Maintaining motivation over the course of graduate school is challenging. There are stumbling blocks, diversions, and setbacks that threaten to steal your drive all along the way. When things get difficult, a lot of graduate students start to feel overwhelmed, wonder if they even belong in graduate school, and think about quitting.

It doesn’t have to be that way. There are a lot of things you can do to keep up and restore motivation over the long haul. But, it’s not a passive endeavor. Motivating yourself takes effort and a deliberate approach to managing your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. There are strategies to remain focused, with your eye on the prize, even when things are harder than they’ve ever been before.

Graduate school is the hardest, most rewarding task you will ever do in your life. Keeping up motivation in the face of big, long-term endeavors is challenging, but getting it back after you’ve lost it is even harder. Avoiding the common mistakes that demotivate you, steal your energy, and make you wonder why you even started this whole thing in the first place is paramount.

But, even if you have lost motivation there are things you can do to reignite the passion, drive, and excitement you felt when you first decided to pursue your graduate degree.

Whether you are struggling to keep up your motivation or need to recharge your dedication to completing graduate school, these articles contain a myriad of tips, tricks, and approaches to bolstering and keeping your drive through the inevitable ups and downs of graduate school, so that you can stand as a proud graduate of your program.