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[Sprin]

I can't get good grades in school.
I am unmotivated.
I procrastinate alot.
And I have a hard time paying atenchin.
does anyone have any advise for me?

[Spaghetti7]

I can't get good grades in school.

Is this can't, or won't? I understand if it's can't, but just make sure that you are doing all you can and, if necessary, ask your teachers for help on any particular areas.

I am unmotivated.

Well we all get this with things we don't enjoy. Look hard at this too: Is this because you don't enjoy what you are doing? If so, then try to think of what you do enjoy, and try to pursue that more.

I procrastinate alot.

Oh God, me too. So much. I think the only was this can be solved is realising when you CAN'T procrastinate with something. For example, homework. If it has to be done in two days and you're busy tomorrow, you HAVE to do it regardless. Recently I also noticed how nice it is to split homework over Saturday and Sunday, cuz it makes Saturday feel like Sunday (therefore the weekend feels longer) and lessens the workload overall.

I can't really help any more without details. Hope I did help some, and good luck.

[LordBucket]

does anyone have any advise for me?

Find a niche in life you'll be happy with. Don't worry too much about what other people expect from you. Intelligence, education and hard work are not prerequisites for success. They are merely tools that can sometimes be useful.

Decide what you want and focus on that. Don't worry about the tools you use to get it.

[Aerie]

I can't get good grades in school.
I am unmotivated.
I procrastinate alot.
And I have a hard time paying atenchin.
does anyone have any advise for me?

If you're aware of these problems, then fixing them is as simple as fixing them.

Be motivated, don't procrastinate, and pay attention. Acknowledging these problems but refusing to correcting them is either laziness or a mental health issue (autism, ADHD, etc.) and the latter, unfortunately, the Internet cannot help with.

Stop playing MMOs and other persistent-world online games. I've recently took a break from them and have personally noticed a huge increase in my productivity when it comes to household chores.

Good grades are another issue entirely. My suggestion is to study with other people, maybe find a tutor. Failing that, there's always the Internet. Wolfram Alpha is a fantastic learning tool.

Also, there are people at your school that are paid to help you with these kinds of problems. Talk to them. Talk to your parents. They'll help you out a lot better than a bunch of random swinging dicks on the Internet.

[Aerie]

Find a niche in life you'll be happy with. Don't worry too much about what other people expect from you. Intelligence, education and hard work are not prerequisites for success. They are merely tools that can sometimes be useful.

Decide what you want and focus on that. Don't worry about the tools you use to get it.

This is bad advice. Please do not listen to anyone that tries to tell you "It's what YOU want that matters" or  "You don't have to be successful or please other people" because this is not true unless your idea of the future is being a hobo, a crack addict, or dead.

Read this article. It will help you avoid becoming a useless piece of shit.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-you-better-person/

And remember, above all else: every unique and beautiful snowflake is just part of the same homogeneous pile of snow.

[LordBucket]

This is bad advice. Please do not listen to anyone that tries to tell you "It's what YOU want that matters"
or  "You don't have to be successful or please other people" because this is not true

I think we may be miscommunicating. I'm not saying "don't be successful." I'm advocating defining your own criteria for success rather than allowing others to dictate it to you.

Others might tell you that you "need good grades" or "need a degree" or "need to make lots of money" to be successful. That doesn't need to be true. There are plenty of people who have good, decent, fun lives doing things they enjoy that didn't require school or a degree to do. And there are plenty of people making $60k/yr but still miserable because they hate their jobs and can't leave because they've accrued debt.

This is not to say that school or degrees or money are bad. They aren't. But they are only tools. They are a means to an end, not the end itself. What is the end? That's something that you need to decide for yourself.

Identify what you want from life.

Then make it happen.

Do you enjoy skiing? Why not become a lift attendant? Do you want to hang out at the pool all day picking up on girls? Why not become a lifeguard? Do you want to be an actor? Sign up at a casting agency and become a background extra. Do you want to hang out and talk to people? Become a bartender. Do you want to write? Start submitting articles to magazines.

None of these are positions that require vast sums of intelligence. Nobody cares how diligent your study habits are or asks you what your grades were like when you do these things.

