Saying "I want a PhD" is like saying you want a passport stamp for Timbuktu—it tells me where you're going, but not why you're embarking on a challenging journey in the first place. Without a strong purpose, a dissertation is just a term paper with extra suffering.

 

Your Big Why is deeper. It's personal. Maybe even a little hard to admit publicly.

 

Maybe you believe your research can make real change in the world. One of my dissertation clients hopes her work on treatment for juvenile offenders will help move the needle—a reason strong enough to keep her going after a fatal car accident. Another hopes to be a force for more cultural humility among therapists—a strong enough motive for her to dump the advisor who dismissed her as an overachiever before shifting into overdrive.

 

Maybe you want to break generational or age barriers. I'll never forget the doctoral students who told me how important it was for them to be strong academic role models for their children. Others expressed their desire to prove that they were not too old to earn that coveted title of "doctor."

 

Maybe you just want to silence the voice of that one teacher who doubted you. Or perhaps you are simply determined to demonstrate to yourself that you can achieve a hard goal that you set for yourself. I'm especially inspired by the graduate researcher immersed in creating new approaches to emergency management who decided to defy the discouraging voices in his past.

 

What's your reason? All of the above will work—and so will many others. Because your Why doesn't need to impress your committee—it needs to carry you when nothing else will.

 

When you have a why, you will find a way. You will develop resilience to prevail after mishaps. You'll have the courage advocate for yourself. All because you care deeply about finishing. To paraphrase Nietzsche, "Those who have a why to finish their dissertation can bear almost any how."

 

So, What Is Your Big Why?

 

Write it down. Stick it on your wall. Whisper it to your coffee. Because when the work gets messy (and it will get messy), your Big Why will be the thing that gets you back in the chair, hands on keyboard, still moving forward.

 

When you choose a hard goal such as a doctoral degree, you are more likely to attain success if you base it on internal reasons or deep personal values. Doing so provides you with intrinsic motivation—the most sustainable, healthy kind of motivation, according to decades of psychological research. Some go so far as to claim that all research is actually "me-search."

 

However, if your goal is solely based on extrinsic rewards, e.g., impressing others or achieving financial success, you may very well run out of steam. If career indecision nudged you into a grad program, your dissertation can become a really long, expensive form of procrastination.

 

When you have your Big Why, your dissertation becomes your personal mission. . . something worth finishing. You may wish to explore the eight questions at the end of this article designed to help you identify your Big Why. Taking time to articulate it can make all the difference between staying an ABD or persevering until you earn that Ph.D.

 

One more thing: If you've read this far and can't find your Big Why, that's not failure—it's information. It's time to step back and ask some hard questions. Maybe your Why isn't in this dissertation at all—and that's something worth knowing. Sometimes the most honest work you can do is admitting that the story you were writing isn't yours to finish. But that doesn't mean your story is over—just that it's time to write a different chapter. One that means something to you.

 

Keep in mind, when the work gets hard, your Big Why won't do the work for you—but it will remind you why it's worth doing at all. And that's enough to keep you going.

 

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS TO UNCOVER YOUR BIG WHY

 

1. What problem am I trying to solve—and why do I care about it?
(No, not "because my advisor suggested it." )

 

2. Who would benefit if my research succeeded?
("Future researchers" is not enough.)

 

3. What frustrates, angers, or moves me about this topic?
(Strong emotions may be telling and lasting.)

 

4. When did this topic first start to matter to me?
(Tracing it back may show how deeply this matters to you.)

 

5. What's at stake if I don't finish this work?
(Think personal, academic, social, spiritual—whatever keeps you awake at night.)

 

6. How does this work align with the kind of person I want to be?
(Resonating with deep values is motivational gold.)

 

7. What do I hope people will feel, think, or do after reading my dissertation?
("Be mildly impressed" doesn't count. Shoot higher.)

 

8. If I stripped away the degree, the title, and the approval—would I still want to do this?
(Spoiler: if the answer is no, your Big Why may need a serious edit.)