Motivate Yourself Intrinsically

Find your inner carrot.

So it's great that we know we work best with intrinsic motivation, but you may ask how do we develop this? You can increase your intrinsic motivations by:

1. Attributing results to factors under your own control (autonomy),
2. Believing that you have the skills to be effective agents in reaching your own desired goals (self-efficacy belief)
3. Becoming interested in mastering a topic, not just in achieving good grades (curiosity)

That last point is important, because it relates most closely to the original question. How does one become interested in something when they simply are not?

The key is curiosity. Developing a vivacious curiosity is one of the best things you can do for yourself. You will be happier because you'll rarely get bored of things, and even when you do get bored, you will be able to exert conscious effort into discovering how to make your environment and task interesting again.