Persistence and Determination |
| by Ronda Davé, PhD |
| Most of us have heard the old saying that PhD really stands
for “persistence and determination.” The saying implies that
successfully completing a thesis requires not only intellectual prowess
and research skills, but also the will-power to determine a goal and persist
despite obstacles. Learning how to generate and employ will-power is the
key to finishing any task, including a thesis. How can you employ persistence and determination to ensure you finish your thesis? Persistence and determination are really mental processes, which can be learned by anyone. Will-power is a skill, not a native ability with which a lucky few are born. |
| Determination Determination = (n.) firmness of purpose or character; resolution, the act of determining, fixing, deciding, or coming to a decision. “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably end up somewhere else.” Determination involves holding firmly to a purpose or goal. A purpose is a “large, pervasive, enduring goal” that subsumes more specific subgoals. As a graduate student, your primary purpose in working on a thesis is to conduct and report a research study that convinces your committee you’re sufficiently expert in your topic to deserve a graduate degree. Additionally, you have your own purposes for doing a thesis. Many thesis seminars include a session in which you’re asked to identify the purpose of your thesis. Often this session begins with clarifying values to see how a thesis relates to values you hold. The assumption is that if you see how the thesis fits into your life, you’ll have sufficient motivation to work on it regardless of how difficult it becomes, how hard you have to think, how much time you have to spend, how much energy you have to exert, or how many sacrifices you have to make. But such a global purpose, even if it’s in tune with your values, is usually too general and too distant to give meaning to your immediate activities. For this, you must set subgoals. You may already know how to subdivide the thesis process into a plan of action with concrete objectives and deadlines. Although this, too, is an essential part of planning a thesis, such objectives are too broad and general to motivate your mental effort. You need to set mental subgoals to stay perpetually motivated to engage in thesis work. To do this, you need an understanding of the mental processes underlying determination. These have to do with managing self-talk—the stream of thoughts that comprise your mental activity—the things you say to yourself all day long. You can become aware of your self-talk and change it to positive, self-confident, focused, goal-directed thoughts, so you’re sufficiently determined and motivated to finish.. |
| Persistence Persistence = (n.) continuing in spite of opposition; enduring, lasting; permanent, not disappearing or falling off. “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Persistence has to do with willingness to repeat an activity until you succeed no matter how many attempts are required. It also involves an intention to correct failed actions so that repeated attempts improve performance. Some improvement will come automatically simply by repetition. In the same way that repeatedly exercising a muscle makes it stronger, the simple act of repetition makes your next mental attempt easier. Additionally, your mind learns with each attempt, processing valuable information and registering feedback. You can optimize your persistence by being aware of your mental processes when you confront obstacles and by learning to micro-manage your thoughts when you fail. You must learn to focus attention externally (rather than on your feelings), on solutions (rather than on problems), and on goals (rather than on mistakes). Learning to focus attention this way gives you a strategy you can use to overcome habitually negative reactions following failed attempts. Adopting such a strategy helps you get over defeat quickly and easily, which gives you more energy to focus on solutions to your problems. Rather than becoming emotionally upset by failure—bemoaning, complaining, and blaming yourself—you become rational and insightful. Greater attention to solutions generally results in better performance. And better performance leads to self-development, self-confidence, and empowerment. Even if you never succeed in solving a problem, repeated attempts will strengthen your resiliency and resolve. The key to both firmer determination and more enduring persistence is knowing how to control your inner experience. The way to control your mind is to be able to focus your attention and change your thoughts, eliminating those you don’t want, and thinking those you do. Getting control of your mind isn’t easy. You have to reflect and think hard to overcome entrenched mental habits. But you can master your thoughts, day-by-day, year-by-year, by practicing prove techniques. The key to controlling your mind, like the key to all self-improvement, is to become aware of how you think, so you’re able to manipulate your thinking. What happens when you get control of your thoughts and mind? Because you can have only one thought in mind at a time, you can focus on positive thoughts, which automatically eliminate negative ones. Without conscious attention, thoughts tend to disorganize and become negative, much as they are in dreams. By keeping your thoughts focused, you experience a sense of order, harmony, and “rightness of mind.” By controlling your thoughts, you can overcome the anxieties and depressions of contemporary life. In this issue of Thesis News we examine the elements of consciousness that comprise persistence and determination—the right attitudes for finishing a thesis. |
| This article copyrighted by ASGS. Please obtain permission to use or reproduce. Thank you. |
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| Thesis With an Attitude is extracted from Thesis News No. 27. Other articles in this issue include:
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