Staying Motivated in a STEM Degree
This post explores discouragement, burnout, stress, and motivation in math based degrees while encouraging students to think seriously about whether they are on the right academic path.
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How to Stay Motivated in a STEM Degree
A reflective talk about stress, discouragement, academic burnout, and how to think more clearly about whether a math based path is the right one for you.
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/gQl2LiVN8rU
What This Post Covers
- Why discouragement in a STEM degree is normal
- Why stress often comes from the math heavy structure of the degree
- How burnout, fear, and uncertainty affect motivation
- Why some students need a break while others may need a different major
- How to think more honestly about whether a math based path fits you
Introduction
This post is a reflective discussion about motivation in a STEM degree, especially a degree that depends heavily on mathematics. The main message is that stress, discouragement, and even temporary loss of passion are normal. What matters is learning how to interpret those feelings honestly.
Sometimes discouragement means you need rest. Sometimes it means you need a different strategy. And sometimes it means you may be in the wrong field entirely. This post is about facing that question directly instead of waiting until junior year burnout forces the issue.
Main Ideas
1. Feeling discouraged is normal
The post makes clear that discouragement is part of the process for many students in mathematics, physics, engineering, and related fields. Even people who genuinely enjoy the subject can become overwhelmed by the intensity and repetition required.
2. STEM stress is usually tied to math
A central point here is that the main source of stress in most STEM degrees is not the label of the degree itself, but the constant mathematical pressure underneath it. If a student dislikes doing mathematics regularly, that issue eventually becomes impossible to ignore.
3. Burnout does not always mean failure
The speaker explains that taking a break, stepping back, or retaking time to reset can sometimes restore motivation. A temporary collapse in energy does not automatically mean the path is wrong. It may simply mean the mind and body need recovery time.
4. You should ask whether this degree truly fits you
Another major theme is honesty. If doing mathematics feels deeply exhausting, painful, or completely misaligned with how you think, it may be worth asking whether you are pursuing the right degree rather than forcing yourself into years of frustration.
5. Math needs better structure, not more chaos
The post also argues that much of students’ stress comes from how mathematics is delivered. When the subject is taught without enough structure, print awareness, and methodical guidance, students feel lost even when they are capable of understanding it.
Post Summary
This talk opens with a simple but serious subject: how to stay motivated in a STEM degree. The first point is that succeeding in a math based education is not easy, even for people who are naturally drawn to it. Mathematics is intense, intricate, and time consuming, and the written form of mathematics often hides just how much thinking is packed into even a small page of notation.
The speaker reflects on personal experience with a mathematics degree, graduate work, repeated setbacks, discouragement, and semesters that did not go smoothly. That is used to frame the main point that getting discouraged in college is not abnormal. It is part of life. Fear, anxiety, uncertainty, and frustration come with difficult goals.
From there, the discussion broadens into a larger reflection on stress itself. Stress does not just happen in college. It happens in business, adulthood, finances, and unexpected life situations. The point is that one of the things employers and professional environments are really testing for is not perfection, but the ability to keep going through difficulty.
The post uses several examples from life outside of school to make this point. Running a business, facing financial unpredictability, dealing with repairs, and carrying fear about future instability are all presented as reminders that discomfort and uncertainty are woven into adult life. Learning to face stress is part of becoming stronger.
This leads back into the university setting. In a STEM degree, especially one built around calculus and beyond, students often discover after the first exam or first month that they are not studying correctly. That moment can be discouraging, but it is also normal. The message here is that it is better to expect difficulty than to assume everything should move in a straight line.
Another major theme is the relationship between stress and identity. Some people need family support, structure, or help from others. Some try to survive everything alone. The post argues that balance matters. You need enough independence to keep going, but enough humility to accept support when you need it.
The talk then turns more directly toward mathematics. For some people, mathematics becomes almost addictive in a good way. Once the ball starts rolling, they want to keep building on it. For others, it never clicks that way. That difference matters. If you are in a degree where all you do is math and you do not actually like doing math, then the degree may not be the right fit.
The argument is not that everyone who struggles should quit. It is that students should ask the real question. Are you discouraged because you are temporarily burned out, or are you discouraged because this path is fundamentally wrong for you? Those are two different problems, and they require different responses.
