Self-encouragement!

Is it just me, or is it always easier to remember the disparaging things you’ve heard about yourself? For that matter, why is it always so hard to remember the good things you know are true about yourself? I know I’m intelligent, and I have friends I trust who have given me many sincere compliments over the years I’ve known them. However, faced with the prospect of writing a dissertation, I occasionally despair of ever being smart, thoughtful, dedicated, intelligent enough… to accomplish this (admittedly large and looming) goal.

I’m guessing I’m not alone in this. I find it vaguely personally reassuring, in fact, to wonder if everyone at some point is sure they’ll never possibly be good enough for whatever it is they are attempting to accomplish… or perhaps it really is just me. ;)

Regardless, I’ve been trying to reduce the power of my internal gremlin by taking a moment to pat myself on the back when I receive a sincere compliment. Especially during independent study classes, I’ve been struggling quite a bit to reassure myself that I really am good at this, and I really can and will get this dissertation licked!

You can perhaps imagine my delight, then, when I received the following comment on the final paper of my Methodologies class:

Blythe,

This is an EXCELLENT exploration of feminist, embodied, and transpersonal methodologies. You demonstrate an astute and sophisticated understanding of the philosophical and political issues inherent in selecting a methodology, and your writing is clear and strong. I think you have an excellent foundation now for developing your dissertation questions and methods, once you get to that stage of your process. One of the next steps I would suggest is to explore some specific methods (tools) related to qualitative interviewing, e.g. narrative inquiry, grounded theory, etc.

A+

Yay! The Methodologies class was the one I was most nervous about this semester too, so this was a really lovely bit of encouragement to receive. Go, me! I can do this! :-D

P.S. If you’re my professor and you see this and you’d like your name mentioned, let me know! I’d be happy to do so, with your permission. Thanks again! :)