Well what precisely do you dislike about what you’re working on? If it is something external like the thought of failure, that might be solvable by some of the techniques others have mentioned here.
But a contrarian viewpoint: has it occurred to you that this project may be something that you thought you wanted to do, but never in fact actually wanted to do? Maybe you liked the thought of having done it, or maybe it was ok when you started it but now you don’t like the meat of it.
And if is true that if you do not want to do this, that you will hate working in this field… perhaps you should reconsider fields. Usually attempts to change what you want are not successful.
Well what precisely do you dislike about what you’re working on?
I just get bored after a while. Unless I’m in a slump, in which case I get bored immediately. I’m often in a slump.
If it is something external like the thought of failure,
It’s definitely not that.
Perhaps the problem is more the lack of the thought of success. I tend towards living in the moment. It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey. If I get bored of the journey, I stop. I do tend to work harder at the beginning, when I’m thinking about how awesome the end result would be.
has it occurred to you that this project may be something that you thought you wanted to do, but never in fact actually wanted to do?
If I had a magical butt tattoo, this wouldn’t be a problem.
If this isn’t it, how would I go about finding my special talent?
Unfortunately, there’s no simple answer to finding your talent. Because really it’s about finding that talent which you are also motivated to do. And the motivation can come from a mix of places: both the use of the talent itself and other rewards (like money) it brings. Lots of trial and error and talking to people and research and thought is the basic approach.
But before taking that drastic step, you might want to also examine a bunch of other things. Like are there other things going in your life that are draining your energy? Are your other needs (e.g. needs for relationship, sleep, hydration, etc.) being met? How have you felt about your other work in this master’s program? How are your relationships with your peers and teachers? Any of these could affect your motivation.
You might want to also talk to people in the field and do some research to figure out whether this project really is representative of the work that you’d do on graduation. Often classwork has very little relationship to real-world work. So it might be the case that you’d love the actual career you’d get, but that you just have to drag yourself through a few classes to get there. And if necessary, you might just want to do mediocre work on this assignment. Allow yourself to be mediocre. Get a B, or heck, even a C. No big deal. That’s all that, under the circumstances, you may be capable of for this class. You gotta realize your limitations sometimes—and a limitation of motivation is just as powerful as a limitation of intelligence or talent.
Well what precisely do you dislike about what you’re working on? If it is something external like the thought of failure, that might be solvable by some of the techniques others have mentioned here.
But a contrarian viewpoint: has it occurred to you that this project may be something that you thought you wanted to do, but never in fact actually wanted to do? Maybe you liked the thought of having done it, or maybe it was ok when you started it but now you don’t like the meat of it.
And if is true that if you do not want to do this, that you will hate working in this field… perhaps you should reconsider fields. Usually attempts to change what you want are not successful.
I just get bored after a while. Unless I’m in a slump, in which case I get bored immediately. I’m often in a slump.
It’s definitely not that.
Perhaps the problem is more the lack of the thought of success. I tend towards living in the moment. It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey. If I get bored of the journey, I stop. I do tend to work harder at the beginning, when I’m thinking about how awesome the end result would be.
If I had a magical butt tattoo, this wouldn’t be a problem.
If this isn’t it, how would I go about finding my special talent?
Unfortunately, there’s no simple answer to finding your talent. Because really it’s about finding that talent which you are also motivated to do. And the motivation can come from a mix of places: both the use of the talent itself and other rewards (like money) it brings. Lots of trial and error and talking to people and research and thought is the basic approach.
But before taking that drastic step, you might want to also examine a bunch of other things. Like are there other things going in your life that are draining your energy? Are your other needs (e.g. needs for relationship, sleep, hydration, etc.) being met? How have you felt about your other work in this master’s program? How are your relationships with your peers and teachers? Any of these could affect your motivation.
You might want to also talk to people in the field and do some research to figure out whether this project really is representative of the work that you’d do on graduation. Often classwork has very little relationship to real-world work. So it might be the case that you’d love the actual career you’d get, but that you just have to drag yourself through a few classes to get there. And if necessary, you might just want to do mediocre work on this assignment. Allow yourself to be mediocre. Get a B, or heck, even a C. No big deal. That’s all that, under the circumstances, you may be capable of for this class. You gotta realize your limitations sometimes—and a limitation of motivation is just as powerful as a limitation of intelligence or talent.