The Subconscious mind-A powerful tool for motivating students and building their positive attitude

By motivation we mean interest in doing something. It is a kind of internal driving force. It comes from a desire to succeed. It is often said to be the single biggest factor for the success of a student. A badly taught well-motivated student will probably do better than a well-taught poorly-motivated student. Motivation determines a student's level of attention, performance, pursuing objectives and getting success. Lucky are the students who are well-motivated in their study. Learners' motivation is of two kinds-intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is concerned with the factors inside the classroom. What takes place inside the classroom has great impact on students' success. Extrinsic motivation is no less important than the former. It is made up of factors outside the classroom and is concerned with things like attitude and experience.

Attitude is the perspective how we look at the things or how we think. Positive attitude is the mode of thinking positively and negative attitude is the mode of thinking negatively. A student with a positive attitude has thoughts like, 'I've a good memory', 'I'm confident', 'I can work hard', or 'I'm sure I'll be successful', whereas a student with a negative attitude has the reverse thoughts like, 'I've a poor memory', 'I'm not confident', 'I can't work hard', or 'I don't think I'll be successful'. Factors like environment, education and experience largely determine a person's attitude. Knowingly or unknowingly some students acquire negative attitude. Can parents, teacher, doctors, shopkeepers or employers be good in their roles without positive attitude? No, of course not. The same is true of the students. Our students cannot be good students without a positive attitude. If a student has negative attitude towards education, naturally he is de-motivated to learn. Such students often blame others- parents, teachers, society, government, bad lucks- for their failures. Their negative thoughts and attitude affects them negatively. They lack motivation. They lose hope and self-confidence. They are attuned to finding fault and criticizing others. On the contrary, positive thoughts and attitude inspire and encourage students to move for action- that is motivation or a real driving force in their lives.

To sum up the ideas so far, attitude is the belief system. The most powerful motivation comes from our belief system. Our internal motivation is our drive and attitude. Students' attitude and motivation are closely connected with each other and they are the foundation of their success. Students to be successful must have positive attitude and a higher degree of motivation. However, lack of motivation and negative attitude of students are some of the major problems that the educators of modern time are facing. Therefore, it is a matter of great importance that all the students in general and having negative attitude and de-motivated ones in particular should be taught about the power of their subconscious mind and its use for self-motivation and building positive attitude.

Our subconscious mind is different from our conscious mind. They are merely two spheres of activity within one mind. Conscious mind has the ability to think and choose. We make our decision with our conscious mind. It can accept or reject. It is our rational mind. By using this faculty of thinking we analyze, interpret, argue, define and express our ideas, thoughts and reasons. Our subconscious mind is like a data bank or a storehouse whereas our conscious mind is feeder. It first supplies information, emotion into our subconscious mind through different channels- eyes, ears, actions and thoughts. Subconscious mind is producer. It produces what is once stored. It is not rational. It is like a garden. It does not care what we plant. It is neutral. If we plant good seeds we will have a good garden. Otherwise we will have a wild growth of weeds. Positive thoughts and negative thoughts cannot occupy our mind simultaneously. We have to choose either one or the other. Whatever we choose to put into our mind our subconscious will accept and our behavior will reflect accordingly. When we think with our conscious mind, we are planting seeds of thoughts is our garden of subconscious mind. Our input equals our output. When positively is in, positively will be out. So is the case with negatively. When students know the fact that our thoughts lead to actions, actions lead to habits, and habits form character and character leads to destiny, they will never form the habit of thinking in a negative way. This is the way we form our habits and they become permanent. In psychological term it is called a theory of conditioning. American psychologist Skinner first advanced this behaviorist theory. He argued that a human baby learns a language through a process of habit formation.

Our major concern here is how to make use of subconscious mind effectively in forming positive habits and thoughts and erasing bad habits and negative attitude of the students. One of the effective techniques that students can use for their above mentioned purpose is auto-suggestion or conditioning. It is a way to program our students' subconscious mind. Students make a phrase or a short effective sentence for an auto-suggestion. They keep or repeating it silently for 20 minutes at a fixed time of the day for at least 21 days. Success depends on the ability of our students to concentrate and repeat the process. Auto suggestion with visualization will be more effective. It must be positive and in the present tense. For example a student who is much worried about his poor memory power can make a phrase like- 'I've an excellent memory power'. He should repeat it for at least 21 days to 30 days. By programming one suggestion at a time a student can erase a few bad habits and negative thoughts in a few months. He will find the treasure house within him. By changing his thoughts he can change his destiny. Every academic institution must make its students familiar with this powerful practical technique. Only then we will see perfection in education.