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THE ALL-BUT-DISSERTATION SURVIVAL GUIDE™ The All-But-Dissertation Survival Guide™ focuses on ways to help its readers more readily overcome the roadblocks that often seem to stand in the way of completing the dissertation. It is read throughout the world. Want to become a coach?New MentorCoach Training Programs launching. Subscribe to our other no-cost ezines: Visit Ben Dean's Live Coaching Workshops in Dallas, Austin, St Louis & Detroit. INTERESTED IN WORKING WITH A DISSERTATION
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE - October 23, 2008
1. A Note from the Editor with old and new strategies
for increasing your resilience. (Dust yourself off? Well, maybe…. Be sure
to read this "old" yet current strategy!)
2. Inspirational Quotes
October 23, 2008
A Note from the Editor
Tracy Steen, Ph.D.
DANCING WITH THE STARS
How You Can Boost Your Resilience
Ginger
Rogers and Fred Astaire will dance forever, thanks to cable TV and the classic
movie channels. I don't currently have cable, but at some point in my life
I must have caught a few frames of Swing Time, Jerome Kern's 1936 musical,
for I can clearly recall the lovely Ginger--dancing, singing, and regaling
a woebegone (temporarily) Fred Astaire with this tunefully sage advice:
"Pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and start all over again!"
Now you know where I'm going with this, right? The single moment in Swing Time relevant to you and every other ABD is contained in that lyric. What Ginger was promoting in song can be summed up in one word: Resilience. Astaire must have needed it, and don't we all? Especially if we're working on a dissertation!
What is resilience?
Resilience can be defined as the ability to persevere when things get tough.
You will be pleased to know that you already have the trait, although it may
not feel like it if things are particularly tough at the moment. Psychologists
Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatte have done intensive research on resilience
and found that it is "a continuum, and no matter where you fall on that
continuum today, you can increase your ability to rise to tomorrow's challenges
with doggedness and spirit."
Why do I feel the way I do?
Reivich and Shatte present their research in The Resilience Factor: 7 Keys to Finding Your Inner Strength and Overcoming Life's Hurdles. Their many techniques for boosting resilience are based on the understanding that our feelings and behaviors are triggered by how we perceive and interpret events, rather than by the events themselves. In other words, it's not so much what actually happens to us, but how we respond.
Dissertation blues are common, but as unique individuals we are varied in our responses to similar situations. Reivich and Shatte present an ABC model that demonstrates how each of us is influenced by his or her own beliefs and interpretations.
The ABC of How We Operate
In this model, A represents Adversity--an upsetting event, something that "pushes your buttons." B represents Belief--what you think about the specific event (the adversity). C represents Consequences--what you feel and what you do as a direct result of the adversity. Note that in the ABC model, C is driven by B.
Because we experience a negative emotion when something bad happens (or a positive emotion when something good happens), it might seem that the working model should be A-C. However, according to the authors, "it is not the events that happen to us that cause our feelings and behaviors--it is our thoughts …about the events that drive how we feel and what we do. The world does not operate A-C, but A-B-C….Very simply, in most situations, our beliefs cause our feelings and behaviors."
Just recognizing this ABC pattern to our thoughts and behaviors can be helpful, and Reivich and Shatte have more than 300 pages of additional cognitive insights and tested techniques for boosting resilience. It's a fascinating book, but if you are too busy at the moment (writing and rewriting, perhaps?) for extra reading, just keep in mind the researchers' assurance that we all possess a share of resilience (yes, you are on the continuum!) and resolve to employ that trait to the fullest. It will strengthen with practice.
Protect your Perspective--Keep it Real!
Recalling that it's not so much an event itself but how we perceive it that determines our response, avoid an inclination to see a problem as an insurmountable crisis. When things get tough, try looking beyond the present--a little perspective often reveals that a problem is smaller than you first thought. And even when a problem is not so small, you will feel much better if you look to the future with concrete plans for managing it.
The dissertation process is so grand in scope that it's easy to start feeling overwhelmed when setbacks occur, but just take them one by one. And always view each problem as an isolated event, not as another piece of cumulative evidence (very misleading evidence) that you aren't up to the task. On the contrary, you are simply treading the same lonesome track that so many others have before you. Those with the Ph.D. are the ones who didn't give up. You won't either.
It's true that some ABDs have a more (or less) demanding experience than others. So much depends on your school, your program, your advisor or committee, and myriad personal circumstances. Whatever your challenges happen to be, always keep moving toward your goal.
Disappointment = Challenge = Opportunity to Prove Yourself
As disappointments arise (and they will), think of them as problems to be solved. When one solution doesn't work, try another. As you solve problems, you gain confidence in yourself and added resilience for the next set of problems--which will surely come your way because, after all, that's life!
Ginger couldn't have known about cognitive psychology since it didn't develop as a school of thought within psychology until the late 1950s. However, she (or the lyricist) certainly had the right take on resilience, so I think I'll give her a re-quote and the final word:
"Pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and start all over again."
It loses a little something without the tap dancing, but you get the idea. And like every other bit of ABD advice, it's easier said than done, but you have already demonstrated that you can do it.
For additional thoughts on resilience, be sure to check out this issue's Inspirational Quotes. And if you have a favorite inspirational source that you would like to share with our readers, please send it along with your permission to print with your name. We always enjoy hearing from you.
Inspirational Quotes
Thomas A. Edison
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is
always to try just one more time.
B. C. Forbes
History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered
heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused
to become discouraged by their defeats.
Unknown Author
Don't get discouraged; it's usually the last key in the bunch that opens the
lock.
Plutarch
The measure of a man is the way he bears up under misfortune.
Zig Ziglar
Others can stop you temporarily -- you are the only one who can do it permanently.