This is a simplified illustration of Ryan and Deci‘s model of motivation.
Most people act when motivated, whether they find it joyful or just useful. If they want something, they will go for it.
You need motivation to study! But motivation is not enough. To point out the importance of knowing yourself and the struggles ahead: it is the same for mountain climbers, not just students.
What is your motivation for this whole education? What is your motivation for this semester, for this class today?
On motivation:
Engagement, not motivation, is key to learning. Engagement is key to anything, actually. Well-meaning people can hurt intrinsically motivated by rewarding/punishing others for (not) engaging in the way they expect.
Some people use raw self dicipline to engage and perform, others are “forced” by social, emotional threads or other punishments, even by well meaning people. In our society self dicipline is expected by mature adults. We need a balance between self dicipline and rest and recreation. If anyone sets aside his/her needs there is a risk of stress and burnout when engaging in that way. Everybody knows that. Do you know your needs for rest and recreation? If you use raw self dicipline and have experienced stress or burnout I boldly claim you don’t know your needs.
Way back, in another millenium, I went on my Grand Tour for a couple of years, alowing myself to experience life in ways, that was not a part of my upbringing. It was a posibility I grabbed, eager to expand my world, so I stepped into worlds, where I was a minority, sometimes the only one with my perspektives on life. Every time my values conflicted with my surroundings I had the choise to avoid the pains of not being a part of the majority and to go back home. This choise is crucial!
Stand back from arguing on responsibility, self diciplin etc for a short moment and concider this:
exhausting themselves by not destinguishing between engagement
Body doubling
Inertia