Post 150. A Motivator for Your Writing. November 25, 2024
Dear Real Academics,
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Pic of the Week
Upclose picture of flowers at the FIU campus.
Tip of the Week
Academic writing is hard to do, so how can we motivate ourselves to do it?
There are many ways, but one way is to practice gratitude.
In the excerpt from my upcoming book below, I reflect on the importance of gratitude with respect to academia and writing:
Gratitude is powerful for maintaining passion and perseverance—especially in the face of difficulty.
In her New York Times bestseller, One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp (2010) chronicles a path through healing from a childhood traumatic event by keeping a gratitude list. She admits that writing the list at first felt foreign because, “…I am a woman who speaks…discontentment and self-condemnation, the critical eye and the never satisfied” (p. 46).
That sounds a lot like what academia can become!
We are trained to use “critical eyes” for our work, but we must avoid turning that negativity inward, towards ourselves, or outwards, towards life.
As Voskamp explains, “Writing the [gratitude] list, it makes me feel…happy. All day…I can’t understand how it does that” (p. 46).
Eventually, writing a gratitude list transformed her outlook on life and helped her persist and move forward.
Isn’t that what we need? To persist? To move forward?
When we choose to see our circumstances, even difficult ones, through the lens of gratitude, it’s much easier to persevere and to maintain passion for our life, goals, and, yes, even for our writing.
In Closing…
How has gratitude helped you with your writing? And/or how can gratitude help you moving forward?
I’d love to know! If you are able, please leave a comment. If not, please email me at inforealacademics@gmail.com
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