Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for July, 2008

What Does It Take to Persevere? – A Snapshot and a Tip

Posted in brave, coaching, courage, creativity, determination, discipline, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, gratitude, mental toughness, perseverance, Smart Tips, writing, tagged , , , , on July 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Do you work late into the night, trying to analyze a computer screen filled with numbers?   What do you do when your eyes and mind start to shut down?

A client, who is very near to finishing her dissertation at a competitive university, gave me something to pass along to you.  The other day, she said, “Here’s something your other clients might enjoy.”

First, though, let me tell you a couple of things about her.  She is in the last big push toward her defense, but she has had to climb mountains to get here. She has persevered in spite of incredible obstacles.  Now she is demanding a great deal of herself by working until far in the night.  As a scientist, she often is trying to make sense of numbers on a page or screen. When the numbers start to blur for her, she looks for a moment of fun, a change. 

Here is what she passes along to you:  For a 30-minute break where she can switch brain cells from considering numbers to something more visual, she has found a daily jigsaw challenge on the Houston Chronicle both relaxing and energizing.

She says this 30-minute break has a beginning and a definite end.  You can’t get sucked into staying at the game ad infinitum.

Interested?

Go to the on-line Houston (TX) Chronicle: www.chron.com.

Click on “Entertainment’ and then at the next screen choose “games.”

There among other choices, you’ll see “Jigsaw puzzle.”  You’re asked if you “have what it takes to solve [their] latest game.”

I’ll further challenge you not just to play the game, but more importantly to be inspired by my client to persevere.

This incredible woman is 60+ in age and is giving it her all to finish her dissertation over the next few days.  

I’d love to hear from you.  Let me know if you found the jigsaw game to be the right relief for a short break.  Also, let me know if you’d like to send a cheer of encouragement out to my client, whom I feel grateful to know and who continues to amaze me.

I’d also love to send you my newsletter.  Go to my website at www.nancywhichard.com, and underneath my picture on the home page, sign up for Smart Tips.

Gratefully yours,

Nancy

Nancy Whichard, PhD, PCC
Your International Dissertation Coach
www.nancywhichard.com

Read Full Post »

An Academic’s Well-Lived Life: Perseverance, Loyalty, Gratitude, Love

Posted in academic, advisor, brave, choice, coaching, courage, creativity, criticism, dissertation coach, following through, football, grateful, gratitude, perseverance, positive psychology, top strengths, using your strengths, tagged , , , on July 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

By now, you’ve probably heard that Randy Pausch died Friday at the age of 47.

Though known in the field of computer science, he had gained world-wide fame from his wise, clever “last lecture” at Carnegie Mellon in the fall of 2007.  At that time he had been told that because of aggressive pancreatic cancer, he had only months to live.

I remember being moved six months ago when I first listened to a recording of the lecture, but as I listened to it again today, I was struck by the character strengths he exhibited and also by what a model he was and is for academics– professors and students.

His work in virtual reality gave him the opportunity to use what must have been his signature strengths: creativity, love of learning, curiosity, and humor and playfulness.  And his funny and insightful lecture showed him using those strengths to the fullest.

As important as the strengths of creativity and curiosity are, he also valued and used his strengths of perseverance, loyalty, gratitude, and love.  He wanted his students and his children to remember how hard he worked and how he persevered to try new things.

He preached loyalty, and his own life was exemplary in loyalty, gratitude, and love. His family mattered, his students mattered, and his friends and colleagues mattered.

He had learned from a football coach that the way to show interest and caring is to stick with a student, giving constructive criticism and advice, and asking the student to work harder.  He was grateful for those who had helped him as a youth and as a junior academic, and that gratitude gave him the desire to be loyal and generous with help to his own students.

Chris Peterson, who first brought Randy Pausch’s lecture to many people, recently wrote in his blog “The Good Life” that Pausch gave us a compelling example of an actual person who lived life well: “I watched his last lecture wearing many hats. As a teacher, I was inspired. As a lecturer, I was filled with admiration. As a human being, I was proud.”

Read Full Post »

3 Success Tips to Help You Engage with Your Writing

Posted in Charlie Rose, choice, coaching, creativity, determination, discipline, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, fears, focus, goals, hope, mental toughness, momentum, perseverance, planning, positive psychology, Smart Tips, writing, You Tube, tagged , , , , , , , on July 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Over the past week two different people, both of whom are approximately 32, seemed surprised that I had heard of the singing group Coldplay.

The frenetic marketing of Coldplay’s new record would make it hard not to have heard of them.  To dig up a little more on Coldplay, I turned to YouTube. I found several of their pieces that I liked,
and I also liked some of what I heard in an interview with Coldplay’s Chris Martin.

