Introduction:

Hey friend, the time has come to finish your dissertation, graduate and become doctor. Welcome to office hours with dr Lacy where we talk about how to finally master this time management thing so you can stay on top of it without losing your mind. Every Wednesday you can find a new episode, wherever you listen to podcasts, make sure you hit the subscribe button to make sure you never miss an episode. I'm dr Marvette Lacy, your dissertation writing strategist here to be with you along every step of the way and I would like to thank you for coming to today's office hours. Let's get started on today's episode. Hey, one quick thing before we get started with today's episode. Have you downloaded your qual scholars plan of study yet? You know the plan that walks you through step by step so you can go from feeling stuck, confused and overwhelmed to feeling like you finally have your shit together. I tell you exactly what you need to do from more discipline, consistency, and structuring your dissertation process. All you need to do is go to MarvetteLacy.com/plan to get short copy today. 

Be Confident:

Now for real, let's get on to the show. Hey everyone. So today I want to talk to you about how to have more confidence to write. Um, a lot of clients come to me and they just say like, I don't have the confidence, I don't know, like what I'm really talking about. I don't feel like I know enough. I look up to all these people in my field who are experts on this topic and I just feel like I don't match up to them. And so this translate into, they go sit down to write, they open up their laptop and they end up spending hours and hours staring at their laptops screen because they just feel like whatever they're going to say or whatever they're going to write is just not going to be anywhere as good as what they've been reading and those people that they look up to.

And so I often have a conversation with them about, you know, like really what's going on. And have you ever stopped to think about that the very people that you look up to, they also had a starting point. And you all know, especially if you've been listening to the podcast for any length of time, you know how big I am about looking at the people who we look up to, like in society, like celebrities and going back and really thinking about their career over a span of time and really focusing on their starting place. And that we all have to start at zero. And we all make choices every day, whether or not we're going to continue to practice our skills and if we're going to continue to show up for ourselves so that we can get to the place where we see other people, um, who are famous or celebrities or the big names in the field so we can get to that place.

Dunning-Kruger Effect:

Um, but when you're in a moment, oftentimes it can just feel very daunting and overwhelming. And you may think like, you know, I just can't do it. It's not for me. And that's what I want to talk about today is that feeling of why you feel that way, why you feel like you will never measure up, but match up to those people. Um, and what's going on from a psychological point of view. And this is not going to be just your normal rara. You can do it type of episode or conversation. I mean, even though that is true, you can do it. I just want to give you a different perspective from something I learned earlier this year when I was in my coaching program, my business coaching program and the coach there, um, explained or introduced this concept to us as a group. And I want to share it with you because I've used it with clients, I've explained it to them.

It's a big piece or um, it's a big module within the writing workshop, um, that we really spend some time in like diving deep into this concept and how it applies to the dissertation and how it applies to our everyday life. And so I want to share a piece of that with you today. But if you listen to this and you're like, yes, yes, yes, I want more of this and I definitely encourage you to come and sign up for the writing workshop because we go even deeper there. But today I just give you a little, like an appetizer of sorts and we are going to be talking about the Dunning-Kruger effect. So this effect is named after researchers, David Dunning and Justin Kruger. The Dunning-Kruger effect, uh, essentially like describes how people who are new to something or they know very little about a particular process, um, but they believe that they are smarter and more capable than they really are because they don't necessarily know enough, um, to recognize that they're not as skilled and like competent as they think they are.

Um, a lot of times maybe you like relate to this, think about like masters students, right? Um, uh, I have a home girl, Dr. Joan Collier, who's, who will say like master students, they know just enough to be dangerous, right? So, but they feel like they know all the things, right? But they just really get like a survey sampling of the field. Again, which is interesting, right? Because most people will stop at a master's degree and they could very well have a very long and successful career with a master's degree. Um, and particularly in student affairs, you know, now the thing is for a lot of people is to go straight from undergrad into their master's degree. Um, and so they don't have much experience or the life or work. Right. And then they go straight into this two year program and they learn all these theories and they learn, you know, these skills.

Maybe they have like practical experiences cause they have practicums or internships. Um, but they really don't know. Right. They don't really, most of them haven't had an opportunity or a really like professional opportunities to really think about who they are as a professional. Um, haven't had much experience or interactions with different types of experiences. Um, certainly not all, but most, cause I'm in speaking general. Right. And so maybe they were the top undergrad student and maybe they weren't a top master student. And so maybe they go and they get their first job and they're there and then they think, you know, I definitely didn't go to get a PhD cause it can be much more difficult then the master's degree. Like I'm a superstar and then they get into the program and their whole world is crush because uh, they quickly learned that a doctoral degree is nothing like a master's degree or, or an undergrad degree.

