How to Stay Motivated (RN)

00:01 So I don't know about your motivation, but mine is fleeting.

00:04 Like really fast. It runs away the second it smells the nursing school bear of stress, right? It's like, nope, I'm out.

00:12 And that is why I also spent so much time talking about habits and planning earlier and prioritizing before because those are what are going to support actual motivation.

00:23 It's the habits.

00:24 Habits are what are going to keep you showing up every single day to face the nursing school bear because it's not going to be motivation.

00:31 But motivation does help you, kind of, push yourself out the door in the morning.

00:35 So I thought I would finish off with a little bit of advice of how I keep my motivation when it's really faltering.

00:41 And in case you can't tell, it faltered a lot, by the way, and that's normal.

00:46 You are not alone there.

00:47 What helps? I need you to remember your why.

00:52 So I'm willing to bet that at one point you were super thrilled to get accepted into nursing school, right? I was. I was so excited about my future in the career, and I felt so incredibly hopeful and happy when I got that acceptance letter.

01:04 And then half a year later, sitting in my patho class close to tears, I felt a lot differently.

01:11 Right? That motivation was completely gone.

01:13 The bear was in front of me, and I was scared, and I had no motivation to do the work, to face it and fight it off.

01:20 And it was one night that I was crying.

01:22 I'm sure you're shocked at this point and thinking, what was I even thinking, doing this, right? This is really hard.

01:28 I want to stop.

01:29 That, like, Facebook was still cool when I was in nursing school, and it gave me a memory the other day when I was in a nursing school acceptance.

01:38 And I was sitting there, and it reminded me I was so happy in that picture.

01:43 Right? I was beaming in that photo.

01:46 Not in real life in that moment.

01:47 I was not beaming in real life.

01:48 But I remembered, in that moment, like, why I did this, right? And to be totally honest, the answer wasn't "I'm going to change the world!" It was because I was interested in healthcare science.

02:01 That's why I got into this.

02:02 It interested me.

02:03 I wanted to learn more, and I didn't want to be a waitress forever.

02:07 I wanted to be a nurse because it seemed interesting and full of potential.

02:11 And then I also had to pay off my student loans that were paying for nursing school, so we needed a job.

02:17 Those are not romantic reasons, and that's okay, but they are the reasons that reminded me why I was there and that at some point this seemed like a good idea. This nursing school thing, I was like, "Yeah, this is great." And that one day in the future, going to nursing school may once again seem like a good idea. I printed that picture and I put it up on my desk and when I felt like life was just too hard, I looked at it.

02:43 And then I progressed through school slowly, and I got more moments to keep me going. A card from a patient that I took care of at clinical.

02:51 A compliment from a teacher.

02:52 A picture of the kids and I at a summer camp that I ran for children with diabetes.

02:58 I had a drawer full of things by the end, of things that kept me going for the days where I was exhausted and it was enough to keep you going through the next day. So make a drawer, print that picture, print out your student loans.

03:14 I seriously did. I needed to pay them back, so I really just needed to pass nursing theory. It got me through.

03:20 It doesn't matter what your motivation is, it just matters that it means something to you. And that's going to help connect you to that, probably, super excited human that you once were when you found out you were accepted to the very thing that is overwhelming your life right now.

03:36 Your acceptance was not a mistake.

03:38 You being here is not because there was a mistake.

03:42 You being here is because you deserve it.

03:45 You are enough.

03:46 You are not alone, and you are doing the hard things.

03:49 Now let's talk about how you are actually going to pass that stinking nursing theory class. Shall we? See you in the next one.