Motivation is necessary in order to succeed. Whether you are working out to feel and look better, participating in the 'Day of Silence' to support a cause, or working hard in school to get good grades and get accepted at one's college of choice, everything that people do has a motive behind it. However, motivation is a quality that many high school students seem to lack. Maybe it is because they feel as though the information that they are learning will never be useful to them, that they think their teachers are terrible, or that they simply 'hate school.' But no one else is forcing you to do your work. You've decided to take it on. It all comes down to what you want and what you are willing to do in order to get there. Minor setbacks often discourage people from trying. For example, if a student fails a French quiz, it could lead to him to not studying for a French test, and thereby not scoring well on it. Instead of allowing 'feelings of inadequacy to get you down, think about all the things you do have and let those push you to succeed. Don't worry about or dwell on things that go wrong. Concentrate on your successes. Both UT Austin and Virginia Tech are readable and understandable websites for self help. The UT Austin site presents suggestions in bullet form. and separates general motivation skills from academic ones. The Virginia Tech site also suggests ways to increase motivation, and then has a checklist. This list makes it easy for students to target the source of their poor motivation. Both sites seem to be aimed at college students, but they are perfectly suitable for high school students as well. Both websites were well presented and clear. However, in order to improve the Virginia Tech website, I would include a suggestion box after the checklist so after completing the list, after reading the suggestions from this box, one could have some sort of plan of action. What is the author trying to approve with the examples in paragraph 1 ?