Hearing Chris Martin talk about the hours he works and his creative process also led me to think of other ways people generate ideas for their writing.

1.  Seat Time – Put the Hours in
 In an interview on the Charlie Rose show, Chris Martin was surprised to be asked where he gets his ideas for the words and music of his songs.  Martin confessed that he, like most composers and writers, doesn’t know where his ideas for music and lyrics come from.  He said, “I just sit and play and play and play.   I never know where a song comes from.  It’s time.   I just put the hours in.”

2.  Structure Fairy
Sometimes even if you put in the hours in the style of Chris Martin, you still may not feel in flow or feel that you have a good idea for your writing.

A couple of people have told me that they put in the hours– they both work and work, but all too frequently they stall.  They come to an impasse. However, after sleeping on the problem and awakening the next morning, the solution frequently comes to them.

One coach friend is a brilliant writer but nevertheless struggles to make her writing brilliant.  Since problems with structuring her ideas frequently bring her writing to a halt, she is delighted at the “arrival” of a solution.  She says that after a long work session that has not yielded her what she wants, she leaves the work until morning.  While she sleeps, oftentimes the Structure Fairy visits her.

I don’t argue with fairies or leprechauns, but I humbly suggest that our wonderful brains can give us marvelous gifts when we move away from a trying project and use a different part of our brain or if we exercise or if we just get a good night’s sleep.

3.  Behavioral Economics
What if you almost or actually hate the project you’re working on, and there are no fairies coming to your rescue?

A client told me that a friend of his once put a large sum of money on a roommate’s desk and said, “If I don’t finish this chapter of my thesis, this money is yours.”

My client also said that if you are unable to meet your goal, established websites are in business to help you threaten yourself.  You can give someone $1,000 at one of these websites, and if you don’t meet your goal, the company gets to keep the money.

I’ve heard a similar kind of pact, in which you give a significant amount of money to someone, and tell that person your announced goal—a specific, measureable goal– and when you will reach it. If you reach your goal, the money goes to the political candidate of your choice.  If you don’t reach your goal… yep, you got it… the money goes to the opposing candidate.  I first heard of this idea years ago, and the threat was that if you didn’t meet your goal, your money would to go to Jesse Helms, now deceased, but who at one time was a very conservative senator.

Every day we have a narrative, and every day we talk our selves through our day.  But sometimes talk doesn’t work, and we have to take an extreme action to jolt ourselves into action.

Fear of failure can scare most of us into action; however, if you promise yourself a reward for achieving a goal or if you make an effort to be optimistic and work to feel positive about reaching your goal, you are more likely to be successful.

Hoping you’re putting in the hours—

Nancy
Your International Dissertation Coach

www.nancywhichard.com

Read Full Post »

What if Dissertation Writers Had the Focus of Tiger Woods?

Posted in academic, anxiety, brave, coaching, courage, determination, discipline, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, fears, focus, getting started, mental toughness, momentum, re-group, re-start, self-sabotage, struggling, top strengths, using your strengths, writing, writing, dissertation, tagged , , , on July 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

When I’m in line at the grocery, I read the latest celeb magazines.  If there’s an article about Tiger Woods, I’ll read about his wife and his yacht and, of course, his relationship with his father, but I’ve never been interested enough to take the time to see what are golf’s and Tiger Woods’s hold on so many people.

However, a column by New York Times writer David Brooks gives me a new perspective on Tiger Woods and also on Brooks himself.

According to Brooks, writers, in particular, “get rhapsodic” over Woods’s ability to focus, partly because “Woods seems able to mute the chatter that normal people have in their heads.”

Brooks contends that in our over-extended, overwhelmed lives, Woods is “the exemplar of mental discipline,” “stone-faced,” “locked-in, focused and self-contained,” “self-controlled.”

Woods “achieves perfect clarity, tranquility and flow.”  There!  Now I’m on board! “Flow” I understand.  In flow, he is using his top strengths and talents, but he is also being challenged.  He can be at one with his game when he is in flow, unaware and uninterested in the world about him.

Brooks, who is no slouch and obviously has been in flow many times himself, confesses that his own focus as a writer is far from perfect.

He describes his restlessness and inability to stay focused, in contrast to that of Woods’ intense focus, saying “As I’ve been trying to write this column, I’ve toggled over to check my e-mail a few times.  I’ve looked out the window. I’ve jotted down random thoughts for the paragraphs ahead.”

Brooks also suggests that his readiness to yield to distractions are fairly normal.  For sure–I prefer to check email rather than steel myself to surrendering to the writing, but I wonder what would it be like, if, like Woods seemingly has, I could silence those gremlins in my head for good and never be distracted by them.

