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Tag: manage to keep going in difficult circumstances

Nathan

Building On Difficult Circumstances

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Every PhD contains difficult circumstances. Reflecting on how you get through them – how you keep going – is a useful way to explore how you have you grown and how you can approach future challenges.

(because you will definitely face challenges in the future)

Writing about the challenges you’ve faced can be a good way to think through your PhD journey and what it means. Bring to mind one of the difficult circumstances you’ve overcome. Then reflect and respond to these questions in sequence:

  • Why did you face difficult circumstances?
  • When did this happen during your PhD?
  • What was the impact of the situation?
  • Who did you turn to for support?
  • How did you overcome the circumstances?

Thinking about the whys and hows of a situation – particularly how you overcame it – can be helpful for the future. Thinking about why something happened and what you can do differently can prevent similar circumstances from occurring again. Thinking about what you have learned as a result can help you to feel more capable when dealing with problems.

Recognising that you overcame a significant challenge can help you to feel confident when you find yourself confronting challenges in the future.

(because, again, you will definitely face challenges in the future!)

Every PhD candidate encounters difficult circumstances. It’s a part of the journey towards completing a doctorate.

Difficult circumstances don’t have to define who you are and how you go about your research but reflecting on them can be helpful as you work towards completing your PhD.

Nathan

Best of Viva Survivors 2025: Surviving

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It’s the last day of 2025 and my last day to share some of my favourite posts of 2025.

The blog is called Viva Survivors, so we have to have posts about surviving!

I also have to shout out These Interesting Times, a post from March that looked back at the last five years. How have you made it this far? What helped you manage to keep going in difficult circumstances throughout your PhD journey and particularly over the last five years?

 

Finally for 2025, if you’re looking for some more thoughts on surviving then take a look at The Survival Issue, the most recent curated collection of Viva Survivors Select!

Nathan

What’s Stopping You?

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Is there anything in the way of you finding out more about the viva process?

Is there anything stopping you from being prepared for meeting your examiners?

Is there anything in the way of you feeling confident?

 

These aren’t strictly rhetorical questions: anyone might have practical or emotional barriers to any of the above. You could have a supervisory relationship that makes you feel like you can’t ask questions. You might have personal circumstances that make your time pressured. Or you could face challenges from a disability that impact how you can get things done.

All of these are real obstacles. And all of them have to be acknowledged or overcome in some way.

If there’s a barrier and you need to know more or do more then you need to figure out a way. You could ask for help from someone, take time to consider how to get something done or in some cases ask for specialised support from your institution.

If something is stopping you from making progress with your viva readiness then you need to figure out a way to stop it. It might not be fair that it’s happening to you but it might still be up to you to take the first step to making it better.

Nathan

Viva Survivors Select 08

Update

This month’s issue of Viva Survivors Select is the last of Volume 1. I’m taking a break from the zine for a few months and aim to return in April 2026 with the start of a new monthly run. It seemed appropriate that this final issue (for now!) should be The Survival Issue.

Cover of Viva Survivors Select 08, The Survival Issue. Dated November 2025 by Nathan Ryder Foreground text boxes show details of the issue title etc. Background image shows a mountain path with rails, more mountains in the distance and a blue sky with a few clouds

We tend to think of survival as life and death. This is why so many PhD candidates who hear the phrase “surviving the viva” think that it must be a terrible ordeal that they’ll barely make it through. To survive means to manage to keep going in difficult circumstances. To survive your PhD means to work and make it through the challenges you face. To survive the viva means to rise to the particular challenges after the journey you have been on.

The Survival Issue contains twenty posts from the Viva Survivors archive exploring many aspects of survival. The issue is reflective, proactive and looking ahead for a candidate’s future. Surviving the viva is a topic I’ve been exploring for fifteen years in seminars, books, blog posts, discussions and pretty much every working day. It really did feel like this had to be the final issue of this volume!

I also share memories of how I survived my viva and what still stands out to me seventeen years later. Finally, I offer a simple reflective series of questions to help unpick the difficult circumstances of a PhD journey – a helpful activity for viva prep.

Viva Survivors Select 08 is out now for £3 and joins the previous seven issues in this volume. If you like the blog, want more help and want to support what I do then please take a look at and consider buying The Survival Issue.

Please do pass on details of this issue and Viva Survivors Select to anyone you know who is looking for viva help – and look out for the first issue of Volume 2, coming in April 2026!

Thanks for reading!

Nathan

Nathan

The Process of Surviving

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Survive can be defined as manage to keep going in difficult circumstances.

