Self-Motivation

As part of my internship class, I also have to interact with fellow virtual interns through the program's Learning Management System (LMS) and complete some work to turn in. This is how the professor who runs the virtual internship program on the school's side can view our progress, know what we've done, and see that we're "on track." It's an accountability thing and provides evidence to show we've earned the units we signed up for. Every week, we go over another topic related to virtual working environments and/or internships. Some of our topics so far have included time management, communication, and networking. For each topic, my professor points us to a number of sources, many of which I have found interesting or enlightening. We are also asked for a response that we post on the class discussion forums for the week--which is valuable because I have the opportunity to learn from my peers and they from me.

This week's topic is self-motivation, a trait that I think I'm rather strong in. It would seem logical for those who pursue an online program of study and succeed in such a learning environment to have strong self-motivation in order to stay on task. I can imagine the struggle that not having this skill could result in. As a virtual intern, I think self-motivation is a requirement for the work environment. You need to be able to stay on task, actually get going (and keep going), and regulate your own work without someone looking over your shoulder to make sure you're doing what you should. It's a big responsibility. No one's watching you to see what you get done and when--all they have to judge your performance is your results, so you need to produce them. This is one skill that definitely carries over into telecommuting too; when you're working from home, you also need to be able to stay on task without physical supervision.

One of the resources included with this week's unit was a self-motivation quiz. You can find it here: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_57.htm. I have no way to determine how accurate it is, but I think that it's at least a reasonable indicator of one's aptitude. My score was a 49. The other interns that have posted their scores in the discussion note that their scores seem to follow their own self-assessment of their motivation. Feel free to try it and post your score (if you like) in the comments section.