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Happy New Year! Celebrating 2nd Chances, Structure, and Accountability

Posted in accountability, brave, coaching, commitment, courage, determination, discipline, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, finishing the dissertation, following through, foxes, goals, grit, motivation, New Year's Resolution, perseverance, planning, reflection, resilience, showing up, time, time management, top strengths, using your strengths, writing schedule, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 1, 2014| Leave a Comment »

New Year’s Day is one of the few holidays that much of the world celebrates. Today, on New Year’s Day, we celebrate the possibility of starting afresh and of having second chances, but more even than that, we honor structure and accountability.

New Year’s Day not only structures our lives into one year after another, but it also divides each  year into twelve months and beyond, easing the work of record-keeping and accountability into manageable chunks. Around the world, most government offices and banks are closed today on our jointly celebrated New Year’s Day. It may be the only day when all of the world’s financial markets are closed.

To emphasize that today is the day to step back for a broader perspective on key aspects of our lives, we use business metaphors to show our belief that because of today, change will be easier to accomplish. We say that we can now close the books on some task or challenge, or, if need be, we may even give ourselves permission to wipe the slate clean and start anew.

Now if you were, say, a fox, one day would be like all the others, but since you’re not a fox, you are probably finding a moment or two today to reflect on how your year has gone. You may also be giving some thought to what you can do differently for a better outcome. And since you are knowingly or unknowingly celebrating the ritual of planning, as well as that of record keeping, perhaps you are considering what will be your first step in making 2014 a better year than 2013.

It’s hard to miss that wonderful spirit of hope that’s in the air today. We watched the fireworks in Dubai and in Sydney and in London and in New York.  In spite of everything this year, hope is still possible. In our individual lives, we get another chance to do and be better in big and small ways. 

English: New Year fireworks at the London Eye

The fireworks can’t be just smoke and noise, but rather a celebration of the individual strengths that we each call upon to help us be accountable in moving day by day toward accomplishing what we hold important.

Today is the chance for a fresh start, the opportunity to do better, to show up and work.

After you put writing high on your list of priorities for this New Year, then what comes next?  What’s the plan?

Make 2014 your year.

Happy New Year!

Nancy

Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC

Your International Dissertation Coach and Academic Career Coach

http://www.nancywhichard.com

nancy @ nancywhichard.com

 

 

 

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Be inspired to write

Posted in brave, courage, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, mental toughness, motivation, tagged , , , , , , , , on April 25, 2011| 1 Comment »

What inspires you to action?  What inspires you to believe? 

Are you inspired by random quotations? Does the unfamiliar or even familiar quotation give you the evidence you need to trust a writer?  

Or does it cause you to wonder?

Successful writers know that a quotation doesn’t speak for itself. If you’re using a quote in your text, you have to explain its relevance to your material and identify the credibility and authority of the quotation’s author. 

But if you want a quotation for your website or for a blog, is it brave or foolhardy to pluck a quotation from an online list of quotations without knowing when or why the author first wrote or said those words?  What do you think?

Sometimes I read a quotation on a website and pause. I wonder how the writer of the website came across that quotation. Did she actually read the full article or speech or book?  Has the quotation been taken out of context? Did she check the source?

I’m always a little suspicious about believing the rest of the text on the website because I have doubts about the use of the quotation.

Even though I am wary about the use of quotations, I am often inspired by a turn of phrase or a fresh word choice.

Today I read an oath which resonated with effort and determination. It had none of the affected quality that I sometimes see in the borrowed words on the occasional website and elsewhere.

I was checking the Special Olympics website for the dates of the Summer Games in Greece. I know someone who will be going to those games.

Just in case you’re interested, the dates are June 25 to July 4, 2011. Beneath the dates on the website is the Special Olympics Athlete Oath:

Let me Win!

But if I Cannot win,

Let me be brave in the attempt!

 If you’re struggling today with your dissertation, stop and take in the context for these words.  Take to heart the line from the oath “Let me be brave in the attempt.”

