How to be motivated for intellectual pursuits?

[at_anchor]

I say I'm interested and technically I want to become smart, to read literature and study science, but in real life I'm unable to do it. I stopped reading like a year ago or it was over a year ago, I don't know.

Maybe my brain chemistry is not good enough anymore  to support this kind of understanding, concentration, etc. Maybe it's the environment, yeah, for sure, that isn't ideal.

What are some common causes for a lack of motivation in this area and how do I go about getting that motivation, as well as concentration for hard work in reading stuff and doing homework from math and physics?

[Matt23]

Do you really want to do that?  -- Would be my question. 

Like, are you just doing it because you believe you should, are told it's something good to do, etc.?  

I think if you truly find it meaningful and something enjoyable, you'd be doing it.  

I used to try and read tons, study, and be diligent intellectually.  But it did feel like a grind sometimes.  Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy studying, reading, and understanding stuff and "nerding out" on things, but faaaarrrr less than I initially believed.  

Recently I've just sort of realized that no, I don't really want to be the intellectual guy and have cut down my studies faaaaarrr more recently.  Instead, I realize that being creative gives me fffffaaaaaarrrrr more joy and love than studying;  The simple act of making a drawing or a video puts me back into that childlike place of play.  IT feels so much better.  

So I'm trying to just do more stuff rather than simply read and study.  Whether that's creating things, going on adventures, travelling, exploring, socializing, etc.. Like, really just trying to do things that I find intrinsically way more rewarding, joyful, and meaningful.  

 

So maybe try just doing other stuff to fill your time.  Experiment.  As opposed to thinking you should be studying etc. (unless that's what you truly want and find joy in of course).  

[museumoftrees]

You can be motivated intrinsically ; reading and studying because you love it and you are passionate about it. Or you can motivate yourself externally by forcing yourself to get smart. You will probably get a mixed dose of external/internal motivation of you choose the path of erudition. You won’t regret getting smart. 

[at_anchor]

@Matt23 I don't want to do that from this place in life. It's kind of not possible. But I would like to imagine having a beach house (to exaggerate) or a boat for myself where I can gather books and make, pictures, blackboards, and make the environment nice for learning this hard stuff, without any distractions like people or health concerns. I'd like to wake up on a sailing boat, meditate, exercise, take a swim and so on, after all that, this would be easier... it would come naturally. After meeting some basic needs and desires higher ones become more relevant, ♡

So right now no, I don't find it enjoyable and I just believe it would be something good to do and something I should do...

 

As for making a drawing or even better, a painting, this would be enjoyable even now. But making a video, creating things, going on adventures, traveling, exploring, socializing, all this is joyful, but not more meaningful objectively. All of it is enjoyable, I'm just not allowed to do them by my economical and political realities.

[at_anchor]

@museumoftrees right now I don't think I know how to motivate myself intrinsically. But the extrinsic motivation to get smart, I don't know if it works. No one can regret getting smart. It is like saying you probably won't regret getting rich, because getting smart is like getting internal material wealth with the help of external circumstances of course. 

Thanks for the replies, I'm just disinterested. Now, I probably wouldn't be in certain cases, but that's not likely to happen in my life.

[at_anchor]

Study for some reason is painful right now. I could turn on a computer and look for a course in physics, I could open any book and read it, maybe even go buy some, but it repulses me, the sitting, the room, the sounds around me, including a buzzing sound in my left ear (I might even become deaf), the papers, the lack of energy, the desk, the chair, the walls, none of which I like. Lack of rest, maybe some heavy metals or allergies to certain food, lack of exercise, and most of all people around me just make me sick of it all and so I cannot be motivated to do this.

[Jannes]

By having an intrinsic motivation for understanding the world. You can’t make yourself want something. Society puts a lot of pressure on us to be intellectual. Not everybody needs to be this way. There are other higher values that aren’t necessarily intellectual like creativity, beauty, empathy, ..

Society doenst just need intellectuals. 

[at_anchor]

@Jannes creativity requires you to be somewhat skilled at what you do. There is creativity at painting, music and then there is that academic sort of creativity. Am I missing something?

I don't have beauty, while empathy for people and animals isn't gonna help them if I'm not in a position to do so. Thanks for the reply:)

[Jannes]

1 hour ago, at_anchor said:

@Jannes creativity requires you to be somewhat skilled at what you do. There is creativity at painting, music and then there is that academic sort of creativity. Am I missing something?

decision making, abstract thinking, sports. Its hard to pinpoint but I think in most areas of life where you are the deification maker especially you need to be creative.  

1 hour ago, at_anchor said:

I don't have beauty,

I mean that you might want to create beauty. 

1 hour ago, at_anchor said:

while empathy for people and animals isn't gonna help them if I'm not in a position to do so. Thanks for the reply:)

I mean social jobs. If you want to help these people you need empathy for them. They will feel that. 

[Jannes]

17 minutes ago, at_anchor said:

Yes, social jobs were always my favorite. Politics, but in there empathy is actually a downside.

If you don't have empathy for them you don't understand them. You have to understand them not intellectually but emotionally otherwise you have no clue what their drive is.

 

 

[at_anchor]

19 minutes ago, Jannes said:

If you don't have empathy for them you don't understand them. You have to understand them not intellectually but emotionally otherwise you have no clue what their drive is.

I don't have empathy for them. I do understand what they need to do and how they should live to be happy, healthy, prosper, etc. I also wish to make their lives good. But I don't know them. How can I know them?

Of course, in politics there is alwaysopposition that needs to be crushed and that is the main objective in the game. Without that, you cannot reach the people.

[Jannes]

5 hours ago, at_anchor said:

I don't have empathy for them. I do understand what they need to do and how they should live to be happy, healthy, prosper, etc. I also wish to make their lives good. But I don't know them. How can I know them?

Contemplation. Think how you would feel in their situation. Go deep and make full use of your imagination. 
When you talk to them try to catch when they are authentic and when they are not. At the authentic moments you get a feel of what they are made out of.