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As a researcher, you practise uncertainty. You have a question and you don't know the answer. You design an experiment that tests a hypothesis, you gather data from the experiment and interpret the information to create a result. The researchers that I see that consistently move their research forward are those that can take the … Continue reading Practising Uncertainty

You have so many good ideas. You have spent a lot of time generating and capturing your ideas, investing your time into exploring your ideas and suddenly you have something to write about. You begin by writing them all down and expanding on them all in your drafts. This starts to get overwhelming. Now you … Continue reading Why is it so hard to let go of our ideas?

What does it mean to “run your own” race? To put the blinders on, not worry about what the other horses are doing and go for it.  When you have an idea, do you go to google and see if anyone else has thought of it? Why is that? If someone has done it - … Continue reading The Blinder Benefit

There is so much that is happening inside our minds when we sit down to write.   The ideas and questions that come up around our ideas - “there’s so many; which one should I follow?” often creating overwhelm.  The doubts of “who am I to say this?”  The fears of criticism: “what if they … Continue reading Being Human And Writing

In academic writing, sometimes our brains may tell us that what we are writing is boring. When this happens, we often use our willpower to force ourselves to complete the task. Our brain will say things like:  We signed up for this didn't we? Just get it done!  That’s one way.  Another way is to … Continue reading Being Bored is a Bothersome Block

Recently, I created a presentation to guest lecture for a project management in research course where I was asked to share about how project managers can coach team members to maintain momentum in their projects.  As I create my presentations by writing scripts first, I learned something, again, about the importance of letting go of our … Continue reading Letting go of New York

We have this idea that we need big chunks of time to write and when we don’t have them then we don’t have time to write. This is an imaginary time management problem. I believe the desire for the big chunks of time is because getting into the flow of writing seems to require an … Continue reading Do you feel like you need big chunks of time to write?

The phrase of “wouldn’t it be nice if … ” popped into in my head the other day and I thought to myself - "Isn't that a song lyric?". I went to google, of course, and it reminded me that this is a Beach Boys song. I played it as I was walking to the … Continue reading Can music and writing go together?

Alice, my two year old daughter, had her first swimming lesson two Saturdays ago.  She seemed to be looking forward to it; however, when we entered the change room she refused to take her coat off, let alone change into her swim suit, and repeated over and over “No. I don’t want to.” I felt … Continue reading Small Steps Towards Making a Big Splash

It’s: “Why does writing take so long? Well, let me tell you a secret. The reason writing takes so long is because while we are writing we are managing all of the self-doubt, fear and concerns that come up as we move through the writing process. We may hear these as thoughts in our head … Continue reading Can you guess what the most frequently asked question from my clients is?