Just as the Special Olympics athlete is brave in the attempt to win, I urge you to rise bravely to the best that is within you and be inspired to write.

What has inspired you lately?  I would love to hear from you.

Nancy

Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC
Your International Dissertation Coach and Academic Career Coach
http://www.nancywhichard.com
http://www.smarttipsforwriters.com
nancy @ nancywhichard.com

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Commit to paper

Posted in academic, brave, commitment, courage, dissertation boot camp, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, procrastination, Smart Tips, start writing, trusting yourself, writing, tagged , , , on February 14, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Valentine's - lots of hearts

Image by Vicki's Nature via Flickr

“Commit to paper” is a common, but powerful  phrase.

You don’t need to have already had the aha moment in order to write. 

There’s no holding back when you allow yourself to see that you have enough to start.

Surrender and go with what you have.

On Valentine’s Day, it’s time to commit . . . .  Commit to paper.

All good wishes,

Nancy

Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC
Your International Dissertation Coach and Academic Career Coach
http://www.dissertationbootcamp.net
www.smarttipsforwriters.com
nancy @ nancywhichard.com

 P.S. Would you like to receive my e-newsletter Smart Tips for Writers?  You can sign up on my website (www.nancywhichard.com).

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Typing with two fingers takes true grit

Posted in academic, acting as if, beliefs, brave, courage, determination, discipline, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, imposter syndrome, Lizard Brain, mental toughness, perseverance, resilience, self-discipline, self-sabotage, using your strengths, writing, writing, dissertation, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on February 1, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Writing is not for the weak of heart.  Writing is often a dangerous act, requiring all of the mental toughness and grit you can muster.

And no one knows that more than my clients—those writing dissertations and those who are now pushing on with writing their books or writing grant applications or articles.

Some of my clients feel like imposters who think they somehow got to where they are by luck.

Others are exhausted by the effort and by the stress of so much riding on this one piece of writing that they’ve become apathetic.  To protect them from the pain of feeling incompetent their Lizard Brain lets them think: “I’ve stopped caring.”

One client has who has been published in well-received journals and who has presented internationally now is writing an application for an important grant.  She’s leery of her ability both to market herself and at the same time offer the supporting evidence that would clinch the application for her.

This is the client whose wisdom has served her well. But now she needs to be five times bolder than she’s been in writing her dissertation or in sending articles to journals.

She felt unequal to the task until she recalled that she had been interviewed after making a presentation outside of the U.S.  She remembers the exuberance she felt as she was explaining her position and her research to the interviewer.  Fortunately, she has a transcript of the interview, and reading it gives her the push and mental energy she needs to move into this new task.

Similarly, a client who feels she hasn’t performed well on her dissertation has been surprised to hear that she’s been nominated for an award by her committee.  Initially, she felt like hiding, sure that her work would  reveal herself to be less capable than what they would expect. She thought of what they might say to her when they learned that she isn’t as far along with her work as she thinks she should be.   But she also knows that she has been catastrophizing.  Talking about the lack of evidence she has for any of these destructive beliefs gives her the will to pull on her inner resources of mental toughness and grit, and the will to plan strategies that will help her to get back on track and to stop with the self-sabotaging.

When talented, skilled, successful people are again and again pushed to produce, they can start to question themselves, question whether they got to where they are only by luck, whether they have what it takes to keep going.  It takes boldness and courage to keep trudging, but it also takes a willingness to be vulnerable and to trust those around them, to show work to others when the work is not the best, and to ask for help.

As one brilliant woman told me, “I have to do that thing where I feel like I’m typing with two fingers.”  Instead of turning on herself when she feels fear or uncertainty, she has to manage her feelings and keep plunking away, boldly and bravely.

Writing is scary, but there are ways to move quickly past those fears, and then to keep going.

How are you doing?