The post also argues that part of the stress students feel comes from how mathematics is taught. Too often, students are pushed toward scattered learning, online shortcuts, or informal methods that never really teach them how to read textbook print the way college mathematics demands. That gap becomes a major source of later stress.
The speaker explains that the goal of the crash course books and lessons is to make mathematics more systematic and more methodical so students can see the structure clearly instead of wandering through confusion. Mathematics is described not as mysterious magic, but as a language and invention that can be learned with the right pacing and organization.
Another important part of the message is that many students go too deep into math based degrees while relying on unaccredited or loose learning sources, only to burn out when the degree becomes too advanced. This is why the post pushes students to ask earlier rather than later whether the field truly fits them.
The conclusion is practical. If you are discouraged, first ask whether the degree is actually right for you. Second, ask whether you may simply need a break. Many students rediscover their motivation after stepping away long enough for their mind to recover. Others discover that a different field would make them happier and more successful.
In the end, the message is not meant as an insult. It is meant as clarity. If you love math, protect your energy and keep going. If you do not love math, do not force yourself into years of unnecessary pain just because the label of a STEM degree sounds impressive.
Closing Thought
Motivation in STEM is not about feeling inspired every day. It is about understanding yourself well enough to know whether you need rest, better structure, or a different path altogether. Clarity is often more valuable than forcing momentum.
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Original Transcript
All right, kids. How to stay motivated in a STEM degree.
The odds of succeeding in a math-based education are not the greatest odds. If you’re attempting a STEM degree, I’d highly I’ I’d suggest to you to ask yourself if you find doing math like torturous. Even for people that like to do math, it can be stressful to do math. I’m an expert at it, but sitting down and typing 10,000 word documents comprised of equations
because when you guys when you guys see me write those those books, the mathematical books, each one of the symbols is is a full word or collections of words. It’s a lot a lot more writing there than I’m actually writing because it you see it expand and then it shrinks into the symbols. And so mathematical notation is very intricate and very very multi-dimensional so to speak. If you’re if you’re finding yourself losing motivation in your STEM degree, it’s normal. It’s very normal. But you should also ask yourself if in fact this is the right degree for you. Um for me I got a degree in math and I did a bunch of work in physics and a little bit in engineering and I went to grad school for math and studied a lot more courses at the graduate level which by the way graduate level courses are essentially the same as your senior level courses. They’re just mixed and matched. It’s it’s it’s really not that different. If you’re learning a new math subject at the 500 or 600 level or whatever, it’s really no different than doing it at the junior or senior level. It just requires those courses as prerequisites is all. So, uh, whatever. But the I got discouraged a lot of times in college, a lot. And I had to retake a lot of semesters. And that happens in life. That happens all the time with everything. We we always we get discouraged. We’re experiencing fear, anxiety, we’re concerned about the future. The funny thing is is that there’s nothing to worry about because if you had any problems, you’d be dead. And since you woke up this morning and you’re breathing, you’re winning. It’s just we we we collect things as humans. We collect comfort. And we don’t want to let go of comfort. That’s a difficult thing to deal with. I I uh as an adult getting discouraged about um running a business. Running a business is um it’s very difficult because when you start a business, you think, “Hey, I’m self-employed and I’m I’m running a business.” What you find out is that when you when you’re running a business, you’re also competition for thousands of other businesses. And a lot of people, they have no integrity. They’ll do anything they can to run everybody and anybody out of business like war or love or whatever. All is fair and love war and business basically. It’s very discouraging. And so like you I bring that up because you’re you’re in college overcoming discouragement is part of the reason why you become successful as a college student. Your ability to feel that stress and power through it and be successful. That’s what people are looking for in employees. They don’t they don’t want to hire people that give up. They want to hire people that overcome problems. And some of you guys go to college and you think you think it should be some perfect straight A thing. I go to college, I get straight A’s. Lie d work. And that’s not the way it is, especially for math, physics, or engineering. For math, physics, and engineering, it’s com it’s very discombobulated. It’s if you if you’re not two weeks ahead of the semester, it means you’re two weeks behind. And when you get to about the fourth or sixth week and you take exam one in a course like calculus or higher, then you’re going to be like, “Okay, this is I’m not doing this right. I’m not studying right.” And it’s discouraging.
