A Post for the Philosophical

Dear Real Academics,

Today marks my first day without an official "real job" in a very long time. So, no organization to report to. No tethers. I feel as if I'm floating in the wide ocean -- which, if I think about it, is pretty scary.

But, I am a Christian, and I believe that God has my back. I believe Jesus can keep my feet from sinking because He has been faithful throughout my whole life, and I believe He will continue to be faithful, so He is my anchor.

What I'm saying doesn't mean that life is easy or that storms don't or won't come (like failure or sorrow or hardship or loss), but I have an anchor -- it's just not the tangible anchor of a steady salary, retirement, or the tenured academic position I left. It's also not an anchor of leaning on a human being or personal hero.

And, for those who know me personally, you know by now that the last year has illustrated how all the tangible anchors named above are truly an illusion of security. In an instant, any of them can be gone. 

What about you, dear Real Academics? Do you have a life anchor? I think this is a question worth asking yourself, especially today as the world continues to shift and change with unending uncertainty in sight. 

If you are interested in listening to a deep discussion on what the world may be experiencing today from a psychological/philosophical point of view, check out this leadership podcast (it's worth a listen and kudos to Pat for recommending it!): John Eldredge on the Surprising Symptoms of Trauma and the Challenges of Deconstruction on the Carey Nieuwhof Podcast.

Until next time, happy writing, productivity, and truth-seeking,

Maggie

www.therealacademics.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Need a Boost of Encouragement? The Accomplishment List

Image
Dear Real Academics, As faculty (at the time of this writing), I am on a 9 month-contract.  But, every summer for the past 7 years in my tenure-track position seems to be a non-stop list of things to do including attending dissertation defenses, reviewing manuscripts, reviewing conference proposals, going to research meetings, analyzing data, writing and submitting conference proposals, writing and submitting manuscripts and grants, setting up classes for the next semester, setting up meetings for the next semester,  answering student advising emails,  managing upcoming faculty searches, and more. So, you can imagine how annoyed I get when I hear people assume that I am so lucky to be an "educator" because I get summers off. I wish!  Around the end of July this year, I was near burn-out.  Around the first week of August , I was looking ahead to the gazillion of emails streaming into my in-box to get things set up for the start of the semester (not to mention the...
Read more

The Power of Logging

Image
Dear Real Academics, There's a pattern among productivity strategists: If you want results, track your progress. Whether I'm watching a video or reading about financial planning, nutritional well-being, exercise programs, writing productivity, or self management in general, all programs that WORK have some element of what I default to calling "logging". I default to this term because of my experience with logging with writing (more on that below). Logging is tracking your progress.  I know, I know...it sounds dull and mundane and boring and hard to remember to do. It may even sound rigid, but here's the news: It is powerful. Why? This is a good question. For this post, I will not get into any facts or figures or empirical data to prove to you that tracking your progress is powerful when it comes to making progress.  But, reflect on your own experience. When have you made real progress on any goal you had that required change/effort/difficulty? What did it look lik...
Read more

Writing Models

Image
Dear Real Academics, Did you know there's such a thing as a writing model? And, here, I don't mean a person holding up the palm of their hand under a piece of paper to display it. Here I mean an example of writing similar to the one you need to or want to (or both!) compose. When I was in graduate school, I knew I needed to write a dissertation in order to graduate. Early in my program, I had never written a dissertation, much less read one. So, I looked for dissertation models in my program and studied them -- not for the content but for the structure. I asked myself: How long are dissertations? (they vary tremendously depending on methodology, I discovered!). How are dissertations organized? (there are traditional chapters, but there are formats that include a collection of related journal articles). How does each dissertation section begin and end? (I learned they are fairly repetitive in the beginning and end of each section because they are so long and want to remind the ...
Read more