Success at distance learning is mainly attributable to being self-motivated. One of the best ways to be motivated is to be passionate about the subject you are studying. If you have a passion and have set goals based on that passion, then you will find it much easier to stay on track with your studies and keep working toward that goal. However, what if you do not know what you are really interested in? It is possible that you have varied interests and can't choose one to focus on, or perhaps you can't think of a career that would match the interests you have. Here are four steps you can follow to help clarify the goals that will suit you.

1) Get to know yourself well if you want to make a good career choice. That means exploring your skills, values, interests, and personality. This can be a fun time where you think about what you have done both in school and out. What have you enjoyed and done well at? What skills have you learned in courses, groups, teams, and hobbies? You can talk to your parents, teachers and friends and find out what they have noticed that you have enjoyed, have done well at, and what skills you have developed. There are also many informal but helpful online quizzes that can help you in recognizing your interests, skills, values and personality. It is well worth your time to spend some of it really thinking and discovering what you like to do, what you are good at, and what you consider important in life so that you don't spend a lot of time studying or working at something you hate and then having to start all over again in the future.

2) Use the information that you have learned about yourself in the first step to explore which careers would be a good match for you. Once again there are many online resources that can give you much information about careers. You can find out what you do, how much money you make, the trends for the career, and the education required for the job. Talking to friends, teachers, parents, counsellors, and acquaintances can give you helpful information for the careers they work in. Once you narrow the choice down to about five or six, you can arrange to do informational interviews with people who work in those jobs to get much more detailed information such as what they like and don't like about their jobs. You will get a better idea whether a career is suitable for you by volunteering. If you are in school, you could do a cooperative program to get some experience in your field of interest. All of these activities will help you narrow your choices down to two or three that you are most interested in.

3) Now you have you have to make a decision. Many people find that using a chart on which they can enter the choices they have, along with the pros and cons of each choice, to be very helpful in making a decision. Once you have that information in front of you it will be easier to see if there is a glaring problem with one of the choices for you. If not you can choose based on the pros or cons that appeal to you.

4) The fourth step is to set some goals that will lead you towards that career. For instance, if you want to work as a teacher, what steps can you take today to start on that wonderful journey of becoming a teacher? If you have a broader goal of working in the medical field, what steps can you take now to earn a degree which can lead to various careers such as working as a dentist, a nurse, a doctor, or a researcher? Remember that your life is a journey that you can enjoy whichever route you take. Change is constant in today's world and sometimes that change will be your choice and sometimes it will be caused by circumstances beyond your control. Therefore, on your journey, you may have to change your goals, but if you don't set some to begin with, you will not necessarily be going where you choose to go.

If you are having a great deal of difficulty deciding what you want to do, set up an appointment with a career counsellor. He/she will have the skills to guide you through making a career choice. If you are working toward the career choice that is best for you, you will be motivated to work on your courses that lead you there, and that will get you past one of the biggest hurdles many people have with distance learning - being self-motivated.