This is the second part of a response to a tweet blog topic request (Part I). The first dealt with ways of alleviating stress that I find useful. This one is perhaps an even more difficult one to respond to about keeping up self-belief.
This is something I’ve consistently struggled with. Not long before Hannah tweeted about this, I’d tweeted about looking back at the work I’d produced post-PhD that I hadn’t had the drive / commitment / belief to get published. I’m not sure there’s any magic bullet for this, but sometimes it can be useful to reiterate things that rationally most of us know, but can get lost in the heat of the moment.
Take strength from past achievements, and congratulate yourself when you do well. Did you just get an essay back that you did really well on? Give yourself a pat on the back. Take a few moments to acknowledge your achievement. Treat yo’self. Soak up the plaudits for those days when you really need them. And remember that you’ve been good enough to get on the course / get however far through your studies you are. Those marks don’t just exist in a vacuum.
If you don’t feel you’re doing as well as you could academically, ask for support. We’re always willing to help people who really want to improve – seeing students do better is the most delightful feeling and I’m always happy when someone seems to have got over a hurdle or cracked an issue they were having. Remember also that general advice about writing isn’t specific to one module.
If you’re struggling personally, then you also need to find some support. That might be from your GP, from support services in the university, or just from your friends/family. While your personal tutor isn’t a counsellor, they should be able to point you to the best person within the university to deal with it, and they will be able to give you the best advice on using university procedures to your advantage. Regulations are designed to help you do well, for the most part.
I know the “make a change / ask for help” stuff isn’t always easy. We’ve all been stuck at some point in a rut that it’s incredibly difficult to lift out of. I suppose then it’s just a question of capitalising on moments when you feel strong enough to do something about it, whenever they come.
In more procedural ways, there’s a bit of overlap, I think, with some of my suggestions about stress relief. I find setting small goals and planning relaxing, although I’m also conscious that this can become a bit of a displacement activity. In setting goals, try to be realistic – that includes scheduling breaks if you like planning. You can’t work every second of the day, and if you schedule every second of the day, you’ll soon be demotivated by the fact that you’re not keeping up with your plan.
The tl;dr version of this is pretty similar to my thoughts on stress management. Be kind to yourself; be proud of yourself when you do well; give yourself a break (physically and psychologically speaking) – I’m all about the carrot, rather than the stick. Be good to yourself, whatever that looks like for you.