What would it be like to step into a writing challenge and yet be perfectly calm?  To breath regularly and to hear nothing–no negative chatter rising to the deafening level of a rock-concert?   I’ve had those moments of calm focus.  I’ve been in flow when at I’m at one with my writing, and I want more of that.

What would it take to have more of the steeliness that Woods has?

What do you think?  Does Woods give us a model for mental toughness, the kind of mental toughness it takes to finish a dissertation?

I’d love to hear from you.

Here’s to flow and mental toughness,

Nancy
Your Dissertation and Academic Career Coach

www.nancywhichard.com

Read Full Post »

Morning Has Broken—Are You Writing?

Posted in academic, anxiety, coaching, determination, discipline, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, family, getting started, music, writing, You Tube, tagged , , on July 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Get up early, no matter how much you think you think you need sleep, and write.

Writing a dissertation takes single-mindedness.  It takes mental focus.  It works best when you feel calm, when anxiety is low, stress is low, and you feel little or no ambivalence.

And how often do you feel this way?

Do you waste time feeling how unfair it is that you have to work so hard just to find a quiet moment when you won’t be disturbed?  That you have to lose sleep just to write?  Do you feel that others have it better and easier than you do?

Most of us have lives that seem to be careening along, as wild as a California fire or a Virginia summer storm.

Just when we think we see a week-end approaching when at last time will be ours, the time slips away.

The space where we thought we would write completely disappears, as if swept away by a summer downpour.

And at the end of that day when time once again eluded us, this is what I know. When once again we have not met our goal and when once again we feel beaten down and knocked about, we certainly do not feel that we’re participating in a metaphor. We are not part of a fast-moving stream.  We are slouching in a chair and self-medicating by eating, drinking, or watching TV.

We know we should go on to bed, but there we are– wondering where the time went.

Go to bed!  The only way to get writing done is to get ahead of the storm. Get to bed and then get up early, no matter how much you think you think you need sleep.  Write.  Write early in the morning.

Write before you hear other people in your building starting to rise.  Write before your own kids are awake.  Write before you hear car doors slamming or cars moving. Write before your mind starts to feel befuddled by the demands of whatever else is in your life.

Write when you are calm and when it is quiet.

And then hum to yourself this lovely old hymn that Cat Stevens made popular.

Read Full Post »

To Get Started Writing and To Keep Writing, Hang out with Hard-Working Writers

Posted in acting as if, brave, coaching, courage, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, getting started, motivation, re-start, restart writing, writing, tagged , , , , , on July 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Writing can be like rowing a kayak.

This past week-end my husband and I visited long-time friends at their lake house.  In the early evening, when it was a little cooler, they suggested it would be a good time to go out on the water.  I hadn’t really noticed that the only boats available were individual kayaks, and when I realized that I would be alone in a kayak in the middle of the lake, I became more than a little anxious.  My friends equipped me (though not my husband) with a life jacket and pushed me out into the water. I was scared, and I had to talk myself into the moment.  As I think back over it, I could have upended the kayak two inches from shore.  But I didn’t.  However, I was spared by a storm.  We had to get out of the kayaks and make for the house.

The next morning, soon after breakfast, we were back in the kayaks, rowing into the little fingers of the lake, gazing at houses along the shore, hearing my friend’s stories about this neighbor and that neighbor.  We were the only people on the lake, and I was fine.  Well, sort of fine.  I had to beat back my many incredulous head voices who routinely doubt my ability to do much of anything, but I managed to turn down the volume of the head voices, settle myself, and keep rowing. 

One point of my story is that having had 5 minutes in the kayak the night before prepared me for the morning’s rowing.  Those few minutes gave me a good overview of the situation.   I knew how to get into the kayak, and I had evidence to support my belief that I probably wouldn’t tip over.
 
A second and even more important point is that there was no choice.  My friend, the self-confident extrovert to my scaredy-cat introvert, had it all planned.  And it was her routine.  We just settled into it.

And now we’re down to why I think this event might be of interest to you. 

Here it is—if you can’t set up your own routine for writing, hang out with friends who will push you to get going or make it easy to jump in.  Get a friend or a writing buddy or a coach, who will put you into your writing kayak and push you out into the lake.  You don’t have to row around the lake the first time out—just get everything into place and make a few attempts.  Row a bit and tell yourself how well you’re doing.  The next time out, it will be easier. 

Writing and returning to your writing gets easier with each outing.  Don’t expect much from yourself the first time or two or three, but do it first thing in the morning before the heat or other demands slow you down or take over your life.   And continue to put it first.  Writing is hard work, and you need to go at it when you’re at your best.

So much comes back to writing for me.  Many things take courage as well as hard work, but nothing takes more courage and hard work than writing.

Courage!
Nancy
Your International Dissertation Coach

www.nancywhichard.com

 

Read Full Post »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 170 other followers

Build a website with WordPress.com