All good wishes,

Nancy

Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC
Your International Dissertation Coach and Academic Career Coach
http://www.dissertationbootcamp.net
http://www.usingyourstrengths.com
http://www.smarttipsforwriters.com

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Winter Olympians’ Smart Strategies Can Help You Finish Your Dissertation

Posted in accountability, brave, commitment, courage, deadline, determination, discipline, dissertation writing, fears, finishing the dissertation, focus, habit, mental toughness, perseverance, planning, productivity, resilience, self-sabotage, Smart Tips, staying in the moment, top strengths, writing habit, writing schedule, tagged , , , , , on February 21, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Is a non-negotiable deadline closing in on you?  Has it been set by your university?  Or is a job – perhaps a postdoc– resting on your finishing your dissertation soon?

As you struggle to meet the deadline, it can feel as if you are barreling downhill on an icy, bumpy slope.  And you fear that at any second you could be thrown violently off course.

It’s easy to fall victim to fears of not meeting a deadline and fears of success and the future.  To meet the deadline and finish, you have to be almost counter intuitive.  You have to keep skiing or skating into the jaws of danger, no swerving, no hanging back, no delaying.

The desire, courage, tenacity, mental toughness, and resilience of the athletes of the Winter Olympics are studies in relief of what a writer needs in order to finish a dissertation sooner rather than later.

Even the boldest of Olympians speak of their fears about performing and competing.  From Russia’s skating superstar Evgeni Plushenko to the U.S. Men’s Half-Piper Gold Medal Winner Shaun White, they speak of the need to get into their routines before being sabotaged by their nerves and fears.  

For you to finish your writing in a timely way, rather than fall along the wayside, means that you must move quickly into a writing routine. You also need to have in place a careful, specific timeline and a detailed writing plan that you follow religiously.
 
Evan Lysacek, the winner of the gold for the Men’s Figure Skating, planned each minute of his performance for maximum points. 

Similarly, to finish your dissertation, you must be as strategic, practical, and savvy as Lysacek.  Know the requirements and expectations of those who will review your work.  Factor those requirements and expectations into your goals and timeline.

Your work is every bit as important to you as winning is to an Olympian athlete. Be smart.

Smart Strategies:
1.  Plan a timeline and writing schedule.
2.  Move quickly into a daily writing routine.
3.  Break out the outline and follow it.
4.  Stay in the moment and focus. 
5.  Use your character strengths. Put your desire, courage, tenacity, mental toughness, and resilience into action.

The dissertation is yours to finish– plan, stay in the moment, and practice resilience.

All good wishes,

Nancy

P.S.  My February newsletter is being emailed.  Last Call to sign up—go to www.smarttipsforwriters.com

Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC
Your International Dissertation Coach and Academic Career Coach

www.nancywhichard.com
www.dissertationbootcamp.net
www.usingyourstrengths.com
www.smarttipsforwriters.com

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Boldness and Hope Will Rescue Your Dissertation

Posted in academic, brave, coaching, courage, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, fears, finishing the dissertation, hope, mental toughness, perseverance, reflection, resilience, resources, support, take charge, top strengths, urgency, using your strengths, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Writing a dissertation is full of black holes that can swallow you up.

Boldness allows you to embrace hope and can make the impossible seem possible.

In the short story “Incoming Tide,” Pulitzer Prize winning writer Elizabeth Strout captures the essence of what might result from the interplay of boldness, hope, and perseverance.

“Incoming Tide,” from Strout’s collection entitled Olive Kitteridge, is told from the point of view of a young doctor, who has never recovered emotionally from a tragedy in his family.  He has returned to the town where he lived as a child. 

It’s clear that he plans to end his life.

But first he encounters a former teacher whose company and meandering conversation delays his plan and then at her urging, he’s called to do something bold.

The bold rescue of someone else also rescues him:  “he thought he would like the moment to be forever…Look how she wanted to live, look how she wanted to hold on.”

Consider the power of boldness.

You might need someone who believes in you and knows what you can do in order for you to do something bold.  You might have to be pushed.