You have a limited amount of time and energy available. Invest it wisely. People may tell you to get good grades and "study hard" but the fact is that the vast majority of what you learn in school will never have much affect on the rest of your life. A school year spent learning about world history, or writing comparison contrast essays...will not benefit you as much as spending that time, for example...teaching yourself a programming language if you want to be a programmer, or teaching yourself a foreign language if you want to travel, or any of a number of things that you could be doing with that time. If you can't keep yourself interested in learning things in school that will probably never affect your life one way or another...that's ok.

Invest that time and energy finding, doing, being, learning something that you do care about and that will improve your life.

Find your niche. Don't let others dictate your life to you.

[Aerie]

All I'm saying is "Be yourself" is the worst piece of advice on the planet. Your true self is a lazy, inadequate asshole. Improvement is not a choice, but a necessity.

[lordcooper]

All I'm saying is "Be yourself" is the worst piece of advice on the planet.

Agreed, you're being yourself and we can all see just how wonderful the results are.

[Aerie]

Agreed, you're being yourself and we can all see just how wonderful the results are.

Gee, it certainly is easier to attack the messenger than it is to read the message, isn't it?

[lordcooper]

That metaphor doesn't work when the messenger actually wrote the message.  It was a lazy, inadequate metaphor that failed to make you seem less of an asshole.

[Spaghetti7]

Now now, children. What's occurred here is a difference of opinion. They happen sometimes. Just accept it, and carry on.

[Aerie]

That metaphor doesn't work when the messenger actually wrote the message.  It was a lazy, inadequate metaphor that failed to make you seem less of an asshole.

To assume that an argument is invalid because the tone in which it is presented is one that you take offense to is not only selfish and intolerant, but also fundamentally erroneous.

In the future, please avoid construing any criticism directed towards you as a personal attack. It only makes you look irrational.

[Ottofar]

Now now, children. What's occurred here is a difference of opinion. They happen sometimes. Just accept it, and carry on.

I'm just gonna come in here and tell you this guy here is right. You both should drop it.

[kerlc]

D'aww, arguments over trifle things some human beings consider incredibly important are so adorable to read.

Speaking as a person who procrastinates and has little motivation to do anything most of the time, here's what I can advise to you: Set yourself a goal. Work towards that goal. It feels good to have a goal in life, it gives us all a feeling of purpose other than just the nature's "Eat, sleep, shit, reproduce, die" cycle. As for motivation, get yourself some friends to motivate you and help you at reaching that goal. During the process of achieving that goal, you shall receive Life EXP, something akin to Game EXP, only instead of giving you points you can spend on the size of your hero's cock, it helps you get a better job, feel better with yourself and give you more motivation to work towards new goals.

[gimlet]

^^^ What kerlc said.  Also, alas there is no real magic, you have to train yourself to focus on unpleasant stuff that MUST be done, and learn to force yourself to get back to it.  What worked for me was starting out by repeating to myself "I'll work on it solidly for 10 minutes, then I'll take a break if I can't stand it, but come on 10 minutes - I can surely grit my teeth for ANYTHING for 10 minutes", and doing 10 minutes of work, reward with 20 minutes of f-off, 10 minutes of work, etc.  Using the clock and not quitting before 10 minutes are up, and thinking about the future pain that would accrue if I *didn't* get it done.  As the deadline approaches you do have to keep raising the time, but panic helps a bit with that   I got a kitchen timer to use for the "break" periods - when it goes off, back to work.  *Don't* set the timer for the work, use the wall clock or your watch.

Then once in a while, you'll *gasp* actually get involved in it and you blow past 10 minutes and get in a groove and actually getting serious amounts of stuff done with relatively little pain.  Then something stupid interrupts it and you're back to the struggle of starting again :p  That's one reason it definitely helps to have a quiet, interruption/distraction free study area, find a place to hide in a library or something if you can't do it at home, turn your phone off, don't even bring distracting stuff.

It did take me weeks to months of fail, try, fail, try to get to the point where I could knock off reading/assignments in one sitting, but the reduction in hassle was well, WELL worth it.