​By Gayle Scroggs, PhD, PCC

 

"Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior." ~ James Clear

 

Do you blame yourself for your lack of progress?

 

Do you wish you had more motivation or willpower?

 

Do you fault your “impostor syndrome”?

 

If so, you might benefit from learning to improve your situation instead of trying to change your personality traits.

 

That is the message that jumped out at me from the new book Situated by renowned U Penn psychologist Angela Duckworth, Ph.D.​

Duckworth’s prior work on the concept of grit became a popular explanation for why some people succeed and others don’t. She found that a combination of passion and perseverance, or “grit,” was key in attaining long-term goals. In other words, character matters.

 

She has now widened her lens.

 

"What I’ve learned is that situations wield enormous influence—and yet, strangely, we’re largely oblivious to their power." ~ Angela Duckworth 

 

She now sees grit as “necessary but not sufficient.” You also need a situation that challenges and supports you. As a social psychologist, I find this expanded perspective more satisfying because context matters as much or more than personality.

 

That shift also matters for ABDs. When dissertation work stalls, too many students make the problem personal: “I’m not motivated enough.” “I need more willpower.” “I must have impostor syndrome.” “Maybe I’m just not cut out for this.”

 

Yet doctoral work takes place in a situation. This includes where you work, who surrounds and guides you, and the culture in which you are becoming a scholar. Some of these factors are within your control.

 

Exercising the control you do have is known as “situational agency,” in Duckworth’s terms. This phrase is unusually useful because it focuses on what is practical, immediate, and solution-focused. You may not be able to change your personality by Tuesday, but you might just be able to change aspects of your situation.

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How Would You Fill the Three Boxes?

 

You can start assessing your situation using the memorable Three Boxes model Duckworth borrowed from Stanford psychologist James Gross:

 

Box One: Situation → Box Two: Thoughts → Box Three: Response

 

In real time, the boxes run from left to right. When something is going wrong, it can be useful to work backward.

 

Examine Box Three: Response. What are you actually doing? Perhaps you are avoiding the dissertation, checking your phone every few minutes, endlessly revising the same paragraph, or ruminating instead of writing.

 

Notice Box Two: Thoughts. What is going through your mind when you respond that way? I don’t know what I’m doing. This chapter is terrible. I’m never going to finish.

 

Trace Back to Box One: Situation. What was happening when those thoughts appeared? Was the task vague? Had you just received confusing feedback? Were you tired, distracted, isolated, or comparing yourself with someone else?

 

This backward look turns self-sabotage and self-criticism into an invitation to investigate. Instead of stopping as usual at Box Three (e.g., procrastination or rumination) or Box Two (e.g., I have no motivation or I have no willpower), go back to Box One and ask the critical question: What situations tend to set the whole sequence in motion?

 

Now you can start experimenting. Change something in Box One and watch what happens downstream. Does clarifying the task quieten the I don’t know what I’m doing thought? Does working in a different place make it easier to begin? Does talking with the right person interrupt the spiral triggered by confusing feedback?

 

You are not trying to know the answer in advance. You are treating the situation as a challenge to be solved.

 

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Where Do You Work Best?

 

Take a fresh look at the place where you usually work. One client who needed to work in his bedroom started making his bed when he realized a messy bed kept tempting him to nap. Others have been derailed by colleagues, family, email, household clutter, and of course smartphones (that tiny casino sitting three inches from your elbow).

 

What kind of desk environment would prompt you to work and keep working?  Do you need to keep your references or notes nearby? Would music or better light or a better view inspire you?  Noise-cancelling headphones may be enough to tame household sounds; if not, experiment with another setting. My clients have escaped to coffee shops, hotel lobbies, libraries, and even a convent!

 

"We block our own progress by sitting in environments that stifle us, hoping our sheer willpower will save the day. It won't. You have to move the furniture." ~  Heather Stone, Ph.D. 

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Whose Habits Rub Off on You?

