• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Professor Is In

Guidance for all things PhD: Graduate School, Job Market and Careers

  • Home
  • Courses & Webinars
    • How To …
    • The Art of the Academic Cover Letter
    • The Art of the Article
    • Unstuck: The Art of Productivity
    • On Demand Courses
    • Upcoming Live Webinars
    • Free Productivity Webinars
    • Gift Certificates
  • Personalized Job App Help
    • Document Editing
    • Quick Reviews
    • Specials
    • Interview Prep
    • Personal Negotiating Assistance
    • One on One Career Consults
    • Testimonials
    • Interview Testimonials
    • Graduate School Application Assistance
  • The Professor Is /Out/
    • It’s OK to Quit
    • Our Art of Leaving Program
    • Prof Is OUT Services
    • Our Prof Is OUT Team
    • Prof is OUT Client Testimonials
    • Ex-Academics: A TPIO Support Community
  • Workshops
  • Coaching
    • Pre-Tenure Coaching Group
    • Leaving Academia Coaching Group
  • Blog
  • Podcast

Just One Thing: Rewrite for Accuracy

By Kel Weinhold | June 21, 2022

Continuing to talk about distorted thinking.

Last week I wrote about beginning to challenge distorted thinking by asking simple questions. If you missed it, you can read it here.

This week’s Just One Thing takes us one step further with replacing the unhelpful thoughts with a more positive thought.

Rewrite for Accuracy

What we are aiming for is harnessing our neuroplasticity. (One of the key components of Unstuck, BTW). In other words, we want to change our thinking.

The steps are simple.

  1. Notice the thing: Take the time to notice what is happening in your mind. (Mindfulness)
  2. Investigate the thing: (See last week’s post).
  3. Disprove the thing: Use facts to dismantle the thought. (Correction)
  4. Replace the thing. (Classic cognitive behavioral work).

What does that mean in terms of showing up for writing?

First we start looking for the core beliefs we have about ourselves as academics.
Fair warning, these are often not only so ingrained we don’t even think of them as beliefs but rather truths, but they are also very often painful and dark. We don’t usually say them out loud to many people, but wow are they there!

Example:
I’m not qualified to do this.

There is a good chance we have repeated this thought so many times that it is ingrained as a fact rather than an opinion. That “fact” also feeds a bunch of other little thoughts like, I’ll never get a job, I’ll never get published and on and on.

  1. Notice the thing: I’m not qualified to do this.
  2. Investigate: Is that true? What does “qualified” mean?
  3. Disprove: What qualifications do I have that match the requirements? Have I ever been partially qualified at anything and become more qualified? Can I do that here? Start the list of all of your qualifications for the “job” you are talking about.
  4. Write a true sentence: I have a lot of the necessary qualifications to do this, and I am more than capable of acquiring new ones as I go along.
  5. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Just One Thing: Rewrite for accuracy

Similar Posts:

  • Just One Thing: Investigate your thoughts!
  • Just One Thing: Rewrite Your Stories
  • Productivity: False Beliefs (with coaching podcast!)
  • Productivity: Find Your Joy. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
  • Productivity: The Stories We Tell

Filed Under: Productivity, Unstuck, Writing

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Buy My Book!

4.8 stars on Amazon!

The_Professor_Is_In.indd

Get Immediate Help

In addition to our blog and book, we have upcoming live webinars, pre-recorded webinars and other programs that you can get started on right away:

The Art of the Academic Cover Letter
The Art of the Article
Unstuck: The Art of Productivity
Quick Reviews
Free Productivity Webinars

Categories

  • #MeTooPhD
  • Academic Job Search
    • How To Choose and Manage Recommenders
    • How to Interview
    • How To Write Academic Job Cover Letters
    • How To Write CVs
    • Landing Your Tenure Track Job
    • Major Job Market Mistakes
    • Negotiating Offers
  • Adjunct Issues
  • Advising Advice
  • Alt-University Critique
  • Black Lives Matter
  • COVID19
  • Dispatches
  • Goodbye Ivory Towers
  • Graduate Student Concerns
    • Bad Advisors and Good Mentors
  • How To Do Conferences
  • How to Get Grants and Fellowships
  • International Perspectives
  • Intersectional Analyses
  • Makeup
  • Marginalized Voices
  • Mental Health and Academia
  • Ph.D. Poverty
  • Podcast
  • Post-Ac Free-Lancing and Small Business
  • Post-Ac Job Search
    • Careers Outside
  • Postdoc Issues
  • Productivity
    • Book Proposals and Contracts
    • Publishing Issues
    • Writing
  • Promote Yourself!
  • Quitting–An Excellent Option
  • Racism in the Academy
  • Rearview Mirror
  • Resumes & Postac Docs
  • Sexual Harassment in the Academy
  • Shame
  • Stop.Acting.Like.A.Grad.Student
  • Strategizing Your Success in Academia
  • Teaching and Research Statements
  • Teaching Demos
  • Teaching Portfolios
  • Tenure–How To Get It
    • How To Build Your Tenure File
    • Surviving Assistant Professorhood
  • The Campus Visit
  • Unstuck
  • Webinars
  • What Not To Wear
  • Women of Color in Academia
  • Work/Life Balance in Academia
  • Yes, You Can: Women in Academia
  • Your Second and Third Jobs

Footer

About Us

  • Who Is Dr. Karen?
  • Who Is On the TPII Team?
  • In The News
  • Contact Me
  • FAQs
    • Why Trust Me?
  • Testimonials

Community

  • #MeTooPhD
  • Peer Editing
  • PhD Debt Survey
  • Support Fund
  • I Help With Custody Cases for Academics

Copyright © 2023 The Professor Is In·