Happy New Year! I’m back from the holidays and anticipate that you are too (or soon will be…).
I hope you had a great time on New Year’s Eve, and are ready to get back to work. 2007 is going to be an amazing year, I can already tell.
So, for today, I want to talk about the idea of looking ahead. At the start of every new year, most of us make resolutions for what we will do differently in the new year.
I think this is fine, though many people don’t really stick to their new year’s resolutions.
I think this is because many new year resolutions represent a very large change in our behavior, which can be difficult to implement and sustain on your own.
It takes lots of support to reach most goals, especially ones as lengthy as the dissertation process can be.
As far as your dissertation process, I’m going to ask, this year, that you shift from making a resolution about finishing to making a commitment to do so.
A resolution can sometimes be a goal without a plan. A commitment is a goal with a plan.
It might help to ease into the commitment. To do this, you might start by planning your dissertation work, just for today. Don’t worry about tomorrow, or the end of next week.
What will you do, today, to bring your commitment to finish one day closer?
It need not be anything grand or anything requiring heaps of self sacrifice. Most goals are met through a series of small actions, taken over time. Your dissertation process is no different.
No matter what the process has been like for you thus far, you can increase your commitment today, here and now, simply by asking: What is one thing I can do to move forward?
And then taking that very next action.
Small steps can lead to big results.
