• The Civil Services Exam (CSE) is one of the most prestigious exams in the country. That is the reason it attracts a vast number of candidates who compete for this service. The Exam is highly demanding because of its huge competition, vast syllabus, and too lengthy procedure (it takes almost 15 months from the day of its notification to final results). In such a situation maintaining motivation to keep one’s self going becomes extremely important. Motivation is the driving force towards the achievement of a goal. The level of motivation determines your success in the exam. More is the motivation – more is the chance of success in this exam. Since motivation is short lived one has to constantly energise oneself to remain motivated.

Here are the ways to keep yourself motivated for the exam.

1. Find purpose/goal – Why do you need to clear this exam? Is its extrinsic motivation that is driven by extraneous factors or Intrinsic motivation- driven by internal aspiration? If you are the one who has consciously decided to prepare for this exam knowing well the difficulty level of the exam, you are more likely to be motivated to give your 100%, rather than one who has decided to prepare for the exam because of external influence.
2. Fall in love with the work you do – If you find the work interesting, you will do it with more energy and enthusiasm. If you are reading a newspaper or studying any subject for the exam, fall in love with that. Your productivity will increase, thereby pushing you towards achievement of your goal.
3. Break the goals into smaller parts – prepare every day target, like- for today you decide to complete 2 chapters of modern history, 2 chapters of Indian polity along with your newspaper. Same way you fix a target tomorrow and so on, in this way you complete the whole syllabus on time, without unduly pressuring yourself.
4. Keep yourself away from negativity – there will be times when you will have self-doubt, fear of failure, nagging people around you, all this will suck your energy and demoralise you, take you away from your goal. So, try to find emotional support from your family, friends or anybody in whom you can confide, find strength and positivity in your life and keep away from all sorts of negativity.
5. Evaluate yourself regularly – See previous year question papers, practice test series, do answer writing, evaluate your performance on a regular basis so that it gives you confidence and builds up your spirit.
6. Focus on the Present – It is said that unnecessary worry about the future and what happened in the past spoils our present. So, see what you can do today, don’t worry about past mistakes and failure, learn from it, prepare a proper schedule, stick to the timetable, modify your strategy if it is not working, set a small- small goal which will take you to the final goal.
7. Don’t overlook your health – Health is wealth, the exam involves multiple stages and almost takes 15 months to complete the whole procedure. If one fails in any stage, they have to start from scratch, even if someone fails at the interview stage has to start again from prelims. So it is highly demanding and strenuous and at times might become frustrating. It might take a toll on your health if you don’t take care of it properly. So, do keep every day at least half an hour for exercise, yoga or whatever workout that suits you. Taking healthy and timely food should also become part of your daily routine. Don’t forget that “a healthy mind resides in a healthy body.”

Remember that the knowledge alone is not sufficient to clear the Civil Services exam. The recruitment process is designed to test your endurance and discipline over a period of two years for which motivation is the key factor. Hope you will find these tips useful in preparation of your exam. Good Luck!