5 Top Tips to Stay Motivated Studying Your TEFL Course

We’ve all had times where we’ve lacked motivation and have had no idea how to get it back again. Some days it can be difficult to find motivation, especially if you’re stuck at home with COVID-19 restrictions. It can be difficult to juggle work, college, courses, home life, and other everyday life tasks. All the balls you are juggling start becoming very heavy and it can become difficult to keep moving them. However, there are plenty of ways to get your motivation back and stay motivated to study. Check out our five tips to stay motivated to study during your TEFL course.

1. Set a goal 

What is the opposite of lack of motivation? To me, that answer is having energy and being able to focus on things. The first sign for me that I’m going to become very unmotivated with my goals is exhaustion and lack of interest in my goal. What I’m beginning to learn is that this lack of focus and exhaustion is from trying to achieve too much at one time.

I could be trying to balance 10 different goals at one time only to become bored and tired of them. In reality, I’m neither bored nor tired of them – my focus is just on too many things. One way to stay motivated to study is to sit down and write down all the goals you’re trying to achieve.

Read them over and ask yourself, which is the most important one to achieve right now? If you can’t decide on just one, allow yourself two. Write down all the other things you want to achieve on a piece of paper and put it away. You can come back to these goals when the other one or two is finished. Having an intense focus on one or two goals means you will get them done a lot faster.

2. Find inspiration

Having inner and outer inspiration is very important for achieving any goals. Knowing how to answer the question: “why are you doing this?” is the biggest inner inspiration you can have to stay motivated to study. If you don’t have a particular reason or answer to this question, is your goal as big a priority as you are making it out to be?

If you can write out why you are working to achieve this goal, there is inspiration from your answer. However, if you are stuck looking for an answer, be sure to ask yourself the question: “are you doing it for the right reasons?”. One example of this would be why do you want to get a TEFL qualification? What would your answer be? There could be loads of different reasons, such as wanting to travel and live in Japan for a year. This is a massive reason to get your TEFL course done, so write out your reason and stick it on your wall, make it your phone wallpaper… put it somewhere you can see it every day!

Then there’s outer inspiration, where you can draw inspiration from movies, songs, books, quotes, other people, etc. Find out what inspires you to achieve your goals and gives meaning to why you are doing it. My one source of outer inspiration will always come from the movie Good Will Hunting. If you haven’t seen it, try it out – it could inspire you. 

3. Get support 

Who is your support network? This can be friends, family, or even online groups. One thing that always works for me when I start working on a new goal is I tell one person all about it. Just one person. I pick one person who I know won’t have an opinion on it and who will push me on it. We all need someone like that because some people can have opinions on your goals, and this can wreck your motivation.

Asking for help is different though. You can ask for help from anyone without disclosing your actual goal. I find online groups great for advice. If your goal is completing your TEFL qualification and you are stuck on a certain part or unsure how to move forward, it finds a group of other TEFL teachers in training, which can be a massive help. These groups provide support and motivation on how to stay motivated to study, and they can also be a source of inspiration as you can learn what is pushing other people to qualify. Also, look for advice or help from your personal tutor or advisor for your TEFL course.

4. Practice self-care

Another main reason for lack of motivation is you could be burnt out. If nothing is exciting anymore and you just feel depleted of every energy resource you have, this could be a good telling sign.

Burnout can happen to anyone and it can be a difficult thing to return from. Putting steps in place for self-care could be a big way to help you avoid becoming burnt out and stay motivated to study. Self-care is a big term used all over the internet and a lot of people associate it with bubble baths and reading self-care books. While these things can help some people, it isn’t all self-care is.

Self-care is different for everyone but the gist is looking after yourself in all aspects before giving your all to everything and everyone around you. Find out what works for you and be honest with yourself. One thing that always works for me is mindfulness, it helps me become more self-aware and also less stressed. If you would like to find out more information about mindfulness, check out this article from the website Mind.  Things like committing to exercise every day, having one day off a week, journaling your feelings, y and getting help are different ways to look after yourself and your motivation.

5. Celebrate the small wins

When you write down your goal, write down the steps you need to take to achieve this goal. After every step reward yourself in any way you want to. Celebrating the small stuff is just as important as celebrating the big things.

Even if your goal is walking 10,000 steps a day or completing a module on your TEFL course, try rewarding yourself with something small like turning the computer off for the night or having a bar of chocolate. Being gentle with yourself could help your motivation in the long run.

I hope these five tips help you gain motivation for whatever you are trying to achieve. If it is a TEFL course and you are stuck on a module or even unsure how to start but you want to get the motivation to start, contact us! We can give you all the advice you need or check out our website for more information on all our TEFL courses.