Many students say they work harder in college than high school because they have been warned about college being hard and because they are afraid of making C's and D's. Such fears can also be self-generated by setting demanding goals, such as straight A's or all A's and B's, and emphasizing to yourself the bad consequences of low grades. A competitive spirit will help. Such an attitude comes from setting reachable goals for yourself and from giving yourself pep talks when motivation lags. A carefully planned approach to the problem is more likely to be facilitated by emotional energy .
Emotions increase the strength of the strongest response tendencies.
Without careful planning, anger might prompt aggression, fear might lead to running away or procrastination, etc. Then, using emotions to increase your motivation should benefit everyone. This means planning what to do each minute, each hour, each day in order to reach your goal. That is six hours per day for studying. That means giving up TV, partying, goofing around, time with friends, etc.