It It’s better It’s better to assume you’re going to have these problems than to try to avoid them. This is going to happen for your whole life. you’re you’re gonna you’re gonna think everything’s perfect, everything’s fine, and then a pipe’s going to burst in your ceiling. And I have like for me, I I I live in in a constant state of fear that my air conditioner is going to break down again. And it costs like 10 to 15 grand to have this thing built. and it takes like six months because it’s a custommade air conditioning unit that’s wedged inside a little tiny condo and you don’t it’s like all these things that you don’t think about all of a sudden they happen and if something happens with my AC this happened before my AC broke and they’re like yeah it’ll be like 10 grand and it’ll take six months to order a new one and if you don’t believe in miracles this is nothing short of a miracle I I couldn’t find it During the pandemic, I couldn’t even get anybody on the phone. All the businesses were shut down. I was able to get some AC guy to come and look at it. And he’s like, I don’t I don’t know how to uh I don’t know what to tell you, man. You’re going to He didn’t know any He He’s his job is to know AC units, but because it was a custom AC unit, he he didn’t know what to do. And um he literally did nothing and didn’t offer any help because he couldn’t he didn’t know how. So, I called another another AC place and this guy he’s got like they it was just complete accident. This guy’s got like 30 years of experience working custom job AC units and he was like, oh, he came over and he just he he opened the thing up and he’s like, oh, he just flipped this switch. He just did something. He flipped something. He’s like, it’ll work now. He’s like, that’s all all you had to do. He just flipped one little thing and it works now. And he and he he goes, “If you want it’s going to fail again, but it’ll I can take the thing out and I can repair it for like 600 bucks.” I think it was like six or 800 bucks. It was a miracle. I mean, it was like and it was like to find somebody that understood that individual machine like that in that situation where I didn’t have $10,000 to buy a new AC unit, but it worked out. It it’s this is how science works in our weird reality that we live in. Things just it it just happens. It works out. It it happens the way it’s supposed to happen. It was that was just one things like that happen to me all the time. I’m a I’m a walking like receptor of miracles that it’s it’s um it’s for my own safety. God’s protecting me from myself sometimes. But you guys, most of you, you’re going to be responsible people that are dependable. You’re going to go to college and you’re going to feel stress at some point. And when that stress comes, it’s it’s it’s good to it’s good to think about preparing for it rather than avoiding it. As I was saying earlier, it will come. You will be stressed. And how you handle that is what’s going to shape you into who you are. Some people do not handle stress well. I I I don’t like stress. I hate stress. And as I get as I’ve gotten older, my life has become like astronomically stressful. It’s just more stress. And it’s um it’s bizarre because I it’s like I work way harder today than I did like 20 years ago. And I have a fraction of what I had 20 years ago today. And it’s like having I have the same things, but it’s like I don’t have them. this will happen to you guys. You need to you need to save your money. Be careful with your money. Cuz I was really my money my money situation was solid pre- pandemic. I built a business. I was getting royalties. I’m selling books. I’m tutoring people. I’m making bank. Then the pandemic came and wiped my businesses out. And everything like quadrupled in price and it sucked me dry like instantaneously. And it it’s like nothing’s changed. like nothing has changed, but everything like it the greed and the the hoarding that everybody does now. And it’s it’s just like we’re we’re swimming in oceans of money, but none of us can get a cup of water, you know? Like you got these you got but but there’s a problem too with that issue is that like if people who are really rich distribute their money to society, then people will stop working and then society will it it’s just problematic. And you know, greed and selfishness stems from fear of loss. And some people are so scared not to have comfort that they their whole life is about hoarding as much money as they can because they think it’s going to prevent discomfort. And and the the obsession with hoarding that money causes discomfort. I I watch my friend do this. All he he’s so scared of being broke that all he does is he works and toils to make money. But it’s like he’s not existent. It’s like he’s not even there. He every once in a while he’ll he’ll walk away from labor to have a conversation with me. And it’s it’s so sparse and rare and it it just he’s so obsessed with the fear of loss that he he that’s all he does, whatever. But some of you guys will experience things like that. I I I’m I’m scared to death myself of being like homeless or something. I I live downtown. I there’s like 50 homeless people that live on my street like all just scattered around. I don’t like I don’t want to see it because it scares me. I don’t want to live like that. I don’t want that to happen to me. But it it’s something that could happen at any moment to any of us. And and that’s and that’s a fear fact. That’s a fear. It’s a it’s a survival thing. We’re we’re psyching ourselves into fear to change the way we think so that we’ll survive better.