And, you know, this makes sense because how would they have known, right? That it was different until they got into it. And you can talk to people all day long. You can go and talk to current doctoral students, you can talk to people who I finished and you would ask them questions but you don't know what you don't know. And from the outside things look really simple and straightforward. Like you go to class, you do some courses for like two or three years. You can take an exam and then you write a book, a dissertation and you're good. Right? Like it's, it doesn't seem like it's that difficult. Um, and it is only, um, until like you are in the middle of it that you really realize everything that goes into it or maybe you can relate to it. Um, maybe courses were easier for you, right?

Like maybe you really enjoyed what you were learning, you enjoyed what you were reading and you had different assignments along the way. Your, um, professors or instructors, um, did a great job of integrating, um, pieces of your dissertation project or example projects within the course curriculum. And so you feel like pretty, confident that you can write a dissertation proposal, right? Because you've been practicing for the past two to three years in your courses and then you go to start your proposal and you're like, oh shit, no, this is not, this is not what I thought I was going to be. Right? Like why is it so difficult? And so then you think like, well, clearly it's not the process, right? Because plenty of people had done it. You see all the people on Facebook and Instagram with their defense pictures and their congratulation pictures or you see all these people publishing article after article and so you'd think like if they were able to do it and you know you're smarter than them, then that means something must be wrong with you because you are unable to sit down and write.

Right. Can you relate to this? Let me know. Um, cause you feel like I've been in classes for 20 plus years. I should be able to sit down and write this 200 page manuscript with very little problem. Um, but now you know more because you're inside of it, you're building your own project from start to finish and there is no longer someone giving you a syllabus that walks you step by step of how to do this. Like maybe you did when you were practicing in your classes with those assignments that were supposed to prepare you for the dissertation. No one prepared you to necessarily do this alone and to sit down and be able to not only plan this project out from beginning to end and also no one really prepared you to sit down and write for longer periods of time in a more isolated fashion.

Cause most programs do not have like a dissertation writing class or if they do, maybe they're just really focusing on the literature review and you and that's a whole other can of worms that we will not get into. But to come back and to bring us back into the Dunning Kruger effect, I want to say that this is good news. The fact that you are questioning your ability, the fact that you had these doubts and these fears is a great sign that not only are you aware of the realities of the dissertation process, but also that you know now that you need to acquire a particular skills to write a quality dissertation, right? Not only do you know that you need to get these skills, you may even know exactly which skills you need. And that's great news because you cannot fix a problem unless you are aware that one exists and because you are now aware that it exists, you know, you know the next step of how to figure out the solution to say a problem.

Okay. So if you are looking at the notes, you will see an image of the Dunning Kruger effect and you will see a graph. And um, what you see is like the top right quadrant of the graph. And I want you to think about that the X axis, the one that's going horizontal, right? Um, it is, think of it as a continuum of the level of competence that one has. So at zero, at the far left of the end of the continuum, we are just going to say that that's none. Like you, you have absolutely no competence, no experience within this particular area. So the dissertation in our example, so you have no experience, you've never written one, you like, this is your starting point. After you are a candidate and or you have been approved to start your dissertation right in the middle of this says average.

Um, like you have a considerable amount of experience and competence, right? And then at the far right, you are an expert. You have completed the dissertation, you know exactly what to do and you did it and you have successfully defended it, right? So that's the X axis. And then you have the Y axis, which is a continuum for your level of confidence. So again, at, um, and it's the vertical axis, right? So at the bottom of this Y axis, we're back at zero, right? Cause we're meeting, you know, the, the Y axis intersects with the X axis to form an L. For those of you who are not looking at the image, right forms an L and where the two meet at the bottom again is zero. So this would indicate that you have zero level of confidence, um, because you, you're not even aware that this is a skill that you want yet.

Right? And so again, in the middle it's average and then at the top of the Y axis is very high level of confidence. Okay. And so then there is a shape. This is very interesting to try to describe this when you're not looking at it. But then within the graph itself, imagine that there's a line that goes straight up and goes all the way to the top level of confidence. And then it does this, um, this significant drop into like a U or a bowl shape, um, to say that it goes really high up to confidence and then it drops down in this bowl shape and the level of confidence as you get more competent and then it goes back up to high level of confidence and a high level of expertise. Okay. So y'all, give me some grace. I try my best to describe this image, but again, I really encourage you to scroll down and click at the image there. Cause that would make so much more sense. Right? 

But now that you kind of have an idea what this graph look like, right? So this image is explaining how, again, from outside right, a dissertation looks really simple and easy to do. And, um, you know, like how I used to get this all the time like from family and friends like Oh you've been in school for so long, right? You should know how to do it. It's real simple. Right? And so even you, before you got to where you are right now, you've come, you came into this dissertation process not having much experience in it because you hadn't started yet and maybe your level, your level of confidence was really high. Right? Because it seems really simple, right? You just write it, you just conduct the research and you write it up and you should be done.

