Escape the Ivory Tower

Open office hours tonight!

I’m so excited that it’s that time again — I adore spending time talking to people on the phone.

Over the past few sessions, I’ve talked to people about how to shape their job materials, helped them start thinking about a new direction for their careers, and listened while people told me stories that were both funny and tragic about their lives in the world of academe. I’d love to talk to you!

So if you’ve got a question, a dilemma, a frustration, something to celebrate, or something to vent about, call me tonight during Open Office Hours!

7:00 – 8:30 pm ET

(301) 927-0083

Talk to you then!

Monday roundup: Double edition

A weekly collection of the interesting, intriguing, and otherwise notable stuff I find around the web. If you have something to add, comment!

(Aside: Sorry for the disappearing act. My father-in-law died a week and a half ago and it’s taken me this long to get myself back on track. I’ll tack a week on to the calling thread into September….)

The New York Times wonders if the hiring debacle is the fault of tenured profs who just won’t retire. A panel of academics weighs in.

Has your ability to do simple things (addition! division!) disintegrated under the weight of academia? Now I know I’m not alone.

The AAUP and the New Faculty Majority both submitted statements advocating for tenure for adjuncts and the dismantling of tiered academic labor. Favorite dissenter/pragmatist/whipping-boy Dean Dad weighs in and then again a few days later.

How to avoid being a jerk in the classroom. Really, the title says it all.

U.S. academics don’t really understand the systems abroad, and vice versa.

A faculty member in psychology considers the social trap of both being responsible for graduate students (and their job prospects) and needing to admit and graduate lots of grad students to be deemed “successful.”

One woman’s story of being a trailing spouse.

Editing to fix that last link — thanks Cate!

Start from your ideal

If defining your passion and your values is creating stuck or resistance, try getting to your calling by starting from a vision of your ideal life.

Here’s how it works

Put yourself someplace you can concentrate without interruption. Take a couple of deep breaths to center yourself. Then begin imagining your ideal day — not a vacation day, but your ideal everyday day.

Where are you when you wake up? What time of day is it? Who’s with you? What does your sleeping space look like? What are you wearing?

What happens next? Do you eat breakfast? If so, what is it? Where do you eat it? Who, if anyone, do you eat it with?

What does “getting ready for the day” entail? What are you wearing when you’re ready for the day?

Where do you go next? Who’s around? How far is it? What does this space look like? What do you do there?

Where do you eat lunch? What does that consist of? Who, if anyone, is with you?

What happens after lunch? Where are you? What are you doing?

What does the time between lunch and dinner consist of?

What do you eat for dinner? Where do you eat dinner? Who’s with you? When does it happen?

What happens after dinner? Where are you? What are you doing?

When do you go to bed? What does “getting ready for bed” consist of? Who’s with you?

Why this is useful

It’s easy to get caught up in “what’s possible.” By focusing on our ideal (every) day, we can free ourselves from our limited ideas of what’s possible and start honing in on the lifestyle and activities that speak to our deep selves.

Once you’ve got a sense of your ideal day, you can work backwards — what does this tell you about your passion and your values? If you already had a sense of your passion and your values, what insight does your ideal day provide about how you want to be living? What does this imply about what happens next?

Using your passion, your values, and your ideal day to create a map of your dreams creates the ground for thinking about how to turn those dreams into a lived reality — and that’s what we’ll be talking about next week.

Site Links

Affiliate Policy

Site Credits

Find Me Online