A friend who is working on his dissertation lamented that the work reminded him of what happens after a big snow. “I shoveled for a half hour and cleared the end of the driveway,” he said. “And then the plow kept coming by. It’s progress, then setback.”
It’s clearly an apt analogy as anyone who has ever written a dissertation will attest, but the “one step forward, one back” aspect applies to most projects. You try something and fail. You hire someone, then have a learning curve while training them. You submit a project idea and it’s rejected. You lose weight then gain a few pounds back after a binge.
The trick is to adjust your mindset to know that the snow and the plow are both coming again — to see that as a natural phase of the process rather than a barrier or reason to quit. Shovel the driveway again and keep at the work. Eventually, you will achieve your goal.
Thanks, Dave!