Like it should be no problem. So your confidence is at an all time high. So you're at the top point, right. And then as we start to get inside of the proposal, maybe you start to do the literature review, you start to download some articles and you try to review them and you like, I don't, I don't know. I need a clear system. I wish someone would just tell me exactly which articles I'm to download, how many I need, what's the best way to review them? How do I organize it all? Like, do I use software to organize my citations? Like do I use an Excel sheet?, Okay, the literature review is overwhelming. I'm gonna just go to chapter three. I'm gonna think about my methodology, but like, which methodology is best? Do I like do phenomenology? Do I do narrative inquiry? What do I do right?

How Much Do I Really Know:

And then you realize as months and months start to go by, like, and you get more experienced with trying to put this proposal together, you started to realize that like, maybe I don't know what I'm doing. And this, this is you moving down the little bowl area into average level of competence, and/or experience, right? The X axis. But you notice that your confidence has dropped significantly down though I access because you realize this is way more complicated than you knew. And you're at the bottom of this, this, um, um, bowl or shape and you're like, I don't know. And you, maybe you even hit a wall. And so the next image will be aligned there and that is to indicate the wall that most of you are probably likely at.

Um, because the simple version of how you get past this line, because this is where most people get stuck, right? It's a critical point. There is a wall. You're like, I don't know what to do. And in theory you know that the goal would be to continue to build up your skill and understanding of the dissertation process so that you can keep going and increase your level of competence and thereby increasing your confidence. However, this wall seems like it is made of steel and it won't move, right? And most of that probably is because you were not prepared to feel that way and you think that something is wrong because you feel stuck because you're at this wall, you feel like something is wrong with this process or something is wrong with me because this shouldn't be happening and the more you like get stuck in that mental cycle, the lower and lower and lower your confidence goes.

And really it's your, because you have been doing this process, your level of awareness and knowledge has expanded and you now know and are quote unquote woke to the realities of the dissertation. Um, and so what ends up happening with most people is that instead of continuing to like learn and stick with this feeling, um, they want to rush to feel better. They need some sort of relief. Like they need a confidence boost because they felt like if I just feel more confident, then I'll be able to push past this line and I'll know exactly what to do and I can finish the dissertation. And so their way of increasing their confidence or getting this confidence boost is to go do something that they've already done before that they felt like in their memory. It worked well when I was doing that. I just need to go back and do that.

Example:

Um, so let me give you an example. So maybe you started with the literature review, right? And your process was, um, you were going to download all of these articles and you were going to write down the full citation on an Excel sheet and then you're going to read it and highlight it, right? Like things that you knew, um, directly tied to your literature review or your topic and you do that and you get to about article number seven or 10. Let's say you get to article number 10 and then you try to sit down and write because someone gave you the advice to just write. And then you go to sit down and write and then you realize, wait, I don't really know what I'm thinking about. So then you go back to those 10 articles and then you start to copy all of the highlighted sections.

You copy that into the document that you were supposed to be writing in. But then that even quite make sense cause you're like, I don't know how to organize it. And so it just becomes a document that says Author one and Author two said this and such and such and such and such said this and you turn it into your chair and your chair says, no, I don't want that. Nobody wants summaries of articles. You need to go write a literature review, but then you feel really stuck and confused and you're like, I did my best. I did what I knew how to do, which was to read it, take notes and write it. And you're saying that's not right now I don't know what to do and honestly I suck at this and I just probably need to quit. You're at the wall, right and you sit there and you don't touch your draft for months.

Say you let three months go by cause you're like, I don't know what else to do. I gave it my best and it still wasn't good enough or my chair, I'm over it. But then maybe in that middle of that fourth month you go, okay, no, but for real, I'm ready to be done with the dissertation. I'm already done with this degree. These people get on my nerves, I'm ready to go and move on with my life and start making real money and you know, and not have to worry about the stress or the dissertation. So you're like, okay bet I'm bout to get back on top of it and you think you know what, I should just go back to doing what I was doing because that worked and it got me to like get some words on the paper. 

So I'm just going to go back and continue to read the articles and write the citations on an Excel sheet and do the summaries because clearly that was helping me to make progress. Like at least I was getting pages written that I could actually show and my chair is just going to have to get over it and accept it. Right. And then so you go back and you do that same thing over again and you realize two, three months later you hit that thing while again because you're a chair comes back and says the same thing of I already gave you my feedback that you need to stop doing this. This is not the right way to do it. And people will continue to do that cycle over and over and/or they will quit the process altogether because they're frustrated and they hit a wall and their wall being that their chair told them that what they're doing isn't working. But it's the only thing that they know how to do.

