Thoughts on motivation and wherever they lead to..

What is it that motivates us to learn? And how does this "magic moment" in time come when the learning process is accelerated by us, ourselves, while maybe some time earlier we felt we hadn't been making much progress, information is too much or too difficult or even boredom to try hard was keeping us behind?

It seems we have all experienced that, on our students and on ourselves. While stability or a silent period seems to be prevailing, there comes the moment that changes everything. To whom does that motivating hand that gives the push belong? Where does motivation that brings about the desired result come from? What is it that managed to "unlock" and unblock the brain and helped it process the input,use the feedback effectively, acquire the knowledge and put everything taught into practice?

Even the slightest, tiny, apparently unimportant thing can qualify for that. It can be a person,a teacher, a fellow-student,something that a person said or did, even something watched on a video that clicked and made everything work.And of course, the right timing.

As teachers, we should not underestimate the power of verbal language and how what we tell our students can make a difference to them, even if sometimes they don't seem to be paying attention. Not only that, though. It is also non-verbal language, what we do not say  that can be proven to be of crucial importance. How we lead our lives, our attitude, the way we address problems, the way we behave to others and to ourselves, even the way we dress, no matter how silly it may sound, have the power to influence a learner. Our motivation to learn, our thirst to learn from everything will give them a reason to become thirsty too...

There so much to it that one could be writing for hours and make it confusing for the reader. All in all, I think it is our acceptance of ourselves, with all the flaws and merits that will make us accept the others and be able to non-verbally say to our students that it's ok to be different. They will get the message because acceptance or judgement are felt without being expressed, they juat float in the air. But again, to accept others as they really are, we have to accept ourselves first. Constantly trying to be the best version of us will give incentives to our learners to do the same and vice versa. Cause it is never a one-sided relationship. It is interaction. They learn from us and we learn from them...fortunately!