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Tag: challenges

Nathan

These Interesting Times

Daily Post

On March 16th 2020 I wrote Interesting Times, an extra post that marked when things started to change in the UK because of the pandemic. Things had been changing for weeks but lots of little changes became very big, very quickly.

And then things kept changing.

And changing.

And changing…

These five years have been a lot, right? That’s not to say that life is all doom and gloom. There’s good news everywhere. It can be hard to see sometimes, but there are people who want to help.

 

As I think back, I think about how my life was changing then and how it has changed since. At the time I thought, I’ll be doing webinars for a few months probably, and that became five years and forevermore by the looks of it!

Outside of my own situation I think about the people I meet at webinars now and the people I imagine who are reading these words.

I think of them and you, dear reader, because you have lived through interesting, difficult and upsetting times. You have been challenged not only by the work you do but by the conditions you do that work in. You have managed to keep going on your PhD journey in very difficult circumstances.

When your viva comes you’ll have to prepare but you can be sure that the challenge you’ll find there will be smaller than the challenge of what you’ve been through in the 2020s so far.

Dear reader, in short, keep going. Help others. Work to make things better if you’re able.

And thank you for reading.

Nathan

Take The First Step

Daily Post

You have to do this all the time for your viva.

Take the first step to the viva when you submit.

Take the first step with your prep by sitting down and getting your thesis out again; or by asking for help (plenty of people can help but you have to ask for their support).

If you find a mistake – more than a typo – you have to take the first step, however tricky or uncomfortable, to figuring out what makes it right.

If you want a mock viva, you probably have to email and ask when your supervisor might be free.

If, in the viva, you are stumped by a question, you have to take the first step to responding to it. That could be awkward, you might feel pressured, but you have to do it.

All of which is a long way of saying, that for all the puzzles, problems and challenges you find with your viva, you have to take the first step to resolving them.

There’s no-one else to do it, but also no-one else who could do it.

So take the first step.

(and if you don’t feel you’ve found any puzzles, problems or challenges, take the first step towards finding some, because they’re there…)