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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. You can join The Positive Psychology and Coaching Class with P. Alex Linley until October 12, 2006. Click here. Subscribe to our other ezines: INTERESTED IN WORKING WITH A DISSERTATION
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE - October 31, 2006
3. Preventing Interpersonal Shipwrecks
Betsy Landau, Ph.D.
October 31, 2006
A Note from the Editor
Tracy Steen, Ph.D.
Seasons arrive on schedule, but signs of the season are seldom on time. Although fall began with the autumnal equinox on September 23, there were few leaves of red and gold drifting by my window. Moreover, the only cool nip in the air was indoors, courtesy of my air conditioner. It didn't look or feel like fall, but the season had officially arrived.
Why am I writing about seasons? Well, I'm not so much interested in the summer-fall-winter-spring variety as I am in the seasons of our lives. Consider these familiar lines adapted by songwriter Pete Seeger in the '60s and recorded most notably by the Byrds:
To everything - turn, turn, turn,
There is a season - turn, turn, turn,
And a time for every purpose under heaven.
A time to be born, a time to die,
A time to plant, a time to reap…
A time to dance, a time to mourn….
To everything - turn, turn, turn,
There is a season - turn, turn, turn,
And a time for every purpose under heaven.
For the ABD, "a time for every purpose under heaven" translates into "a time to write," for you are now in the season of the dissertation. Eventually it will evolve into another season of your life, one which will be--as the song goes--"a time to reap." Keep the reaping in mind when the sowing gets tiresome. Seasons come and go, and the hard work you are putting into this season will reward you in the next.
The Pete Seeger poem was based on a chapter in Ecclesiastes and I will include the relevant verse as one of our Inspirational Quotes, along with some very wise words from the late Bear Bryant. And Dr. Betsy Landau has wisdom to share as well in this issue's guest article. Her dissertation season was long and arduous--in her words, "a nightmare." But she learned from the experience and now shares with you some hard-won insights into what it takes to have a successful season.
Inspirational Quotes
Bear Bryant
It's not the will to win, but the will to prepare to win that makes the difference.
Ecclesiastes 3:1
To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under the sun.
Preventing Interpersonal Shipwrecks
by Betsy Landau, Ph.D.
If only I could relive my graduate years. More specifically, if only I could relive--and extensively revise--my dissertation process. It was a nightmare. My academic training, which was rigorous and demanding, did not prepare me for the rocky shoals of interpersonal interactions with my mentor and my committee. The dissertation was a huge sea compared to the small lake of graduate coursework. I was lost.
The process doesn't have to be that way, but at the time I didn't know otherwise. Many of the graduate students I knew came into the program naïve and came through the process disappointed. Some left the program ABD. Of those who graduated, a few were blessed with good mentors. Others intuitively knew how to navigate the vast interpersonal ocean.
I later discovered -- much later (it took me 10 years to complete the dissertation) -- that there are maps for navigating this interpersonal ocean. Because I didn't have these maps and my mentor didn't share them (if he had them), I struggled through. I made it because I was determined.
Your process can be much easier. The maps are simple to follow. I share them with you and wish you a pleasant voyage:
(1) Keep your focus
Know what it is you want to do and don't lose sight of your goal. Keeping
focused on the core of your dissertation project is essential to maintaining
the course you have set for yourself. Committee members often have an agenda
that is motivated by their particular research interests. Listen to what they
have to say, but don't lose sight of your vision. The extent to which you
are influenced to incorporate someone else's thinking into your project will
be affected by how clear you are about your own interests and research goals.
The clearer you are in your own mind, the easier it will be for you to notice when a committee member is making a suggestion that will take you away from your fundamental premise. Satisfied and successful graduate students remain flexible and open to new ideas from committee members without compromising their larger vision. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to have as clear a picture as you can of your research objectives. You're the captain of this ship, and you need to believe this firmly so that you hold fast to your dissertation focus when you encounter obstacles.
(2) Create a time line
It is important to have a time line even though it may be difficult at times
to stick with it. Life happens. Yet the time line is a structure that allows
you and your committee members to know what to expect each time you have a
meeting or submit a portion of your dissertation write up. Structure will
help to keep you moving along, and having a plan in writing will help to alleviate
anxiety. A ship does not set out to sea without a map and a time line.
(3) Have a counselor
Whether it is someone already in your life or a professional coach, you will
find it invaluable to have someone outside your committee as a support for
you throughout the dissertation process. It's helpful to be able to talk with
an objective person about issues that arise between you and your committee.
Your counselor, coach, or wise friend will be a sounding board, enabling you
to clarify issues and vent your frustrations as they come up (and they will).
She or he will also be someone with whom you can brainstorm, someone who encourages
you, someone who sees how well you are doing and can tell you so with honesty
and objectivity. In short, you need someone to share the voyage with you.
A captain does not steer his ship without the support of a first mate. The
dissertation is not a lake. A motor boat won't do, and being alone on the
ship won't do either.
(4) Have a diverse support team.
These are the people who are your physical and emotional resources. Spend
free time with them. Share joys and disappointments (theirs as well as yours)
and cheer one another on. A ship needs a crew if it is to arrive at its destination
in shipshape condition.
These guidelines or maps are critical to making progress and feeling confident as you work your way through the many stages of conceptualizing, researching, writing, and revising the document until you have a finished product. If you follow these guidelines, your ship will arrive at its final port in a timely way. Your mentor and committee members will shake your hand and you will hear the words you've been working for: "Congratulations, Doctor."
Betsy Landau is a psychologist and life coach from New York. She received her Ph.D. from The City University of New York. She has been helping writers and dissertation students through the various stages of their projects for many years, and is a writer herself. She welcomes any questions you may have. She can be reached at betsy@betsylandau.com or at 718-268-5829. Visit her website at www.betsylandau.com.
Dr. TRACY STEEN, Editor, ABDSG
Tracy Steen, Ph.D. , is a clinical psychologist and dissertation
coach in Philadelphia, PA. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan
and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in positive psychology at the University
of Pennsylvania. Dr. Steen draws on her research background in positive psychology
in her coaching work with writers, helping them to remove internal obstacles
so they can find more engagement and flow in their work. You can contact Dr.
Steen with questions about this newsletter or about coaching in general at
tracy@mentorcoach.com. You can
also visit her website at www.tracysteen.com
YOUR OWN COACH
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BEN DEAN, Publisher, ABDSG
Ben holds a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Texas at Austin.
He began writing the ABDSG in 1997. Over the years, the ABDSG has provided
thousands of hours of pro bono coaching and teleworkshops to ABDs all over
the world. Ben is also the founder of MentorCoach (www.MentorCoach.com),
a virtual university focused on training accomplished helping professionals
to become extraordinary coaches. Finally you must subscribe to the Coaching
Toward Happiness eNewsletter! It's on applying the new science of
Positive Psychology to your work and life (131,000 readers). Ben lives in
suburban Maryland with his wife, Janice, their two children, and Norman, their
Norwegian dwarf bunny. They all love coaching from the beach!
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