How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work?
lionhearted: > The only two responses I've gotten to this question when I ask people this is either a.) you're always going to have to do work you don't want to do, or b.) you have to do it because you need to get good grades / graduate high-school / etc.High school:1. Some learning.2. A credential.3. Some socializing and extracurricular.4. A "rite of passage" in Western society.That's why people do high school. They don't normally phrase it like that, they say, "Well, everyone's doing it, it's normal, and it sucks, but you have to do it" - but the reason why is for some mix of learning, credentialing, "other benefits" (normal socializing, team sports, student council, whatever), and finally, the "rite of passage" aspect.So this isn't exactly what you asked, but there are options besides high school which will be more motivating, interesting, and beneficial in the long term - if you're talented and disciplined enough to get by without the structure. If you do so, the first goal you ought to consider setting for yourself will be replacing the learning, credentialing, and socializing/other benefits (more on the rite of passage in a moment).Learning - there's some skills in high school that you probably wouldn't be bothered to teach yourself outside of it. Look up your curriculum, and make sure you get decent enough at math, get introduced to the branches of science, read a little history, and make sure you have decent reading/writing skills. It's not hard to learn at a much faster rate than you do in high school. That's easy to replace.Next is the credentialing aspect. You can forgo high school entirely if you're doing very interesting things with your time - no one will care if you've built a company, or organized charity events, or published articles in the newspaper, or anything really interesting. You can say, "Yes, I was working on [journalism/coding/sales/whatever] and thought that was more important than high school", and that'll work if you're outside the traditional track. But if you want to go to college and be salaried later, not having a H.S. degree could be a problem.But it's a fixable problem - go to an adult learning center or alternative high school. Tell them you're emancipated from your parents, independent, working for yourself, and don't have time for normal high school. Ask how they can help. Doing it this way, you can get a real, genuine high school degree (sometimes with a very high GPA actually). After that, it's all on your standardized testing and other requirements to get into university. Maybe the highest level unis look into which HS you went to, but most state schools just plug your GPA into their formula and off you go.Finally, the socializing/extracurricular aspect. This is also easy to replace. Take up some extracurriculars. A martial arts, some kind of science society, some kind of nature-based organization, a hiking group, a cycling group, maybe a couple of them. It's important you're in face to fact contact with people and developing your interests, so don't neglect that part if you move on.Finally - the rite of passage. My advice here might be a touch controversial - forgot bowing, kneeling, scraping, and "paying your dues" via rites of passage. Seriously. If the benefits from an activity outside of the fact that "that's just how it's done" doesn't appeal to you, then try to find a way to get what you want without going through the wasted motions. Everyone successful throughout history had to depart from convention. But you will get hostility, and expect that. I found this quote by Bertrand Russel recently, and it was quite insightful to me:"Conventional people are roused to fury by departures from convention, largely because they regard such departures as a criticism of themselves."So how do I know all this stuff? I dropped out of a private high school to self teach myself business and computers, and went and "scummed" around the local university just absorbing it. Later I re-enrolled in HS, this time in a gifted and talented program. Also very boring, also dropped out, got an adult high school degree (an actual degree, not just a GED), and with decent standardized testing scores, got a full ride scholarship to a decent college. Dropped out after 3 semesters there to start a company, which was successful, and I've since traveled all over the world doing all sorts of interesting things. I don't regret my decisions for a minute - high school? Hah, seriously, what a waste of time. I'm expecting my first child soon, and going to give him or her options to start doing interesting things outside of the mainstream starting around age 12, with just enough tutoring/parent teaching to get overviews of the important knowledge and enrollment in extracurriculars for the socializing and personal growth.High school is fundamentally un-motivating, because it wasn't built for you. It's for people who want to be led down a reasonably certain and secure path and life. Stick with it if you don't have a better option, but if you do, go for it. With the growth of communication and freely accessible knowledge online, going outside the convention is more possible than ever. You will take hostility and abuse from people who don't understand you though, so be prepared for that. Everyone makes their own judgment calls, but it was definitely worth it for me in the end.