My health students are undergoing a long term health behavior goal setting project and as we entered the 6th week I shared some motivational sources with them. Students had to check some of them out and reflect upon them before sharing a motivational source of their own with me.
The most popular source that I provided was Matt Cutt’s excellent, 3 minute TED talk entitled “Try Something New For 30 Days” The talk resonated with many of my students and prompted comments such as these:
“Seeing this video motivated me to try a lot harder to continue with my goal even after health class is over because its important to not fall back after all the work you put in to accomplish the goal.”
“The inspiration I got from this is that you don’t have to be the best at everything and if you make a mistake, it’s okay and you just have to keep trying.”
In fact, I tweeted @mattcutts to let him know that his talk resonated with my students and I got a response back!
Other sources of motivation that I provided for the students included a reading about bouncing back after failure, an NPR podcast on setting goals, a motivational playlist of music and a link to Pinterest boards containing inspirational quotes.
As I mentioned, students suggested motivational sources for me to share with their peers. I have tabulated some of the responses for you to see. Some of the motivational videos were suggested quite a few times but personal favorites of mine were those that chose a family member, or suggested an obscure blog. This serves to remind me that my students ‘go-to’ sources for health information will often be different from mine!
I’ll also share this list with students next semester in advance of setting a goal so that they can be inspired by those students that came before them.
| Video Clips | Quotes | TECH | OTHER |
| http://youtu.be/IzbCLooj-M8 | “Don’t ever let anyone tell you ‘you can’t do something’ not even me. You got a dream you need to protect it.” | Quote of the Day app | My mom |
| http://youtu.be/lsSC2vx7zFQ | “Success isn’t the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you’re doing and you work hard you will be successful.” | Hypnosis app | My younger brother |
| http://youtu.be/s3QezBvN1BE | “I can’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then” | ‘Chibird’ blog on Tumblr | Book: ‘A Hope In The Unseen’ |
| http://youtu.be/2x_Fl3NQVd4 | “You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days where you feel good.” | @motivatedliving on Twitter | Song: ‘Good Morning’ by Mandisa |
| http://youtu.be/v85TkqMNExM | “If you can dream it, you can do it.” | 100 best songs for workouts | |
| http://youtu.be/90LsaHZ0mbA | ” Once you see results, it becomes an addiction.” | ‘The Incredible Importance of Sleep for Habits and Motivation’ on Zenhabits.com | |
| “Motivation is fleeting – discipline is forever” |
Engaging Students 