How to stay motivated in nursing school

Keeping motivated can sometimes be a struggle. Student Nurse, Claire Quinn, discusses how she keeps motivated on her nursing course, and gives a rundown of her top tips.

Topics covered in this video

0.00 Introduction

0.58 Celebrate the little things

1.45 Give yourself positive affirmations

2.53 Set goals for yourself

4.15 Don’t be afraid to ask for help

5.25 Remember, success isn’t linear

0.00 Introduction

Today I want to talk about how to stay motivated while you're going through nursing school or you're in university or college or wherever you may be.

How to stay motivated while you are doing such a hard degree and course, whenever you maybe it doesn't necessarily have to apply to nursing, but I just think how to stay motivated is really difficult sometimes.

It's so easy to stay motivated for a little bit and then dip or just not be motivated at all.

It's really difficult to stay in that mindset of, okay, let's keep going, let's keep working, let's keep pressing forward.

I find that really difficult

So I just want to share with you some things that I've done to help myself stay motivated and working towards my end goal.

0.58 Celebrate the little things

So the first thing I think is just to celebrate the little things and that seems so minute and so maybe stupid, but I think it makes a huge difference if you don't celebrate the little things.

It may make you feel that you're not getting little successes or you're not getting to the place you want to be.

I think if you celebrate the little things then you're more likely to be like, oh, a little pat on the back.

I've done well.

And just realizing that you are doing well, you are on the right path, you're already getting to where you want to be.

And celebrating those things I just think makes a massive difference.

This is something new that I've started doing and it's positive affirmations.

1.45 Give yourself positive affirmations

And I used to hear about this and we're like, not for me, not for me, but I've started doing it and actually has really helped my mindset shift to more of a positive mindset.

And these affirmations are as simple as I am worthy, I am strong, I am smart, I am intelligent, anything like that.

But it's in the way you say, you repeat it to yourself while you're looking in the mirror.

It may sound crazy, but try it.

It really does help because it's just affirming the things that you may not necessarily believe at this moment, but you want to believe eventually.

And just keep... The more you say it to yourself, the more you will believe it and the more it will stick in.

So at the start it might be like, oh, this is not helping, this is so stupid.

But honestly after a while you'll start to believe the things you say.

Your mind is so powerful that the things you think over and over again become your reality.

So like your thoughts become your reality and that's just what it is.

So try the affirmations, you might look crazy, you might sound crazy, but I think it works.

2.53 Set goals for yourself

I know we talk about this one a lot, but setting goals, simple but effective.

If you want to stay motivated, having something to work towards.

And it doesn't have to be anything big.

It could be like your goal to finish this term, simple as, and then you just work towards that because then you have something that you're motivated towards, you're getting motivated towards instead of just being motivated for the sake of it maybe.

You're motivated towards a particular thing that you want to achieve.

So yeah. Let's say it's finishing this semester or this year in university, then what can you do?

So that's your end goal.

What can you do to get there?

I'm not the biggest goal setter in that sense because I just find sometimes I guess lost in the whole, let's set goals thing.

And I find if I have too many goals then I get lost in them.

But if I have one kind of end goal, then I find that a lot easier so that works for me and that might work for you as well.

So maybe not, when people are like, oh, new year's resolutions and they set like 10 or 12 goals to get done, I just know that's not going to happen.

So let's set one or two and make sure it happens and work towards that one or two particular goals.

4.15 Don’t be afraid to ask for help

This one might be one that some people find difficult and I definitely did, especially in first year.

But looking for help because it is difficult and you're not going to be able to be completely motivated on top of it all the time.

So looking for help and saying, actually this motivation isn't working, or all the other tips aren't working.

What can I do now?

And looking for help to see where you can go.

Maybe it's extra time in your exam or in a different room, or maybe just even to talk to someone about how you're feeling, about university or if you're struggling with assignments or exams.

Just talking to someone can make a huge difference.

So really looking for help has to be a tip because it's difficult and it can be really hard.

But just know that people are there to help, especially in universities.

So many people's jobs, they're getting paid just to help you.

And if we're not using those facilities, then they're not going to feel good about their jobs.

They're not helping people.

And also you're not getting the help.

So just think about it like that.

You're just helping someone out by asking for help.

5.23 Remember, success isn’t linear

My final tip is just to remember that success isn't linear.

It's not just always going up or it's not always coming down.

Success has bumps in the road.

Success has really high, lots of highs, lots of lows.

That is what success is.

So the most successful people in the world didn't just go like this, all the way up.

It was like this for them.

They were riding the waves, there was bumps, there was highs, there was lows.

So just keep remembering that that there might be, right now might be a really difficult time for you either personally or at university, but that will get better and that will end up you being successful because you haven't had an easy journey and the most successful people in this world haven't.

So yeah, just use that as like a, okay, if I don't know, Bill Gates can do it, I can do it.

Maybe he's not the best example for nurses.

But yeah, so pick someone that you aspire to and look at their journey and say, wow, if they've done that, then I can do the exact same.

So I hope these tips helped.

They’re literally just me talking about my experience, what helps me stay motivated.

It is difficult.

There's no denying that, but motivation does come and go.

But hopefully these tips helped you to maybe keep the motivation for a bit longer than normal and work towards your end goal.

So I hope you enjoyed this video.

Please, if you did, give it a like and comment down below, I would love to hear anything about, just anything, your life right now about what you're starting, if you're in university, anything like that.

So thank you for watching.

Bye now.