Evidence
Confidence follows your actions. If you don’t feel confident ahead of your viva it’s not because you’re lazy. It’s not because you don’t have anything to show for all your work. It’s probably because the length, difficulty and circumstances of your PhD have made it hard to appreciate what you’ve done.
When you go looking you’ll find that the evidence of your capability is everywhere. As soon as you start to see the evidence you’ll feel capable – and in turn you’ll start to build your confidence.
Look at the hundreds of days when you’ve showed up to do the work. Look at the thesis you’ve produced. Think back over the many, many papers you’ve learned from. Remember the meetings, the seminars, the posters, the presentations and maybe the papers you’ve produced too.
None of this simply just happened. All of it exists because of you: your time, your effort, your determination and your willingness to grow and learn.
A PhD is hard for a lot of reasons. When you stop and reflect you’ll see evidence of your talent everywhere. Use that as evidence of your confidence as well. Then go and succeed at your viva.
PS: the Viva Survivors Summer Sabbatical starts tomorrow! A daily post from the archives all through the summer while I take a creative break after seven years of Viva Survivors 🙂