it it but it’s it’s it’s unsettling at the same time and and uh I’ I’ve been in situations before where if it wasn’t for if it wasn’t for the assistance the the help of like family and friends I would be in that situation it would not be pretty and and and that’s that’s something that you guys if you have family some of you kids you might be upset with your parents or something or making you do something or you don’t I don’t know you got to think about your family you got to But you got to put effort into being part of the family. And uh you know that that it’s it’s it’s what I’m the reason I’m talking about this because if you’re if you’re feeling stressed in this college education some sometimes stress relief comes from other people. Some people have that some people have that John Wayne sort of independence mentality. Don’t help anybody and don’t take nothing from anybody. And what happens to them is they become just wedged into a world of themsel and and people people need help from other people. They need help from other people. You have to help other people. But you also have to take care of yourself. There’s a balance. That’s that’s the kind of the message here is there’s a balance. If you’re feeling stressed out in a STEM degree, you’re taking advanced math. You might find it for me for me doing the math degree. It wasn’t easy, but it it was because I’m like addicted. Like when I get the ball rolling from learning math, when the ball starts rolling, I can’t stop. It just it’s like it builds momentum on itself. So for me, getting through these math courses was easier because of that. However, if I didn’t have that characteristic, I don’t know if I would have completed the degree.
It’s a the characteristic of addiction is something I I see often in math and physics people. That’s why they gravitate to it because you it’s so intense and elaborate and it’s addictive to build on it. You’re building uh you’re building and building on top of knowledge on top of knowledge and it it makes you start to to think a certain way and and uh you you get addicted to that. But uh I you know I always I just I just I ask you if you’re stressed out in this degree it usually be it’s usually because you’re studying mathematics and the amount of math you have to learn today is way more than somebody that had to learn like 20 years ago. There’s a lot more math today and they’re just bombarding it at you just left and right. And it it does need to be changed. The structure of how this information is delivered needs to be changed. That’s why I write my books because it streamlines the information that you need to know for math. It it’s math is an invention. It’s a language. It’s an invention. It’s not mysterious. You guys need to know the structure of how to do it. Not to walk around in circles not knowing where anything is. It the way the way I understand how math should be taught will would change the world. The whole world can understand math at my level at a at a much faster rate. It’s just you have to go slow with it. you’ll learn it faster by going slower when you learn it. And it just has to be more methodic. Most people that study this stuff, they naturally come to the uh kind of algorithmic solutions I come to. Uh but a lot of you guys when you’re you’re young, you’re studying math or physics and you’re young, it’s stressing you out because you’re not being it’s not you’re not getting like a like a clear set of instructions on how to do it. And that’s important because that’s the research part of college that you guys are figuring out life. You’re you’re in a stressful situation and you’re figuring out how to survive through it by thinking, critical thinking, doing research. Some of you go online to have other people show you some things. We’ve all we all do that. There’s a certain point where you have to stop doing that, though. You can’t leave the textbooks. You just can’t it’s not you’re not going to ever learn anything if you leave the textbooks. You can learn there’s a certain level of learning that you’re going to experience which is very basic and not applicable. And then at a certain point you can’t learn that way anymore. And if you wasted your time freshman and sophomore year learning by watching people do math online you guys that that’s going to cause a lot of stress. When you guys are watching people draw math you’re not learning math correctly. your textbooks are print. They print the the different the different fonts and ital italicized, bold, all these things. You’re not getting that level of knowledge when you’re watching somebody draw by hand. And uh it causes a lot of problems. And but my my my point is that if you’re stressed in a STEM degree, it usually is because of math. And math doesn’t have to be stressful. It’s just not delivered like methodically, systematically. and and you’re supposed to figure out how it becomes methodic and systematic. That’s what I do now when I show you guys