What's Holding You Back?

Today marks the fourth week of my semester, so it's an ideal time to stop and evaluate my progress. I encourage you to do the same this week by gently and lovingly asking yourself several important questions: How is my semester going so far? How much writing have I completed? Have I developed a daily writing routine? How am I progressing towards my semester goals? and How do I feel about my answers to the previous questions? Let me be clear, this is NOT an invitation to beat yourself up! It's simply an opportunity to observe what IS working for you, what is NOT working for you, and pro-actively make adjustments.

What's Holding You Back?

I hope that you answered enthusiastically that your projects are perfectly on-track and you feel exhilarated by all your success! But if you are like me, you've probably have had some successes and some disappointments this semester. When I find myself unsatisfied with my progress, I stop and ask: what's holding me back? In my work with new faculty, I find that most people's productivity is blocked by some combination of what Julie Morgenstern describes as technical errors, external realities, and psychological obstacles. I've adapted these for academics and describe each of them below. Of course, the answer to what's holding YOU back is something that only you can answer, but personally, I find this framework extremely helpful in identifying the areas where I need to make adjustments for the remainder of the semester. TECHNICAL ERRORS The following technical errors occur when you are missing some relevant skill or technique and they are the easiest to fix! You haven't set aside a specific time for your research and writing You've set aside the wrong time to write You have no idea how much time a particular research or writing task takes and/or you consistently under-estimate the time required to complete tasks You're the wrong person for the job (you think you have to do it all and that asking for help is a sign of weakness) The tasks you have set out are too complex (items like "finish my book" are on your to-do list) You can't remember what you have to do because you don't believe in lists or calendars Your space is disorganized so you can never find what you need when you need it EXTERNAL REALITIES These are situations or environmental factors that are beyond your control. As a result, they require lots of patience, self-understanding, and strategic planning to be productive. You have an externally-imposed unrealistic workload A health problem limits your energy You are in a physical transition (moving offices) You are in a life transition (new baby, divorce, unexpected elder care) You are externally forced to work in an interruption-rich environment You have a disorganized person in your life that impacts you (such as a chaotically driven spouse, boss, co-author, colleagues, research team, clients/patients/research participants, etc...) PSYCHOLOGICAL OBSTACLES These are the deeper issues that underlie our resistance to writing. For now, let's just try to become aware which (if any) are present in our lives: Perfectionism Feeling dis-empowered around research, writing, and/or your intellectual abilities Fear of downtime (during which you may have to deal with difficult issues like what you really want to do with your life and/or your relational problems) Needing to be a caretaker at the expense of your own needs (your helping others is out of balance so you feel resentful, unappreciated and overwhelmed) Fear of failure Fear of success Fear of disrupting the status quo and/or speaking the truth to power Fear of completion Unrealistically high expectations A hyper-active inner-critic, and/or Unclear goals and priorities I realize this is a long list! But I hope it helps you to identify what's holding you back if you are not satisfied with your progress this semester. Learning to observe and name your blocks is an important step forward in using your creativity to overcome them. Over the next few weeks, I will suggest some concrete strategies that faculty have used to overcome these common blocks.

The Weekly Challenge

This week, I want to challenge you to do the following: Take 30 minutes to observe, evaluate, and reflect on your progress this semester. Try using your Semester Plan to gauge your progress. Name and celebrate the successes that you have experienced! Consider the list of technical errors, external realities, and psychological obstacles and determine what is holding you back? Pick one area that is under your control and generate potential solutions. Re-commit yourself to 30-60 minutes each day for your writing. If you haven't written your semester goals, it's not too late! Go ahead and write them down. If you need some support, motivation, or community, join us on the discussion forum. I hope this week brings you the courage to patiently evaluate your progress, the joy of celebrating your successes, and the creativity to devise solutions that make sense for YOU! Peace & Productivity, Kerry Ann Rockquemore Associate Professor African American Studies and Sociology University of Illinois at Chicago KerryAnn@NewFacultySuccess.com p.s. - I got lots of questions about the discussion forum last week. To clarify, it's FREE but you have to be a member in order to participate. To access the forum, CLICK HERE This will take you to a page that says "Error 401: Unauthorized. You need to login in order to access this page." Don't worry, that's supposed to happen! From there you can EITHER: 1) login as a visitor To do this, just enter the visitor's username (visitingprof) and password (justvisiting) in the boxes located at the top left corner of the page. Then click the "log in" button. OR 2) join the forum by creating a Yuku account To do this, click on the "sign up" button at the top of the page. You will be guided through a variety of steps to set up a free Yuku account. Once you have an account, just click on the link and use your own username and password to enter.