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INSIDE THIS ISSUE - February 12, 2009
1. Note from the Editor (Featuring More Haikus from ABDSG Readers)
2. For Motivation, Change Your Perspective: Your Dissertation
as a Dog and You as the Dog Whisperer--A Feature Article by Nancy Whichard,
Ph.D.
3. Inspirational Quotes
February 12, 2009
A Note from the Editor
Tracy Steen, Ph.D.
I had a great time putting this issue together because it includes, among other things, several haikus contributed by our readers.
If you are among those adamantly opposed to poetry, stay with this issue anyway and you may find some unanticipated resonance and inspiration in the words of your peers.
I will concede that poetry can provide a pretty dismal read if the writer is despondent or pessimistic; but as you will soon discover for yourself, there are no dismal reads among the haikus submitted by our ABD readers. Their work reveals these writers to be a positive and highly motivated group of individuals. And before you read their poems, I would like to mention why I find their upbeat style remarkable.
To put it succinctly, I think it is remarkable that there is no bemoaning! A poem is a perfect vehicle for whimpering, lamenting, and just plain old whining and complaining--and surely every hardworking ABD can come up with just cause for complaining about something. But not one poem is of that sort. There is acknowledgment of the myriad ABD woes that all experience, yet every poem ends on a note of promise or triumph. Every single one!
It is that kind of spirit that moves an ABD ever closer to the goal. The difficulties are undeniable, but you address them as challenges to be met and overcome, and these poems reflect that determination.
Going the distance
Keeping the goal line in view
You will see me there
You're almost done now
Just hang on a while longer
The end is in sight
--Roslyn Richardson
A distant goal is
reachable if only I
believe in myself.
--Catherine J. Cerulli
Maintaining your goal over time and seeing the distance shorten between you and the goal line begets confidence, which in turn enables you to see your problems as surmountable obstacles. And as you meet and overcome each challenge, you find that you are providing your own reward:
paralyzing doubt
becomes productivity
confidence restored
--Marie E. Naumann
What was once a dream
became a goal, then a plan,
Next, reality.
Question sanity
For ever starting this task.
But I will succeed.
--Diane Neff
Mentor requires change
More research and more writing
End result stronger
--Joe Baugh
It is not surprising that so many of the poems spoke of challenge, for the dissertation process is a series of challenges, and overcoming them brings the exhilaration of victory.
The other theme most prevalent in the poems had to do with time--in particular, that long-awaited time when at last the dissertation is FINISHED:
Research, analyze,
Write, revise, edit, submit,
Magnum opus done!
--Diane Neff
Dreams of finishing
Grad school just a memory
Make this be the year
Interminable
Finishing this year is key
To my sanity
--Kym Neck
You can have the stars
My bright, grounded light is a
Dissertation done
Wherever you are in your journey toward the finish line, I hope you have found some inspiration in these shared words of others traveling with you. Who else could understand quite so well what you are going through and feeling? As I reviewed these encouraging haikus, I was reminded of a quote by Sigmund Freud: "When we share, that is poetry in the prose of life."
Turning now from poetry to one of those prosaic topics that keep us going, Dr. Nancy Whichard brings some helpful yet whimsical thoughts on motivation. I think you will enjoy her novel take on that subject in For Motivation, Change Your Perspective: Your Dissertation as a Dog and You as the Dog Whisperer. Bet you never thought of your dissertation (or yourself) quite that way before. (Never suggest that we don't offer any fresh ideas!)
For Motivation, Change Your Perspective:
Your Dissertation as a Dog and You as the Dog Whisperer
by Nancy Whichard, Ph.D.
Mental toughness as the way to finish a dissertation is all well and good, but what if you're just not feeling particularly tough?
Is "powering through" your work not realistic for you right now, given how even the phrase "power through" makes you snarl?
What would help you lean into your work?
What can you change? Is there any way to change the way you think about the work?
How can you look at your dissertation in a different way?
A friend told me about a TV show on the National Geographic channel called "The Dog Whisperer." She doesn't own a dog, but she was excited by the possibilities of having more control in her life if she assumed the attitude of the dog whisperer.
Today by chance I happened onto "The Dog Whisperer" on TV.
In the episode I saw, Cesar, who is the dog whisperer, was visiting the dressing room of an actress in the play Wicked to solve the problem of the actress's overly excitable dog. Cesar said the dog barked because of the anxiety and excitement in the room, and the solution was for both the actress and the make-up person to calm down.
Every time the dog sensed anxiety, he would race about, barking and even nipping at people. Cesar said that the dog went into a frenzy in order to control the situation, and when the actress controlled the situation by lowering the excitement and anxiety in the room, she could then control the dog.
At that point, all it took from her was an assertive "Psst" from her and a snap of the finger.
What a technique! Where can we apply this?
Do you feel that your dissertation has brought too much drama into your life? Do you want a way to better control your feelings and to avoid emotional landmines that disrupt or halt your writing?
What if you reframed or changed the way you look at
your dissertation? Here's my suggestion--think of your dissertation as a sometimes
nearly unmanageable puppy.
Like a puppy, your dissertation needs you to nurse it along and nurture it.
But on those days when the diss seems more like a swirling, yapping Yorkshire terrier, it needs you to be assertive. That's when it is time to utter a loud, hissing "Psst" at the chatter and clutter in your brain. Then snap your fingers and give your computer screen that look. I know mental toughness when I see it, and that sounds like mental toughness to me.
You may need to practice that a bit.
If you look at your diss as if it were a dog that needs attention and training, you can also recognize that it's your control that will transform your diss.
Rather than seeing your dissertation as a massive piece of granite--unyielding
and hard and impossible--see it as a puppy needing to be attended to, controlled,
and also liked.
Name it--maybe you could call it Owen, which is the name of the yapping dog
I saw in "The Dog Whisperer."
And it's fun to say "Pssst" and point like the dog whisperer does.
A wise person said to me that the way forward toward her goal is for her is to recognize what she can change. She says that recognizing that she can change how she thinks about her dissertation helps her.
Think about where you have control. What can you change? A shift in your way of thinking about your diss and in your way of seeing it can kickstart your desire to work.
Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC, is a dissertation and career coach. She has
successfully coached to completion doctoral candidates from 40 major American
universities and from many Western European and Canadian universities, as
well. She holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Maryland and for
two decades was on the English and Literature faculties at George Washington
University and American University. A recovering academic, Nancy knows the
importance of politics and diplomacy in negotiating the dissertation experience.
Nancy has added a Virtual Dissertation Boot Camp to her offerings. For more
information on the Virtual Dissertation Boot Camp and on coaching, email Nancy
at nancy@nancywhichard.com. Sign
up for her Smart Tips for Writers e-newsletter at www.nancywhichard.com
and read her blog at www.successfulwritingtips.com.
Inspirational Quotes
Paul J. Meyer
Enter every activity without giving mental recognition to the possibility
of defeat. Concentrate on your strengths instead of your weaknesses, on your
powers instead of your problems.
Vincent Lombardi
Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.
Alan Lakein
Time = life; therefore, waste your time and waste your life, or master your
time and master your life.
William Jennings Bryan
Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice.
Benjamin Franklin
Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the
sunlight.