Mantra

Most of you have probably read Ambivalent Academic's terrific post for Samia's excellent zomg grad school!!!1 carnival.  My favorite part of the post was her recommendation to have a mantra.  I had a mantra in my pre- and early grad school days, which was "Take care of it!" but it was usually directed at someone else rather than used to motivate myself.  In contrast, I had a motivating mantra for grad school, and now I have a different one for my postdoc.

The grad school mantra was "you're a Good Scientist".  It came up one day with my science best friend (SBF), a colleague from an institution in another state who was visiting to learn a lab technique. We started saying things like, "a Good Scientist would stay and finish this" or "you're such a Good Scientist for learning that statistical analysis", or "I'm a Good Scientist, because I did everything on my list".  That held over after SBF left and helped get me through my thesis writing: "a Good Scientist would write one more paragraph".  Since I very much wanted to be a Good Scientist (and still do!), I would find a way to rustle up some more concentration and write another paragraph. 

Now my mantra is "put on your big girl panties".  I love this one, which I got from my sister-in-law.  It means, "grow up! stop being a whiny baby wearing diapers, put on your big girl panties, and get it done" It means you need to do the things you are capable of doing even if you don't want to do them.  I have to say this to myself a lot these days because I have to do a lot of things that are outside my comfort zone.