You might even be avoiding doing something bold because you know that it could very likely lead to your feeling hopeful.  Once you let in some hope, then who knows what you might have to do! 

And what promises do you have that even with hope, you’ll reach your goal?

But it’s worth the gamble.  Once you have hope, perseverance becomes much easier.

Have you read “Incoming Tide”?

What have you read or what has occurred that inspires you to be bold?
I’d love to hear from you.

New Year’s Greetings,

Nancy

Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC
Your International Dissertation Coach and Academic Career Coach

www.nancywhichard.com
www.dissertationbootcamp.net
www.usingyourstrengths.com

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Writing the Dissertation: Learning how to do something you didn’t know how to do, Part 2

Posted in academic, acting as if, brave, courage, creativity, discourse, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, higher education, practice writing, resilience, teaching writing, top strengths, trusting yourself, underprepared students, using your strengths, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 27, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Dissertation writers are largely self-taught academic writers, and the learning process can be a bold and daring adventure.

Over the years many of my dissertation coaching clients talk about the challenges in writing academic discourse.  Academic writing is its own special discourse, with its own particular conventions. My dissertation coaching clients largely learn this discourse by doing.

What they are asked to do and the way they feel their way along, trying to put into practice what they think they’re being asked to do, is not unlike underprepared students in their first year or years of college.

Professors and instructors in composition and rhetoric fields are familiar with David Bartholomae’s article “Inventing the University.” Bartholomae defines how beginning college writers must act as if they know what they’re doing, even if they don’t.

The article opens in this way: “Every time a student sits down to write for us, he has to invent the university for the occasion–  .  .  . or a branch of it, like History or Anthropology or Economics or English. He has to learn to speak our language, to speak as we do, to try on the peculiar ways of knowing, selecting, evaluating, reporting, concluding, and arguing that define the discourse of our community.” 

Bartholomae says that students can’t wait to write academic discourse until after they have learned more or can write comfortably: “they must dare to speak it, or to carry off the bluff, since speaking and writing will most certainly be required long before the skill is ‘learned.’”

Likewise, my dissertation coaching clients have to boldly write and rewrite. Dare to write.

Dare to carry off the bluff.

Warm regards,

Nancy

Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC
Your International Dissertation Coach and Academic Career Coach

www.nancywhichard.com
www.dissertationbootcamp.net
www.usingyourstrengths.com

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Re-group and Take a Big Step Forward on Your Dissertation: Re-establish Contact with Your Dissertation Advisor

Posted in academic, advisor, brave, coaching, courage, discipline, dissertation advisors, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, finishing the dissertation, following through, getting started, re-group, re-start, regrouping, resilience, restart writing, restarting, self-sabotage, Smart Tips, start writing, writing, writing, dissertation, tagged , , , , on September 2, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Have you ignored your dissertation and your dissertation advisor for some time?  Entertaining the idea of restarting the project and of contacting your advisor may cause more than a few fears to surface. 

Are you afraid what the lapse in time may say about you?  The truth is that it doesn’t say much of anything, except that writing a dissertation takes a long time, is very hard, and even the smartest and bravest people on occasion sabotage themselves and get in their own way.

Are you fearful that there will be a penalty for coming back and re-starting? You won’t know until you ask.

It is true that occasionally an advisor will be hands-off, saying that the graduate student should write a full draft before requesting another meeting. Such an attitude leaves me speechless, spitting, but speechless.

It is difficult to direct and supervise a dissertation, but directing, supervising, and advising are the responsibilities of an advisor. Most advisors take their responsibilities seriously, but you have to initiate contact and you have to ask for help.

Take these steps to re-group and re-start your dissertation:   
 
• Contact your advisor and say that you are alive and ready to work.  Avoid all opportunities to second-guess yourself.  Do not put off contacting your advisor until you have produced more text.

• Arrange weekly phone calls between the two of you. Even if you don’t have anything to show your advisor today, once you have made contact, you will start writing. 

