Possibility Mindset Over Constraints

SPEAKER_00 0:01

If you start small, if you think, well, this is how things are done, this is what I have available to me, this is what I need to make work, that is what your career is going to look like. But if you decide instead to wave a magic wand and say, this is what I want for myself, this is what is possible for me, this is what would be the best, most fulfilling, most impactful, most meaningful career path for me. If you start there, that is going to be much more fun and exciting and interesting to you than working with the raw materials that you have available, right? And I think the reason that we start with the raw materials that we have in front of us is because we get stuck too soon on the how. Instead of focusing on why we want to do something or just imagining all of the possibilities, we immediately go to the how because we are process-oriented people.

Welcome And Episode Focus

SPEAKER_00 1:16

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 today's episode, I want to talk about creating the conditions for success in your career. This is sort of a part two or follow-on from last week's episode about conscious versus unconscious decision making, because I think a lot of the unconscious decisions we make are based on our beliefs about what is possible. Okay, let's get started.

Messages That Narrow Academic Success

SPEAKER_00 1:58

As an early career researcher, especially as a woman, and even more so if you hold intersecting marginalized identities, you get a lot of messages about how academia works and where and how you belong in that space. For example, you might get messages around, this is how things have always been done, and therefore you must also do them this way. You might get messages around, this is how you demonstrate that you're being productive. For example, by churning out a certain number of grants per year to show that you're trying. And we're gonna do an entire episode on that. I promise you, it drives me bonkers. You might also get messages about, you know, this is how you advance in your career, and that is what you should start doing, right? You might also get messages about this is what success looks like, and this is essentially the only way to be successful. And I'd say most insidiously, you get the message that you are lucky to be here at all, that you are replaceable, and therefore you should be grateful for this opportunity. And all of those messages give you a really narrow scope of how to succeed as a researcher. So, more often than not, you unconsciously adopt that narrow scope and you do your best to check all those boxes and you make yourself miserable in the process. But I want to offer you this do not let your circumstances dictate what is possible for you.

Reject Circumstances And Define Success

SPEAKER_00 3:39

Instead, decide what you want and create the conditions for success. And what that is really about is defining success for yourself. Okay, so how do you do that? Well, here's an example that I use in grant writing, actually, that I think applies equally well to career design.

Magic Wand Approach To R01 Design

SPEAKER_00 4:07

So when I'm working with researchers who are in that sort of early design phase for their R01, I encourage them to start with a magic wand rather than the raw materials that they have in front of them. And the reason that I recommend that they start with a magic wand is because I want them to think more expansively about what they are doing and how they can answer the research question that they are asking in the best possible way, right? Think about it. So if you want to answer a particular research question or test a hypothesis, if you start from the place of, well, I've got one RA and I've got this equipment in my lab, but I probably can't ask for budget for this other piece of equipment that I really need, you're gonna design around that, right? And you're gonna keep yourself a lot smaller than you need to be. And you're probably not gonna answer your research question in the best way. But if you start from the place of, well, if I wave a magic wand, if I could do this exactly as I wanted to do it, what would that look like? If that's where you start, that expands the possibilities for you in terms of what you can do and how you can do it and finding the best way to answer that question. And from there, that's when you start figuring out how you can make that happen, right? You don't start with what you have in front of you. You start with what you would need to do the best possible job to be excellent, right? Rather than to answer the question using what you already have in front of you. And that is it's more interesting, it's more exciting, it's more fun, and it's gonna get you