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How’s your social weather? If your usual crowd revolves around binge drinking or shrugs at intellectual work, dissertation life can start to feel like an exotic pet you are forever explaining. Spend more time with people with similar aims: other ABDs, writers, researchers, artists, entrepreneurs, or anyone building something that takes months or years.

 

For a double benefit, try working where other people are quietly studying or writing. In a library, for example, focus starts to feel normal. Consider starting a writing group--no elaborate agenda is required. Sometimes it is enough to sit among others who are also doing serious work.

 

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Who Can Help You Now?

 

Successful people rely on mentors, Duckworth observes. Sometimes that means a long-term developmental relationship. Sometimes it means one person offering the right guidance at the right moment.

 

As a doctoral student, you may find that mentors can help strengthen your theoretical or results discussions, recommend where to present research, suggest how to build professional relationships, or offer tips on exploring careers inside or outside academia.

 

Where would you appreciate guidance? Look for someone who knows that terrain. Your best guide may be on your committee, in another department, in a professional association, or outside the university entirely. Sometimes one good question to the right person can save you three weeks of wandering in circles.

 

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Where Do You Fit Best?

 

Duckworth defines culture simply as “the way we do things around here.”  Your department, advisor, committee, lab, and peers all create versions of “around here.” Fit is about how well that “around here” works for you.

 

Early in doctoral study, you may have considerable choice about where you place yourself. If you can choose an advisor, choose one the way you would choose a boss: someone you trust who cares about your development.

 

Even when choices are constrained, situational agency gives you room to move toward a better fit. A committee member may become an ally. A professional association may offer like-minded colleagues. A former professor, peer, mentor, or coach may provide what the formal system cannot. If the culture is intolerable, a larger move may be warranted: a different advisor, department, program, or university.

 

The question is where you can do your best work and grow into the scholar and professional you want to become.

 

"We become like those with whom we associate. We copy their manners, their tastes, and their habits." ~ Plutarch 

 

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Learn Your Way Forward

 

Once you spot situational friction, form a hypothesis and experiment. Change one variable and see what happens. You are running a tiny field study on your own working life. Try another time of day, another place, another group, another source of guidance, another way of structuring the task. If the change helps, keep it. If it does not, find the lesson and try again.

 

Dissertation work will sometimes be genuinely hard, but when the work moves with more ease and flow, pay attention. What changed? Do more of what works.

 

Over the years, I have learned that I do not need to know exactly how I will solve the next problem. Instead, I began to rely on my own imagination and resilience to experiment and adapt. It helped enormously when I realized that the people around me, including parents, teachers, bosses, and other authority figures, were often figuring things out as they went along too. There was no secret handbook everyone else had been given. 

 

Uncertainty and learning are simply part of the process.

 

My mantra became this:  Trust your process. Think for yourself. Take a step forward, and if it turns out to be the wrong one, learn from it and adjust.

 

You do not need to know the answer before you begin. Treat your situation as something that can be changed instead of accepting it as is. Tweak the conditions. Notice whenever the work feels lighter or you feel more alive. As you incorporate more of those improvements into your days, you will learn your way forward--all the way to the finish line.

 

P.S. Feeling stuck? Coaching can help you improve your situation and learn your way forward. Click here for a free discovery session with a seasoned positive psychology coach.

 

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Recommended Resources

 

Duckworth, Angela (2026). Situated: Find the People and Places That Bring Out Your Best.

 

Moss-Coane, Marty. (Host). Angela Duckworth on the Importance of Getting Situated. The Connection, WHYY, September 4, 2026. Listen to the interview

 

Scroggs, Gayle. Take the Dissertation Friction Quiz. ABD Survival Guide Issue 324 (2026).

 

 

Image Note: I ditched the academic stock photos this month in favor of an AI-generated digital painting styled to bring a micro-moment of joy, warmth, and curiosity to your screen. Did it make you more or less likely to read the article? ~ Gayle (Ed.)