• Plan for occasional visits to campus.  Raise the bar on yourself by having specific dates for when you will have new or revised text and for when you will appear in the flesh.

• Requesting an extension and receiving an extension are not unusual. If you think you will need to ask your graduate school for an extension of the deadline for submitting a final document, look into that now.

If you have had limited contact with your advisor and if you feel that no one at your university knows where you are or what you are doing, get in touch with your advisor as soon as possible and keep in touch. 

Take a big step forward on your dissertation and also on maintaining  your self-respect. 
 
What tips do you have for re-establishing contact with your dissertation advisor?  I’d love to hear from you. 

Until next time,

Nancy

P.S.  Go to my website at  to sign up for my online Smart Tips for Writers.  The September issue will go out soon.

Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC
Your International Dissertation Coach and Academic Career Coach

www.nancywhichard.com
www.usingyourstrengths.com
www.dissertationbootcamp.net

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Mental Toughness, Discipline, and Planning—Essentials for Taking on a Beastly Dissertation

Posted in academic, anxiety, brave, courage, discipline, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, getting started, mental toughness, planning, procrastination, re-group, re-start, self-deception, self-sabotage, writing, tagged , , , , , on August 17, 2009| 2 Comments »

The people I coach are terrific, bright, accomplished. Each is writing a book, a dissertation, or a thesis. Many are published writers. Many have won awards for their college-level teaching. 

Their intellect and accomplishments amaze me. 

But . . . (yes, there’s a “but” here) . . .  they are struggling with their dissertation.  With dismay, they say that they are procrastinating.  They are sabotaging themselves. And often, they aren’t fully aware at the time that they’re setting themselves up for failure.

One client, whose story echoes many others that I hear, told me that she can tick off accomplishments that she is proud of, but she resists and procrastinates on working on her dissertation.  Each day she means to write, but she spends the day thinking about how she should be writing, even as she does less important work, spending time on whatever crosses her desk or her mind. 

She wonders if she’s addicted to avoiding the writing.  She wants to do the right thing, and that would be to write, but she indulges in procrastination, feeling almost as if the dissertation repulses her. 

Repelled by your dissertation?
 Even approaching the dissertation can start to seem impossible.  I’ve had the diss described to me in various ways, but all of the metaphors used to describe it seem to be along the lines of a lumbering, disgusting beast that sits in the corner, watching TV and smoking, and it grimaces and growls whenever anyone approaches.

Do you catastrophize?
 Do you see yourself as totally inept, not good enough, someone who doesn’t know enough and who will never be able to pull out of this hole?  Do you see your dissertation as something so beastly that you avoid it at all costs? Catastrophizing can make you so anxious that it is nearly impossible to push past those feelings and approach that seeming beast of a project.

Time to re-engage with your work ethic.
 You’ve had a strong work ethic in the past or you wouldn’t have arrived at this place in your academic career.  That work ethic was one you honed over the years, starting from the first time you faced up to a task that seemed bigger than you.  That was when you discovered what it would take to be mentally tough. 

What would it take to be mentally tough … again?
 To be tough, mentally tough, takes more than a one-time flare of courage.  It takes discipline—doing something hard again and yet again. It also takes a plan. A plan will remove the uncertainty of when you are going to work. 

Use your past successes as a touchstone.
 The client who says she is proud of past accomplishments needs to pull up those accomplishments and keep them visibly in front of her.  They can be a touchstone.  In fact, she said that at one point in her life she had totally landscaped a rocky, hilly lot and turned it into a lovely yard and garden.  She told me how she had removed rocks and hauled dirt in a wheelbarrow, and pushed and pulled, and conquered that beast of a lot.  As I listened, I saw in my mind’s eye how that lot must have looked originally and how, step by step, with no allowances for an aching back and no going back, she transformed the land. 

My client surely had taken pictures of the way that rocky, hilly lot looked originally and during the process as she transformed it.  I challenged her to tape pictures to her  computer of that lot at various stages of change.  If she had hauled rocks, she could surely write a paragraph or a page. 

