Staying motivated when uninterested

[MrGuyUK]

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!

[Bender.PUA]

Wish I could help, but that is exsactly why I dropped out of my college. Hate it to the bone, but I was going cos of fear of a lousy no-colledge-life with no money. So now I dig ditches. Lol, I really did last week Thing is Im not that worried anymore, I got a few ides for my own company n stuff....
I do admire people that go aginst theyr will and finish colledge that they hate.
But then you work a job you dont like, have a wife you hate...bla bla bla. Letting go of it was the best thing I ever did. And just look at the most ritch people in your country. How many are colledge educated? There is much more to life I think.

[JJP]

WHOA I wish I had seen this thread before I posted mine just now. It is like the exact same thing I'm going through. What's the deal I wonder? We should form a club...

[Angelwings]

i m in the exact same situation too. I responded to JJP thread.
Basically i m a 3rd yr college student. I ve been just getting a pass in all my subjects for d last 3 yrs. i was finding difficulty to cope with d course coz i wasnt interested and hence not motivated to study. I m deeply in love with music. I should have done that.
I feel for u. I understand.

[Liara Covert]

It's funny how we're almost programmed to make certain life choices and then, if we start thinking for ourselves, things don't always seem to jive. This isn't really a problem unless you tell yourself it's a problem. When the results you get don't meet your expectations, that may be because you were misguided or you hadn't really listened to yourself or known yourself before. You can read to justify your mindset or to help make up for what you lack, but its more difficult to convince yourself of a career path that isn't really right for you.

Back in undergraduate university, I began taking Science because I thought that was logical at the time. It suited my longer term goals of the time too. Then, after taking some courses, I realized I didn't like it all as I thought I would. It was a bit of a shocker to hear to my inner voice suggest bridging Science and Arts. People didn't expect me to do that. The separate faculties didn't want me to do that. I was considered a troublemaker at the same time as a pioneer. The process taught me a lot about my determination. It also taught me that I desired to experience more in life than the narrow path I had initally planned for myself. Stepping out of my comfort zone was good. This taught me great things can result from facing your fears.

I've learned you won't always like all the things you do in life. Yet, doing some things you don't like is eactly what you need to discover who you are and create a path your happy with. Life choices are experiments. As you learn to hear your inner voice, you're more likely to start to question why you have convinced yourself certain choices are for you. Above all, you need to decide what kind of commitments you're willing to make as part of your learning process. Once you commit to something, you can learn from it, whatever happens.

[RT Wolf]

You might benefit by improving your discipline.

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/200...lf-discipline/

Just do it. Five years from now you're not even gonna remember. Also, try to make a game out classes, like see how concentrated you can be on it for how long and try to beat your time every time. This doesn't solve your problem of being intrsically not liking math (versus disliking it), however it should get you to the end of the year.

BTW, I'm noticing a lot of threads about school this time around. I call this the Mid-year blues (tends to coincide with winter, too, so winter blues affect too), cause every student seems unable to concentrate. I used to just give up, though, which was really bad, so that's one of the things I'm working on. Basically, this is the point where you've lost the motivation that used to keep you going, you've lost sight of your goals, and you're stuck in a pattern of wishing it was different, and salvation (ie summer) seems so far away. Just suck it up.