By Gregory Hoeft/reporter

Motivation is a key to student success, a NE counselor told students April 8 on NE Campus.

The 40-minute interactive presentation by Masika Smith to a full house of students from multiple campuses began with self-evaluation.

“The first thing I want you to think about is this … do you believe that you are a part of something big?” she said. “Do you believe you are that important to the universe, to humanity, or do you think that you are just an isolated person with nothing really big to contribute?”

Smith then turned to affirmations of positivity as she asked everyone to pick a stone from those shared from her personal collection, which they were allowed to keep.

Students then divided into groups to participate in a word association exercise where members wrote down the first word or phrase that came to mind when they thought of the word motivation. The responses were varied. At the end of the presentation, students wrote their associated motivational word onto their stones as a reminder of what it takes to succeed.

Smith correlated success to the amount of motivation. She said people can see only about 10 percent with the remaining 90 percent unseen and waiting to be discovered. She said all the responses in the word association exercise made up merely 10 percent of why each person does what he/she does. Even more factors that seem relatively unknown make up the remaining 90 percent, Smith said.

Smith used the analogy of the iceberg on a shipping route horizon to explain the concept of the “false horizon” and clouding that keeps people from envisioning their goals.

“There are things that [get] in the way that make it difficult to even see the iceberg,” she said. “Think of it as a mirage. When you are looking … you see the iceberg, and the distance that you think [it is] at is actually a false horizon. It’s not there.”

These are examples of things that can get in the way of seeing one’s goals accurately, Smith said.

“Is it the actual horizon that you are seeing, or the false horizon that you think is real?” she asked.

Motivation, proper time management, removal of distracting exterior forces and noise and focus are keys to success.

Smith obtained her Master of Science in counseling from the University of North Texas. She is a licensed professional counselor, a national certified counselor and a bilingual therapist in French. She provides career, personal and crisis counseling.