Looking at those pictures and thinking what she was like during that time would halt the catastrophizing and ward off anxiety.  She would remember the hard work that produced such amazing  results. 

Then, because she was putting in place a plan that would help her stay mentally tough and disciplined, she would  have the pictures in view to help her start her next writing session.

Mental toughness will change the way you approach your dissertation.
 Just as is true with my client, your past successes aren’t flukes—you earned each and every one through hard work.  Some may have come more easily than others, but each success built on the past.

To move forward on your dissertation, you need to pull on what you know that you are capable of doing because you’ve done it before.  This will take mental toughness, but with courage, discipline, and planning, you will change your mental landscape. 

And you will be writing!

 All the best,

Nancy

P.S.  A great step toward being mentally tough is to put your dissertation as your priority. Need any help in figuring out how to do that?  I’d love to hear from you.

Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC
Your International Dissertation Coach and Academic Career Coach

www.nancywhichard.com

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For Successful Dissertation Writing, Spring Break or a Reasonable Facsimile Gives You the Distance You Need

Posted in academic, brave, coaching, courage, dissertation boot camp, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, distractions, foxes, perseverance, productivity, restart writing, self-care, teaching writing on March 19, 2009| 2 Comments »

Are you one of the many overworked, stressed people trying to write a dissertation at the same time that you’re holding down a demanding job?  Is each day more complicated than the day before?

If you’ve been teaching as well as trying to find time to write, this week may be what you’ve been waiting for. Is it Spring Break for you?

For a while, you won’t have the burden of preparing to teach / dealing with students / dealing with the critical self-questioning after teaching a class / dealing with colleagues.

During at least some of Spring Break, you can push aside almost everything else to focus on your writing and still have time to exercise, smile inwardly, and, if you’re in a place where you have a change of seasons, watch for a squirrel or a tulip.

A Snow Day can produce a similar change in mood and perspective for a writer.  Just two weeks ago here in the Washington DC metropolitan area, the month of March came in with a Snow Day, and it was heavenly.  I’ve seldom heard anyone speak ill of a snow day.  Given how hard everyone works, a snow day can be a miniature Spring Break, especially for all of us who no longer have Spring Breaks.

Occasionally over the last few years on the cul-de-sac where I live, I’ve seen a fox or two wander about.  On the Snow Day, there it was!  The fox meandered about the street, sidewalk, and yards, acting as if the world was as it should be, quiet, undisturbed, no cars carrying children to the grade school at the end of the street, nothing moving.

A Snow Day helps you move away from the ordinary. The usual doesn’t hold; you aren’t immediately drawn to email or your cell phone.  Writing seems easier to do.

Snow Days are short-lived and, like Spring Breaks, even nonexistent for many people. You may have to do something else in order to focus on your important job of writing. To focus and write may require an extraordinary move.

Taking leave from her job, one of my clients flew across the country to be near her advisor, courageously and brilliantly giving herself time and space to work on her dissertation.

It’s coming toward the end of the time she had planned to stay.  She says that staying an additional two weeks would be very helpful.  If she returns home, she risks being consumed by her regular job and the commute.  Regardless of what she decides, her initial choice to make a bold change in her life, even if for only a while, has made all the difference.  She broke out of a huge stall and is now writing.  She’s producing text.

To give you the chance to write, distance may be what you need—distance and difference.  Snow cover gives difference; miles give distance; Spring Break can do both.

How are you creating difference and distance for yourself?  How could that work for you and help you move forward with your dissertation?   I’d love to hear from you.

Be courageous and put distance between you and the distractions.  Don’t go back to the ordinary and usual until you have to.

Successful writing!

Nancy

P.S. Boot Camp for writers is a great way to create a writing habit.  Would a strong writing habit be a change for the better for you?

Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC
Your International Dissertation and Academic Career Coach

www.nancywhichard.com
www.dissertationbootcamp.net

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