As an early career researcher, and particularly as a woman, you've been socialized to say yes to everything and to please everyone. And in the academic world, you may not realize that it's okay to say no to things. That if somebody comes to you with a request to sit on a committee or to join a particular project, you can say no. That doesn't eliminate the discomfort of saying no. And we'll talk about that plenty in future episodes. But it is actually okay for you to say no. But how do you decide what you say yes to and what you say no to? If you've been accustomed to saying yes to everything, of course, saying no to anything is going to feel deeply uncomfortable. And so having a set of criteria or standards that a particular request has to meet makes that process somewhat easier in the sense that it can be, you know, slightly more objective. Welcome to the Significant Impact Podcast, the show dedicated to helping overstretched, overachieving women faculty convert their career development award into their first big R01 with purpose, with ease, and with joy. I'm your host, Sarah Dobson. In this episode, I want to talk about having a sense of direction for your research career. You may already think you have a direction or at least a vague sense of where you're headed, but the clearer you can get about where you're headed, the more efficient and successful you can be. Let's get started. So I want to remind you, first of all, that yes, this show is about navigating the process of converting your career development award to R01 level funding. But I don't think about that in a short-term way. Because I don't think that serves you well in the long run. In fact, I know that it doesn't serve you well in the long run because I've been working with women at this career stage for a really long time. And I can tell you that if you're just focusing on the grant writing part of the K-2R transition, you're gonna have a much harder time. So I wanted to talk today about creating a career compass, which is a way to help you navigate your research career. And this not only serves you in terms of how you design your career, but it also helps you figure out which grants you write and when and where to submit them. A career compass is a way to be intentional and thoughtful about how you design your career. Without one, you can end up overworked and burned out and really unhappy because you haven't really thought about where you're going or how you'll get there. A career compass helps you make conscious decisions about what you want to work on. Inside my program, we create your career compass by taking you through a process that helps you identify what we call your career north star. And I love this analogy because back in olden times, people used to navigate using the North Star. It was the one star in the sky that did not appear to move. And so it helped navigators figure out which way was north. In the same way, you can use your career North Star as a tool to help you figure out if you're headed in the right direction. Because those elements that make up your North Star, your values, your mission, your purpose, are fixed. They're not going to change all that much. So, how do you use your North Star to navigate your career? Well, I see this happening in three main ways. Number one is to help you make decisions about where you prioritize your time and your energy and your capacity. The second way is to help you organize your program of research. And number three is to help you plan and assess whether you are on track. So let's talk about each of those. All right. So number one, how do you use your North Star to help you make decisions? I see this really as giving yourself a framework or a set of standards to help you filter what you say yes to and what you say no to. As an early career researcher, and particularly as a woman, you have been socialized to say yes to everything and to please everyone. And in the academic world, you may not realize that it's okay to say no to things. That if somebody comes to you with a request to sit on a committee or to join a particular project, you can say no. That doesn't eliminate the discomfort of saying no. And we'll talk about that plenty in future episodes. But it is actually okay for you to say no. But how do you decide what you say yes to and what you say no to? If you've been accustomed to saying yes to everything, of course, saying no to anything is going to feel deeply uncomfortable. And so having a set of criteria or standards that a particular request has to meet makes that process somewhat easier in the sense that it can be, you know, slightly more objective, let's say. It's not, you're not making a decision just in the moment. You have created a framework or a set of standards to be able to make these decisions. And so when you are creating that framework, it's really based on what is going to help you make the impact that you want to make in your career. Right. It's really based on the North Star that you have created for yourself. What is your ultimate objective? And is this request going to help you meet that objective, or is it going to take you off on a different path? And once you have a clear sense of where you're headed, it's a lot easier to identify what is taking you off track versus what is going to help you get you where you want to go. And so I think personally that is one of the most useful ways to use this concept, this tool. But then what is also really interesting about the North Star is that it's also deeply pragmatic because number two, it helps you organize your program of research. And the way that it helps you organize your program of research is because we know where you're headed, we know the type of impact that you want to make. And that helps focus the big picture scientific or clinical or population level problem that you are trying to solve, which is a big part of any grant application that you're submitting, is describing the context in which your proposed research is taking place. And so with your North Star, we have at least that first piece of the puzzle, right? We understand what you're ultimately going for, what your long-term goal actually is. And from there, it's much easier to sort of work backwards and identify what those initial steps are in getting you where you want to go. And so in that way, it can help you organize your program of research. So, how can you use your North Star to help plan and assess whether you're on track? This is number three. And I see this tool or this concept being useful here because it's not just a one-time exercise. To me, this is really, you know, among other tools that I teach, is foundational. It's sort of first principles. And so it's something you can always come back to when you're feeling a little bit lost or off track or unsure, is you return to first principles and first of all, sort of get a lay of the land. What's going on here? And you can use the work that you did in developing your career North Star to help you identify what's working and what's not working and other areas where you can refine what you're doing, whether that's on the research side, the sort of programmatic side, or whether it's on the priorities and capacity and planning side of things, right? So it's really useful to be able to have a guiding star, right? To help you notice when you have strayed from what you claim to be most important to you. And then it also helps you sort of reestablish that pathway that you're on. Bottom line, it's really easy to pile things onto your plate without really thinking about how they fit into the overall picture for your career. And being overstretched in that way can really undermine your research efforts because you are spreading yourself way too thin instead of staying hyper-focused on where you want to go and the impact that you want to make. Having a career compass gives you that sense of direction and allows you to make better decisions about how you're spending your time and your energy and your capacity so that the majority of your efforts are in service of the research that you want to do and the impact that you want to make. Thanks for listening to this episode of Significant Impact, from K Award to your first big R01. If you want to geek out on what we learned today and move a significant step closer to getting your R01 funded, visit Sarahdobson.co slash pod and check out all the free stuff we have to help you do just that. Is there a specific question you have about the K-2R transition that you'd like me to talk about on the show? Head to Sarahdobson.co slash pod and click on the listener question form to submit your question. You can choose to be anonymous or you can leave your name. It's totally up to you. But here's what I know. If you have a question, chances are you're not alone. So the questions you submit to the show won't just help you, they'll help everyone who listens. Head to Sarahdobson.co slash pod and submit your question now. Don't forget to subscribe to the show to make sure you hear new episodes as soon as they're released. If today's episode made you think of a colleague or a friend, please tell them about it. We need more fearless, tenacious researchers out here. Tune in next time and thanks again for listening.