[donflamenco]

There is a field of study around "mindset". The fairly famous book is called Mindset by Carol Dweck.

This infographic summarizes the ideas very well.

http://i.imgur.com/HGBY1tW.png

[dbhattar]

My attitude had always been "if it is grades people want, they will get it" i.e. to get good grades that will help me go up the ladder academically while at the same time keeping in mind that the grades are not going to help me in the real world.

This pushed me to learn continuously because at the end of the day, it is what you know and what you can do that counts rather than your grades.