math. I’m not trying to do your homework for you. I’m I I did people’s homework for them for 15 years, you know, and I’m like, “This is not helping nobody.” I looked at the numbers. It’s not helping nobody. So, I show you guys how to do it correctly with print. And uh but whatever. If you’re discouraged in a STEM degree, I just my my question for you is not whether or not you’re discouraged because you’re losing passion, but is it is it what you really want to do? Do you not do you find doing math religiously to be exhausting? Because if you’re in a mathbased degree, you’re going to do math for like five years, like endlessly. It will warp your brain. There’s a goal at the end. It will warp your brain. you will think differently and you’re not going to do math 10 hours a day in the workforce, but you are just not the way you’re doing it in college because you’ll understand how to piece things together and you’ll just be using technology to produce stuff. So, if you’re discouraged, I would just ask myself, is this the right degree for me? Am I in the right degree? I would ask myself that because it 50% of people do not finish these degrees and most of them they start off learning from an unacredited place like YouTube and if you’re listening to me it might just be the wrong degree. You might just be in the wrong field. I have people all the time tell me like I switched to business because of you. I was pissed off at first but you’re right. I’m way happier. I it was too stressful for me. So I I I tried a business degree. I couldn’t do it because it was too stressful for me. So I switched to math. Some people that doesn’t click in their head. They’re like, “How’s that how’s a business degree harder than a math degree?” And I’m like, “Well, I have a real hard time with lying.” So, I can’t understand something that’s based on lies and misconception. That’s what that’s what marketing is. And and yet, I have to do that myself to run a business. And I I try to do it as honest as possible, but man, I could come on here and lie to you guys. I could lie through my teeth, but I’m me, you know? And uh I went to math because math is all truth. It was easy for me because it’s all truth. I like the truth. You can’t handle the truth. Anyways, Jack Nicholson, that’s right. If you’re discouraged, I just I I just tell you this, okay? Most of the time, if you’re passionate about STEM, you take a couple weeks off, you take a semester off, you get the ball rolling again in a slow fashion, then you might find the passion again. That’s what happened to me a few times. I was like, I’m so sick of doing this. And then a few weeks goes by and I start doing math again and I’m right back into it. I just needed a break. I’m doing that right now. I’m kind of taking a break because I’m about to do a big project. But for you, for you guys, that might be the case. It might be if you’re discouraged, if you’re losing your interest, you’re discouraged in a STEM degree, a math-based degree, then just I I just ask myself first, is this the right degree for me? Then I then I would say, do I just need a break? Chances are one of those. You’d either need a break or you just need to change your major. And I make these videos because I see I I watch a lot of you guys. You get too deep into math degrees by using platforms on the internet to do your homework and stuff and then you get to junior year and you’re too deep into in the degree. You can’t it’s too late for you to switch to something else. You’re burnt out. You don’t have the money and then you just don’t graduate. It happens all the time with people on here. And so I, you know, I I do this as a courtesy to you guys. I I don’t want you to ever take anything I say insulting. I I’m doing this as a courtesy for you. Clarity at an earlier stage of university education will help you from making bad decisions down the road. If you don’t like doing math, don’t take a math-based degree. That doesn’t make sense. In math, physics, and engineering, computer science, that’s all you do is math. Math, math, math, math, math. That’s all you’re doing. Mathematics constantly all day, every day. nothing but math. If you don’t like doing that, I would not take a degree like that.
If you like doing it and you’re discouraged, you might just need a break. Your brain is an organic vessel, a a machine. It needs to heal. You can’t just lift weights 10 hours a day every single day. You got to take days off for your body to heal if you want it to grow, if you want it to work properly. For me, I have to do that. I need like I work so hard in my head for like a couple months straight and then I just need like a month off of just like relaxing and uh then I get re-otivated to do things. So So that’s my two cents on that, kiddos. All right, don’t forget to subscribe. If you’re looking for more podcasts and things, you can check out the stem.com. I have about a thousand videos there, my books as well. Have a nice day.