And so the real way to feel confident is to find a way to push through that wall. And I'm sure you're over here like, but how? How do I push through the wall?

The problem in this scenario in this example isn't that you don't know how to read literature cause you know how to read. You've got this far in your academic journey and no one is questioning your summarizing skills. The real thing that you need to do is work on how to write and synthesize. So how can you either like, who do you know that synthesizes really well? Maybe you ask your chair, who is someone that they can point you in the direction of or what are some resources that they would offer to you to help you to learn how to synthesize better? Oh, ultimately writing a better literature review. Those are better questions to ask instead of like spinning your wheels and trying to figure it out because there's something you're missing. And there's nothing wrong with saying like there's something I'm missing. How do I get better at this thing?

Because that's the other piece is that we feel shame because we feel like we are supposed to know everything and that we can't ask for help and your, there are people who want to help you is what I say and is what I'll offer. But maybe, and this is a whole different podcast episode altogether, but maybe they are still used to you being self sufficient, um, that they don't even think that you need help. And then maybe in the ways that you are trying to ask for help is more passive aggressive. It's not direct enough. So then they don't really know. It's not clear to them that you need help or maybe they want to help you, but they're not sure exactly how, but okay, great, you need help with your literature review. But like what does that mean? And so maybe you went around and you ask different people how to help you and they keep giving you their system for reviewing the literature but may, but your issue in this scenario is that you don't know how to write and synthesize what you're reading.

How To Move Forward:

And that's a whole different question. So one I would say you need to really get clear about what is your issue, what is the wall that you're hitting? And maybe this requires, um, an additional conversation with your chair, um, to really get clear about what is that wall look like. And then two, it's like once you understand what the wall is and what you need help with learning, you have to go out to do the work to acquire additional practice and skill development in this case, writing and synthesizing so that you can then work on that draft. Like taking what you've already done, right? It's not about scrapping it, but taking that and then synthesizing those summaries and then offering something new to your chair to get a different level of feedback that will ultimately then push you past a wall.

Also what I hear in my head cause then I imagined that people are talking back to me even though I'm sitting in my bedroom recording, this is what if I don't have a chair that is willing to have that conversation with me or willing to sit down or maybe we keep having conversations but I don't understand what they're saying to me. Like their explanation of the problem doesn't make sense. It is not clear. Then this to me is another reason why I'm always encouraging people to have a dissertation coach. Not that it needs to be me, but I'm quite good at it is that your dissertation coach is translating for you what your chair is saying. So think about it. Like I look at myself as, you know how there were certain things, like if you have a sibling, there were certain things that you needed to know the answer to, but you didn't want to ask like your mom or your dad or somebody or whoever your parent was, or guardian, like you didn't want to ask them because you knew that they was going to take it the wrong way.

Or they going to get freaked out? And so you wanted to ask. Um, and you know, most of you who are reading this remember life pre Google or whatever. It just made me like you had a question and maybe you did Google it and you couldn't quite find the answer. And so you go to your older sibling or older cousin or someone who you felt comfortable with asking and they will tell you the real thing and they will tell you the exact answer, like stuff that your parents would never tell you. That's how I'd describe myself is that you're having a conversation with your chair. My job is not to replace your chair at all. Your chair is guiding the ship. They make the decisions. They are the ones ultimately standing in between you and you becoming doctor. So dissertation coach is not there to replace your coach. A Dissertation coach is there to help you translate the feedback that you're getting from your chair.

Benefits of Dissertation Coaching:

So your chair might be saying you need to synthesize and write more, but you might, how do I do that? Like I need a step by step process and as a coach I give you the step by step process of not only what, like how to do what they're asking you to do, but really explaining it in a very relatable, simple way so that you can understand it for yourself so that when you go back to have a conversation with your chair, you understand and you feel more confident to engage in a conversation with them. Right? That's what I do for clients is that I'm translating for them. I'm giving them advice. I'm helping to make the dissertation process simple, more manageable, make it make sense. Because that's really what it comes down to is that people are like, please just make it make sense while also giving you all the support and also challenging you when you need it, but really to be there as a sense of support, as a translator, as someone to structure the actual writing part of the dissertation.

Final Thoughts:

So that is my answer simply in terms of how to feel more confident in writing. I would love to know what you thought about today's episode. Um, but yeah, and also if you want more of this, remember this was just one module of the writing workshop and, and I go into way more of this in there and so you definitely should sign up. Okay, well that is all for this week. I'll see you next week. Bye for now. Thank you for joining in for today's office hours. Make sure you come on Instagram and tag me @MarvetteLacy, let me know what your thoughts were on today's episode. Until next time, do something to show yourself some love. I'll talk to you next week. Bye for now.