Last week's Monday Motivator focused on taming your inner critic. Given the response, I'm going to stay with that topic for one more week. There are many different ways that perfectionism rears its ugly head and this week I want to discuss one of the most difficult: how our efforts to be the Super Professor can derail our progress towards promotion and tenure.


LETTING GO OF SUPER-PROFESSOR SYNDROME

On the discussion forum, in writing groups, and from my individual clients, I often hear new faculty describe a set of unrealistically high assumptions about their performance. At some level, they expect to be Super-Professor. That image of perfection typically includes some combination of the following:

• Super-Teacher who performs transformative and inspiring teaching every day in the classroom, grades extensive writing assignments with ease, and answers all student e-mails within the hour. 
• Super-Colleague who is central to the functioning of the department, provides immediate and insightful reviews of colleagues work, attends all functions, and whose labor nobody could live without.
• Super-Researcher who changes paradigms and/or shatters disciplinary boundaries with brilliant and prolific research.
• Super-Role Model who serves as a mentor, confidante, and/or shining example for all students of color.
• Super-Institutional Change Agent who serves on every search committee, diversity committee, and/or committee needing "diverse perspectives" and who works to change decades long structural problems within their institution single-handedly.
• Super-Community Activist whose research directly impacts social problems, regularly attends community meetings, and/or is actively working for justice outside the university walls.

PRIORITIZE AND PAY YOURSELF FIRST!


The first three expectations can occur among any individual tenure-track faculty with a perfectionist streak, but the last three seem to be especially common among under-represented faculty. In other words, while institutional and community activism may be important to individual majority faculty, they seem to be externally created and internally imposed expectations for faculty who are under-represented in their discipline. At some level, many new faculty are trying to be the professor they never had as an undergraduate or graduate student.


Personally, I have never met Super-Professor and I can't think of a single person that fits all these criteria at one time! More often, trying to do all of these things simultaneously means that none of them gets done well AND we get exhausted in the process. So in addition to visualizing our careers as a book with many chapters, I want to suggest that we consciously release ourselves from unattainable expectations. Instead, lets be gentle with ourselves and acknowledge that it's impossible to do all of these things at the same time. Instead, lets try prioritizing our thoughts and our actions. If you are on the tenure-track and/or want to move from your current institution, the hard reality is that publications are the currency of the academic marketplace. As a result, try lowering the bar in other areas of your work life so you can write every day. I am also going to boldly suggest that you symbolically send a message to the universe about the importance of your writing by paying yourself first each day. That means try starting every day with 30-60 minutes of writing.


I know this is easier said than done! Personally, I get up each day worried about all the things I will be held accountable for that day (teaching, meetings, etc...). My impulse is to do those things first and "hope my writing will get done later." But from experience I know that I will have neither the time nor the energy "later" to write. I also know that at some deep level, completing these other tasks first means that I am prioritizing them over my writing. It means that I'm putting everyone else before myself, my writing, and my future.


Instead, I have to force myself to write first thing in the morning (against my natural tendency) and the result is that I often don't spend as much time on my teaching and service as I wish I could. But guess what? My mentor always told me that great teaching and great service don't make up for a lack of research productivity when faculty are evaluated for promotion and tenure. Even with less preparation than I would like, my teaching is fine, my service is fine, and most importantly, writing every day keeps me productive, marketable, and allows me to have choices about my future. I often feel euphoric after my writing time because I know my long term research agenda is moving forward and I have made an investment in my future for that day.


THE WEEKLY CHALLENGE
This week, I want to challenge you to do the following:

• Re-commit yourself to 30-60 minutes of writing EVERY DAY this week.
• Try paying yourself first by writing in the morning before you do any other work or check your e-mail.
• Ask yourself: how does this feel?
• If you cannot pay yourself first, patiently and gently ask yourself why not?
• Every time you experience the impulse to be super-professor, stop, look around, and ask yourself: who else is operating according to this standard?
• If you still haven't written your semester writing goals, it's not too late.
• Consider joining the November Writing Challenge for support and accountability.

I hope that this week brings you the strength to pay yourself first, the discipline to write every day, and the joy of investing in your future!


Peace & Productivity,
Kerry Ann Rockquemore, PhD
Associate Professor of Sociology & African American Studies
University of Illinois at Chicago
KerryAnn@NewFacultySuccess.com


p.s. - Last call for the Managing Stress and Conflict workshop! It's this Tuesday night so register today if you plan to call in.