How To Get Motivated Enough to Plan, Write and Edit A Grade Raising Essay

It is absolutely critical that you are motivated enough to write your essay or paper before you start writing. Especially if you want a decent grade.

Why do you think this is true?

If you’re not sure, let me ask it this way, “What will happen if you’re not motivated enough to write a good essay?

Did you say,

• “If you’re not motivated enough to write it, you won’t write it”

• “If you’re not motivated enough, you’ll start but may not finish.”

• “If you’re not motivated enough, you might start and finish but do a crummy job?’

If you said any or all of these, you’re right.

And because the goal here is to write a paper or essay that’s good enough to get you a better grade than you got on your last paper for this teacher, any one of these answers will sink your grade instead of raise it.

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You’ve got to take a minute or two
to find a motivation that’s strong enough
to get you started, then keep you going
until you finish the essay and
plop it on your teachers desk.

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The truth is, taking two minutes to get motivated enough will be a big secret to your writing success.

Because in the Essay Writing Surveys I’ve been taking with high school students for the past two years:

• 77.2% said they aren’t motivated enough to start, try hard enough or finish their essay

• 82.6% said they think writing and the subject they have to write about are boring.

• 85.7% said they don’t see how writing this paper about this subject has anything to do with what they want to do or be in the future and therefore they think it’s pointless to write about it.

Do you ever feel the same way about a paper you have to write?

Feel any of things right now?

I thought you might.

So keep reading and I’ll show you the secret to finding a motivation that’s strong enough to overcome these three big writing problems.

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I call a motivation that’s strong enough,
A Meaningful Enough Motivation.

And a Meaningful Enough Motivation is simply
a Meaningful Enough Reason to start,
work on and finish the darn thing,

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Luckily for you, you get to choose your own meaningful enough reason. Because the reason has to come from you—not your parents, teacher or friends. If it doesn’t come from you, it won’t work.

Now, if they suggest a reason you like, that’s fine. But you have to want the result their reason will give you bad enough or that reason won’t be strong enough to keep you moving when things get hard, slow or frustrating. (And as you already know, things do get hard, slow and frustrating when you write.)

“Can I have more than one reason for doing something?”

Sure.

In fact, it can be a big help if you have more than one meaningful enough reason to do something.

Here’s Why: There will be times when you honestly don’t care about most of your own reasons. But maybe one of them will work in that moment and keep you moving. And that’s the ultimate goal. To keep moving forward, one step at a time. So more than one reason is always a good thing.

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For example
my most meaningful motivation
for writing this blog post today
actually has 5 Meaningful Enough Reasons.

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They are:

1. Because I told myself and you that I’d be adding one post a week to this blog.

2. Because I want to help some of the thousands of student writers and teachers who go on the internet every day looking for help with their essay writing

3. Because I’ve spent one and a half years creating a simple system that helps kids plan, write and edit essays that get better grades and I want to get that information into the world.

4. Because I want to let educators know I also do workshops and presentations at schools where I take kids and teachers through this process so they learn by doing it with me.

5. Because I’ve put everything kids need to do this successfully into 4 little 4 page booklets that schools, teachers and parents can purchase from me so they can do it in class or at home. And I have to let parents and teachers know because selling my materials is one of the ways I make a living.

And the truth is, I can’t do all of this unless I write and post one blog post a week and do some other marketing stuff consistently so I get and stay out there where people can find me and learn about all this.

These are my most meaningful reasons to write and post this blog post today.

Obviously, some of them have to do with making a living which may offend you.

If it does, I hope you’ll be open minded enough to realize that my wanting a few different kinds of results from this blog is very much like you wanting different specific results from writing your essay.

These results could be getting a better grade than usual which will help your over all grade in the class. And could also help you get into the college you want to go to. Or something else.

In the end, a meaningful enough motivation all comes down to wanting something specific bad enough to take the actions necessary to get it.

And the clearer you are in knowing the result you want, the easier it is to find the motivation to get started and do what it takes to finish.

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Here’s a Teen Age Motivation Success Story:

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A few years ago, my niece Cathy was getting crummy grades in 9th grade and didn’t care about school.

Her Dad told her if she’d get a certain grade point average and keep it up, he’d get her a car when she turned 16.

She got motivated, got the grades, got the car, kept the grades up and kept the car. Now she’s in college. Still has the car. Likes college. And her grandmother still can’t believe it happened.

Like I told you, motivation has to be meaningful enough to the person trying to get motivated. When it is—it works.

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The good news for you is,
finding your meaningful enough motivation
is easy to do.

All you have to do is
answer the following question.

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In your own words, what’s the most meaningful reason or reasons to start, work on, finish and turn in the essay or paper we are talking about?

“The most meaningful reason or reasons for me to start, work on, finish and turn in this essay or paper is… ______________________________________.”

Good. That’s your meaningful enough motivation.

Now take out a piece of paper, write your meaningful enough motivation answer on it and stick it somewhere you can see it while your planning, writing and editing. If you’ll be writing at school, tape it to your notebook and put it in front of you while you’re writing.

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What to do if you discover
your meaningful enough motivation
isn’t strong enough and
you are ready to give up or
do a crummy job.

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Ask yourself the question again and see if you come up with something that’s a little more meaningful to you.

If you can’t find anything, you need to take your meaningful motivation one step further.

I’ll help you with that next time with a post called,

“How to figure out a Meaningful Enough Future Benefit “when you need more motivation help”

The Meaningful Enough Future Benefit” idea is really powerful, really works and none of your teachers has probably ever mentioned it to you before.

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2 Easy Ways To Remember
This Blog is Here
and Can Help You…

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• Bookmark it or add it to your Favorites List. Then come back. Often.

• Ask me a question in the Comment Section at the end of each post. You may have to click on the comment link to get the comment box to appear. I’ll look over your question and answer it. (Note: I review all of the comments before I make them public. So if you don’t want me to answer publicly, just let me know and I’ll answer by e-mail.)

That’s it for today.

Now go get yourself a Meaningful Enough Motivation and get yourself going.

Till next time, keep writing,

Rick Goldman, Your Grade-Raising Essay Writing Coach

P.S. If you like what you’ve found here, please tell your friends, your students, your fellow educators and the other parents you know so these ideas can help them too. Thanks.

And keep coming back.

©2009 by Rick Goldman

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