So we can understand surviving the viva as managing to keep going in the difficult circumstances of the viva.

And even more particularly we can understand surviving your viva as managing to keep going in the difficult circumstances of your viva.

 

There are challenges in every viva that make them difficult. There are parts of the process that could be uniquely difficult for a candidate. You prepare for the viva in part so that you manage to keep going, continuing on the journey that you’ve been on for a long time, but you also have to think about what makes the viva difficult for you.

Every candidate probably faces some difficult circumstances at the viva because of the nature of their work and particular situation. Some candidates face difficult circumstances because of how they feel, what they might need for the viva to be fair for them and personal situations that make the viva a greater challenge than it might be for others.

Surviving the viva doesn’t mean overcoming terrible situations. Surviving the viva means continuing to show up as your best self doing your best work. It means facing the situation and making sure in advance that it is as fair as it can be for you.

 

Manage, not struggle. Difficult circumstances rather than almost-impossible situations.

And keep going – because this isn’t the first time you’ve been challenged.

 

PS: you can learn more about the challenge and why you’ll survive at my upcoming 7 Reasons You’ll Pass Your Viva live webinars. I’m running the session on Wednesday 24th September and Thursday 30th October: come to find out why people succeed at the viva and why you will too! There are more details via the link and use code DAILYBLOGFAN before midnight tomorrow to get a special discount.

Nathan

You Got Here

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If you’ve submitted your thesis remember that that’s down to your time and work.

You had help and support. There were expectations that shaped what you did.

You did the work.

Having got this far there’s not much further to go on your PhD journey.

If you got this far, keep going. If you got this far, despite all the challenges within your research and from the wider world, keep going.

Survive can be defined as manage to keep going in difficult circumstances.

You got here. Keep going.

Nathan

Surviving Isn’t Easy

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Manage to keep going in difficult circumstances.

Manage, not struggle.

Difficult not almost-impossible.

Keep going – implying that you’re already in motion, this isn’t new.

I share this definition of survive in all my work. I want to emphasise to PhD candidates that surviving isn’t about life and death, swerving tragedy or overcoming mythic danger. A successful viva requires capability and results but surviving is really about determination. You show up and push forward and do what you need to with each new challenge.

It’s a hopefully helpful way to explore the viva and what’s involved but I’m not saying it’s easy.

Surviving the PhD might require difficult choices or exceptional effort. Getting ready for the viva could involve more work than you like or even a task you would rather avoid. The viva itself might be tough: challenging questions, longer than you would like and a deeper reflection on something than you want.

For all that you’ll succeed.

There’s work to do and you can do it.

There’s talent required and you have it.

It’s not easy but it’s nowhere near impossible. You can do this.

Keep going.

Nathan

A Reflective Definition

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Matured and necessary and good enough,

That OK?

Knowledge exceeds examiners’ probing;

Glad of insight, no grumbling!

If necessary,

Dig into fiddly factors; if certain, use learned terms.

Consider interesting reflections; consider useful memories. Significant times and new contributions expected soon.

 

A reminder of one way to define the verb “survive” and how it might apply to the viva.

Nathan

Stay Determined

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Manage to keep going in difficult circumstances.

This definition of survive applies to the PhD journey and to the viva.

You get to the viva and you’ve done the work. You’ve written the thesis. You’ve done the prep.

So you just keep going. Stay determined and do what you do well.

Keep going, then go on to your next difficult challenge.

Nathan

Keep Going In Difficult Circumstances

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How did you do it?

An assumption: however enjoyable, rewarding, satisfying and interesting a PhD journey can be, there are always difficult circumstances that are part of the process.

So given that assumption, how did you do it? How did you manage to keep going in those difficult circumstances?

Or, to simplify, how did you survive?

 

I’m not suggesting that any difficult circumstances are fair, right, justified or should be shrugged away. Difficult covers a wide range of things and some situations can’t be excused.

Whatever they were, you made it this far.

You managed to keep going. Part of that is knowledge, capability and work. You applied yourself. Effort lead to results in one form or other.

Part of it is simply determination: if you made it through it’s because you kept going.

Whatever the situations and however you did it you have found yourself on a path to success. You submitted your thesis. You’re doing the work to get ready for a successful viva.

 

It’s easy sometimes to think of these things like knowledge, capability, work and determination as somehow separate.

We can put them at arm’s length, other things, when in fact it’s you.

How did you survive? How did you manage to keep going in difficult circumstances?

Every answer may be unique but at the core there is always a simple truth.

You did it – and that shouldn’t be forgotten.

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