It’s the new year, a time when many of us decide to make resolutions about aspects of our lives we want to change or personal goals we want to achieve over the next 12 months. It’s a tradition that goes back to the Romans, who began each year by making promises to the god ‘Janus’ – the god of beginnings and transitions (and where January got it’s name from). In medieval times, knights took part in the ‘peacock vow’ at the end of the Christmas season where they placed their hands on a live or roasted peacock and reaffirmed their commitment to chivalry.
(creation outreach.com) (austenauthors.net)
According to a recent ComRes poll, the most popular modern day New Year’s resolutions involve losing weight, eating healthily and doing more exercise.
(nailsmag.com)
Many PhD students I speak to want to improve their work-life balance or take up a hobby. Maybe you want to be better at keeping up to date with your lab book or make sure you go to more seminar outside of your main research topic.
But whatever our resolutions for the year ahead are, how can we make sure we stick to them? As many as 80% of us fail to keep our new year’s resolutions within the first month. This is often because we set ourselves goals that are too big. My advice is to stick to one thing and set measurable milestones so that you can keep a track of your progress as you go.
(parkerm.com.au)
This relates to our research as well. All too often as scientists, we set ourselves huge goals and plan ambitious experiments, and when we hit bumps in the road, it can feel like we’ve failed. By setting ourselves smaller, bitesized goals, we can retain that sense of achievement; after all, a research project is a marathon, not a sprint! Try to be realistic; be honest with yourself and think about what you want to achieve, and what is within your capabilities. After that, just go for it!
So what about my New Year’s resolutions? I could aim to eat less chocolate, or drink less coffee, but I know myself too well to try that! I would like to present at more conferences and also hope to move into a place of my own before the end of the year.
(pintrest.com)
But mostly, I want to commit to writing a regular scicomm blog! I’ve been lucky enough to meet some inspiring PhD bloggers over the last few months who have given me the confidence to start publishing my own posts and I hope to continue over the next year and more, so watch this space!
Good luck, and I will try to keep up with my resolutions as well!
All Science Girl
