Why Doesn’t Anyone Want to Study?
I hear these questions from friends pretty often:
"My kid is very smart—why won’t they just study?" Or "Why can’t I get myself to study?"
If someone isn’t studying, it’s not because they’re not smart enough or they don’t have a MacBook.
The Real Reason People Don’t Study (The Formula Behind Doing or Not Doing Anything)
Studying is an action, and let’s be real—humans are wired to avoid effort whenever possible. It’s a survival instinct. Our ancestors didn’t waste energy unless they had to. Because running from saber-toothed tigers and hunting for food took real effort. Sitting around doing nothing is much easier.
So if studying feels like a drag, it’s not anyone’s fault. It’s biology.
And after years of personal experience (not scientific), I’ve boiled it down to a simple formula:
Action?=?Motivation?-?Resistance
So, to answer the question at the beginning, if you want to get yourself (or someone else) to study, you need to crank up motivation and cut down resistance. Sounds simple but hard to do.
The Most Important Thing: Make the Last Studying Experience Fun
Here’s the thing—motivation isn’t just about giving yourself a pep talk or watching some inspirational YouTube video. That might work for a day, but it won’t keep you going.
Long-term motivation comes from one thing: Did you enjoy it last time?
Imagine this: last time when you experienced something super fun, you’d want to do it again, right? That’s why people binge-watch TV shows, scroll through social media, or keep playing video games. The brain loves positive feedback.
The more enjoyable the last experience, the higher the motivation to do it again. Sounds familiar? Just like anything that gets people addicted. So, how to make studying addictive?
I remember when I was giving lectures to a big room of students, we were required to tell a joke related to what we teach every 11 minutes. (Apparently, someone did research and figured out this keeps students engaged.)
My students laughed out loud all the time. They started associating learning that knowledge with fun, which meant they actually wanted to keep going.
And it wasn’t just jokes—I’d share personal stories, talk about real-life experiences, and tell them why believing in themselves actually matters. When I was leaving, some students told me, “I want to be like you when I finish school.” That’s when I realized:
To get people to learn with long-term motivation, you don’t just teach. You entertain. You inspire.
The Second Important Thing: Try 10 Times Before Quitting
Let’s talk about the real reason most people don’t study.
It’s not because they’re lazy. It’s because they’re afraid of failing.
No one likes to feel stupid. No one wants to try hard and still mess up. So if they fail once, they avoid studying. Because if you don’t try, you can’t fail.
But what if you just gave it 10 more tries before calling it quits? That’s my simple, not-so-fancy (but effective) way of pushing through.
Quick Question:
If you try something with a 20% success rate, and you keep trying 10 times, what’s the probability that you’ll succeed at least once?
A) 20% B) 50% C) 89% D) 100%
Answer: C
Breaking It Down
In other words, if you just keep trying, the odds are overwhelmingly in your favor.
If I suck at something, I don’t let myself quit until I’ve tried at least 10 times. Doesn’t matter if I fail horribly at the beginning—I keep going.
Because once you succeed even once, instead of thinking "I can’t do this," your brain start thinking, "What did I do differently when I got it right?” You shift from fear to curiosity—instead of avoiding failure, you start learning from it. And the more you try, the more you realize… failure isn’t a big deal.
And that’s the real difference between people who get better at something and people who quit.
It’s not that successful people never fail. They just keep going long enough to get past the hard part.
So next time you (or someone you know) wants to give up on studying, do it 10 more times first. Success might be just one attempt away.