When I started my position being an employee as part of my current team I talked to someone who was already been part of the company for several years. We started exchanging experiences and opinions. About our historic works and what will be in the future. In this relation he mentioned that he had just commenced on his PhD besides him being employed full time as part of our division. Then he asked if I consider pursuing a PhD as well. “No”, I responded. “It will take at least five years to complete it. That´s too long”.
He then replied the following: “In five years the mentioned five years will have passed anyway. So I can simply focus on my PhD by taking small steps in a row. When the five years have passed, I will own it. If I´m not following these small steps, the five years will have passed anyway but after five years I will still not be in possession of my PhD”.
I thought about this a lot. It´s not that I was facing lack of understanding. I immediately agreed to what my colleague had said. So I started asking myself: Having in mind what he said, why not starting a PhD?
I guess I was not telling the entire truth during that moment of our conversation. I guess I just responded the first thing that was arising within my mind. And that was simply what most people will answer: Five years? Too long.
What it´s about?
So I digged myself further. By doing so I recognized the following: It´s not about the duration of five years itself. It´s more about that if I decide on focusing obtaining a PhD it will be part of my mind for the next five years. That´s not an issue by itself. But the point is that this will inherently come with less resources to let other things set up a priority in my mind. Do I really want to let my mind being influenced with „something random“ (in this case a PhD)? In general I do not have any ambition to focus on obtaining a PhD. By now I own a Bachelor’s degree. So in the case of thinking about a PhD in a serious way the previous step will be in obtaining a Master’s degree first.
Actually I´m thinking about obtaining a Master’s degree in business psychology now and then. Why? Probably that´s primarily driven by personal interest. But in addition I´m asking myself: Why taking the effort and focusing on a structured program including several exams just for the satisfaction of a personal interest? The point is that there is a variety of ideas which I would love to turn into reality. That´s why I need to be considerate which „project“ I give a priority when compared to something that sounds interesting. For example, my current priority is finishing my records. It´s something which really drives me. In contrast to that obtaining a Master’s degree in business psychology sounds interesting. Nice to have. Or not even that. Simply interesting.
The issue with something that simply sounds interesting
In addition I need to mention that I´m still running a private course in order to obtain a specific financial certificate. However I figured out some reasons on why I did not finish the course yet. First, the fees were already paid at the beginning of the program. Currently I´m not in charge anymore hence the feeling of compensating the costs is reduced. Secondly, I do not have a strict deadline on when to complete the program. Thirdly, I do not require the certificate for anything. I applied for the program directly after my studies had come to an end as the program sounded interesting. Due to the facts that currently the program does not charge further money, there´s no obligation to finish and as there is no urgent requirement to be in possession of that certificate I´m procrastinating on a high level. Having this in mind in no way I should commence obtaining a Master’s degree as long as going through the program or owning the degree simply sounds interesting.
I still appreciate the conversation with my colleague and the content we shared. I consider him as a smart person. Likely that obtaining a PhD will be beneficial for him in order to take the next career level. However the point is that I was not able to get that phrase out of my mind. Time will pass anyway.
A little every day
It´s in line with what my engineer with which I´m recording my current records has told me once I was asking myself the following: It seems that there is an overwhelming amount of minor steps. Will we ever finish working on these records? He then responded: A little every day. With mentioning that he was primarily referring to the workload. The good thing is that we have a clear and structured process to follow. We are aware of what needs to be done. It´s not that we´re getting lost in undefined tasks from which we do not know on how to complete them.
I fully understand that my engineer is right. There is no alternative in following the phrase he mentioned. A little every day. I assume it´s the same approach that my colleague who is running on his PhD is following. During our conversation he mentioned that on every single evening after work he will take a little bit of his time to spend it in terms of completing the PhD. In this relation he emphasized the following: “I am fully aware that I will not complete my PhD on that specific evening. But that minor step which I´m moving forward on that evening is an essential step in order to complete my PhD. I´m aware that I will never complete my PhD if I´m not able to move forward by taking that little step.”
It´s a marathon
That statement highlighted again what I´m already aware of however sometimes I simply forget to remind myself of it. Pursuing projects like conducting a PhD or completing a record is like running a marathon. It´s not a 50 meters sprint. The furthest distance which I have completed by running until now is 18 kilometers. I completed this distance by putting my feet forward on the ground for the duration of one and a half hours. For one and a half hour I was conducting the exact same movement. One foot forward. Touching the ground. Taking the other foot. Touching the ground. Automated process. One and a half hour. Just focusing on the next minor step.
I knew the path which I was running on. It was not possible to get lost. I knew how much of the distance was still left until I will reach the finish line. There was no need to care about the „overall picture“. I knew that I just have to follow that simple and automated process for a duration of one and a half hours. Then I will have done it. There were no hard decisions required to be taken during that kind of run. All I needed to do was simply concentrating on my speed to prevent myself from falling to the ground by carrying out the automated process while controlling my breath. It sounds mindless but during running I´m within a continuously engagement with my mind. That means that I have to be considerate on where to place my next step in order not to fall to the ground.
But the point is that these decisions are not major decisions. They are not hard decisions. I deem it more as a state of paying attention to my run meaning being aware of the fact that I´m conducting a run. The same refers to my breath. It´s not a hard decision to be taken to reduce speed when I´m recognizing that I´m running out of breath. I just have to be aware of it. By doing so meaning by focusing my attention to the run it´s a sign that I´m feeling concentrated rather than acting mindless. Step by step. Touching the ground again and again. Lifting the feet from the ground again and again. Touching. Lifting. Touching. Lifting. Reducing speed. Increasing speed. Touching. Lifting. Touching Lifting. Moving forward. Step by step.
Holy words
No matter which project I´m currently working on. No matter which goal I intend to achieve. No matter if I´m taking minor steps, major steps or no steps at all. Time will pass anyway.
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Martin