at Greenhead College (one of the top 10 college in england .) I live in the UK, so college here is pretty different from the US as far as i know. But i made the mistake of picking subjects for the wrong reasons. I chose maths, physics, computing and psychology. Computing is really the one thing i want to do and psychology was my "fun" lesson. maths and physics i chose because i felt pressured by my dad and that i had been told on numerous occaisions its the right thing to pick. So i picked maths and physics, even though i knew from my highschool years that maths an physics were my least favourite subjects (e.g. in biol n chem i got A at GCSE, phys i got a B, i did maths AS a year early because i'm clever and got a U... so i'm not THAT clever.) I realised this was a mistake after the first 3 or so weeks at college. I changed my physics for something i enjoy more, theater studies. I'm glad i did. the ammount and type of work from physics was horrible. theater studies was a god send! But now i'm lumped with maths. It is my ambition to study computing at university. I would like to study computing or computing science at imperial college, london. The grades i need to get on the course i want, are 3 A-level grades: AAB. But the snag is one of them has to be in maths. Now i can definately get an A at computing, i can probably get an A in theater studies or psychology. However at current, my grades in maths are D/E. Maths doesn't interest me, but i need it. But because it doesn't interest me, i can't do it, and i can't remain motivated or focused in the lessons or when im supposed to be doing the work else where. It's the worse feeling ever. I'm really good at computing (top in my class by far) and it's frustrating that i want to do something i'm really good at and i want to study it at the most prestigious university for it in england, yet i can't because i can't remain motivated in another subject. This conundrum is really getting me down, every long holiday (half terms etc) at the end, in the last 2 - 3 days or so, i just get insanely depressed about going to college. i want to drop out, and if it wasnt for friends and family i would. It seems that because of my failure in maths, college isn't actually going to get me where i want to go - so why should i go there? but the reason i want to drop out is because i'm not doing as well as i could, and i'm not doing as well as i could because i'm not motivated, and i'm not motivated because i'm not interested, but i need to be! So i suppose my question is how to i force an interest in something? and if that's not possible, how to i stay motivated when not interested? And a 3rd and final question, how do i beat procrastination? Thanks in advanced!