I had planned a completely different topic to blog about this week, but while I was participating in a 5-day Facebook leads challenge, the presenter asked us to think about what we stand for. This is a question I have asked myself in the past and found difficult to answer.
What does it even mean? Things I think are important? Things I would go out of my way to promote? Things that are relevant to my personal life or does it have to be at the societal level?
I’ve decided that it doesn’t matter exactly what the asker of the question meant, or even what a largely shared consensus of the question might be. As it relates to my coaching practice supporting EdD/PhD students, here are the things I stand for:
I stand for
- Self-love, self-compassion, self-confidence, and self-reliance
- Seeing our intrinsic value, instead of the value placed on us by our positions in society
- Finding and using our authentic voices
- Permitting ourselves to lean on others to realize our dreams
- An end to struggling in silence
- An end to the tyranny of perfectionism
- An end to self-flagellation
- An end to impostor syndrome
- An end to the shame of wanting to put ourselves first
I’m here to tell you that you are worthy of earning a doctoral degree. You do not need permission to want this for yourself. You do not need a humanitarian reason for wanting the degree. You don’t even need to have a plan for what to do with your degree after you earn it.
You can earn your degree gracefully, with inner peace. It is OK to prioritize your needs ahead of others. It is OK to lean on others. It’s OK that you see your family and friends trying to support you, but the support isn’t what you need. It is OK to change your role within your partnership, marriage, family, friends, and workplace to accomplish your goal. You can get past any roadblock along the way to graduation and not drown in chaos, mind drama, and overwhelm. If you can’t imagine getting through your program with your mental health intact, then we should talk.