Start With Why Before How

SPEAKER_00 6:07

a better result, right? So, in the exact same way, you can use that principle when you're thinking about how you want to design your career, right? Again, if you start small, if you think, well, this is how things are done, this is what I have available to me, this is what I need to make work, that is what your career is gonna look like. But if you decide instead to wave a magic wand and say, this is what I want for myself, this is what is possible for me, this is what would be the best, most fulfilling, most impactful, most meaningful career path for me. If you start there, that is going to be much more fun and exciting and interesting to you than working with the raw materials that you have available, right? And I think the reason that we start with the raw materials that we have in front of us is because we get stuck too soon on the how, right? Instead of focusing on why we want to do something or just imagining all of the possibilities, we immediately go to the how because we are process-oriented people. I speak from experience. I do this all the time, and I really have to catch myself to not immediately go to, well, how is that gonna work? Right? That's that's just how uh that's just how our brains function. But you need to catch yourself in those moments and stay as long as you can in the why, in the purpose and the vision and the big expansive, exciting possibilities rather than, well, how am I gonna do that? Because as soon as you move to the how, you get stuck. And that's because you can't see all of the steps in front of you. You might be able to see the first step, but you can't see how it's all gonna play out. And if you can't see the whole path, you just kind of abandon the path altogether, right? But what I want you to start doing is to leave

Baby Steps: Start With What

SPEAKER_00 8:19

the how as long as you possibly can and just live in the why, the again, the purpose and the vision as long as you possibly can. There's actually a great TED talk on this called Start with Why, and it's by uh Simon Sinek, and he's actually written a book on this topic as well, but it's based on that idea of starting with the why and the purpose and the vision rather than starting with the what or the how. And I will say though, that sometimes, especially if you're not accustomed to allowing yourself to think in this way, allowing yourself to think so expansively, it can be a little bit tricky to identify the why, the vision and the purpose, right? So I would at least, as a baby step, recommend that you start with what? What do I want to do? What's the question that I want to answer? What am I trying to accomplish here? Rather than going immediately to the how. That is still a way to separate yourself from the process and the logistics of it all and focus more on why you're doing what you're doing and what you want to do. Because again, the sooner you move to the how, the sooner you get yourself stuck. The sooner you start designing around your limitations instead of around your possibilities. And that is really what we want to avoid as much as possible.

Personal Metrics That Actually Matter

SPEAKER_00 9:50

The bottom line here in creating the conditions for success is that you get to define what success looks like. You decide that why. So here's a personal example. So, as you know, I run a business and I've been running this business for almost seven years now. And in the business world, there is a lot of focus on external metrics of success, right? And, you know, a big one being revenue. And a lot of times there, well, there's just a lot of pressure to meet certain metrics to show that you are, you know, doing a good job, that you are successful. And of course, as an overachiever, I started chasing those metrics because I wanted to feel like I belonged. I wanted to prove that I was doing a good job, and I wanted to win. That is just my personality. But when I really stepped back and thought about what mattered to me, what I was actually doing here, and what was fulfilling to me, those external markers of success became completely irrelevant. They don't matter to me nearly as much as providing a supportive environment for my employees, for example. They don't matter as much to me as helping our clients succeed in getting their grants funded and being able to do the work that they want to do. Those general business success metrics don't matter to me as much as having a spacious schedule where I have plenty of time for creativity and for other parts of my life that are really meaningful to me. So when I really thought about chasing those external markers of success, I realized that for me, those do not matter. And if I wanted to feel successful, I needed to create the conditions for my success. And the way to do that was to define what success looked like for me. And it was exactly those pieces that I told you. Am I creating a supportive working environment for my employees? Do I have a spacious schedule? Are we serving our clients in a way that gets them funded and allows them to make an impact with their research? Those are the things that mattered to me way more than all of those sort of vanity metrics that are out there that often motivate business owners.

Choose Your Definition And Lead

SPEAKER_00 12:38

So if you are creating the conditions for your success by defining what success looks like for you, I encourage you to base that definition of success on what is meaningful and impactful and fulfilling to you rather than basing it on how well you meet the expectations of an institution that treats you like you're replaceable or expects you to churn out grants like a robot to demonstrate that you're being productive. So, because of that, your definition of success might be at odds with your institutions. But there is so much power in recognizing that you get to choose. And I also think that you'll find by pursuing your own version of success, you'll end up meeting, if not exceeding, your institution's expectations. But you're doing it your way, which is so much better.

Resources, Questions, And Closing

SPEAKER_00 13:32

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.