• Think about various things you can accomplish as tiers—aspirational, goal, task. {ENDPOINT TIERS}

    Expertise implies connecting these tiers and understanding how your everyday work can grow to your aspiration or, at least, your goal. Thus, yes, you must split goals into tasks. {MAP YOUR DREAM}

    The lack of motivation caused by failing is often another thing. Wouldn’t challenging goals result in demotivation? Of course, they can. It is a delicate balance that depends on the type of job, your resources, and your personality.

    Sidney Lumet, one of the most accomplished movie directors ever, asserts in his book “Making Movies” that self-deception is crucial in initiating any creative endeavor. Without it, one might never take the first step. {LACK OF MOTIVATION, MOTIVATION THEORIES}

    However, let’s be honest: most jobs are not inherently ‘creative, ‘and self-deception is a lousy partner in these cases. If you aim to build a house but lack the necessary skills and resources, you will not succeed.

    {FAIL FORWARD, COMMON SENSE}

  • When you understand it is not meaningful for you—when the idea of achieving it no longer delights you.

    Or if you come to an understanding that it is out of reach.

    {FOLLOW YOUR DREAM, FIGHT TILL THE END, ENDPOINT TIERS}

  • You understand by observing and communicating.

    Observing behavior and, most importantly, its results helps you understand people as people spend their resources on what they truly value.

    Communicate with people: ask direct questions, get responses, and analyze them. And ask new questions.

    {COMMUNICATION PRINCIPLES, CALIBRATE YOUR PERCEPTION, COMMON SENSE}

  • What goals should we aim at? Should we aim at low-hanging fruits and be happy with getting them, or should we aim high and be frustrated when missing? You decide.

    The proverbial wisdom suggests safe options: “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” And it reflects how most people live. According to Rosen et al. (2003), three out of four people are risk averse, and only one out of ten is an active risk taker.

    What is realistic?

    “Realistic” means something that you or others demonstrated having achieved. Thus, realism is never about something completely new.

    The more innovative things you want to do, the more uncertainty there is. And the probability of not achieving your goals or achieving them much later than expected increases.

    Defending a Ph.D. thesis and publishing articles are realistic. Finding a cure for cancer is less so.

    Which goal tier one aims at—aspiration, goals, or task—everyone decides for himself and faces the consequences anyway. {ENDPOINT TIERS}

    Another connected thing is ownership of goals. If you work for others, the situation is more straightforward (and realistic). They will provide you with the criteria for success and failure, endpoints, and parameters.

    While working for yourself, you must formulate criteria, and often, you are the judge. Yet, you must also take responsibility and be proactive in securing the necessary resources to achieve your goals. It is ambitious and less realistic, yet if you succeed, you will reap greater benefits than if you only follow realistic goals given by others.

    {MAP YOUR DREAM, ECPM, THE 5 EXCHANGES}

  • First, as a Ph.D. student, you usually have a supervisor who, due to her expertise in the field, must serve as your mentor, help you understand goals, and rationally split them into tasks. {THE 5 EXCHANGES}

    Second, as a Ph.D. grows from research, be prepared that no one ever has all steps crystal clear at the start. Uncertainty is the rule of the game; otherwise, it is not research.

    Yet, do not let the inevitable and exciting uncertainty become an excuse for sloppiness. {ECPM, MAP YOUR DREAM}

    A Ph.D. project is predictable only when the Ph.D. title becomes a product. You might have heard about such cases. The customer gets an agreed number of papers, a written Ph.D. book, and the confirmation of the title, which she will then use to appear bright in fields usually far from science. All these are according to an agreed price.

    It has nothing to do with research, though; it is the commerce of the most despicable kind.

  • Failing is the way of learning.

    When you learn to do something, it does not happen by magic: you try, fail, try again with some new knowledge, then fail, try, and finally learn a skill.

    Yet, when you sell your expertise, the customer expects you to have learned everything before asking for money. The customer expects results, and there is little space for “successful failing.”

    {FAIL FORWARD, EXPERT, ECPM, EXPECTANCY, THE 5 EXCHANGES}

  • Absolutely.

    You can treat it as a pilot, an experiment, a lab: you learned there. {FAIL FORWARD, BUILD YOUR LAB}

    Moreover, if you think about your life as a journey toward an aspiration (larger context), it will be easier to learn from any failure. {ENDPOINT TIERS, FEEDBACK}

    However, if you have no endpoint and no journey attitude, even successes (e.g., a defended Ph. D. without genuine interest in science) will have no meaning.