Episode 1

TAKING A BREAK MIGHT NOT BE THE ANSWER

SEASON 2, EPISODE 1: TAKING BREAK MIGHT NOT BE THE ANSWER

This episode is about returning to a stressful situation after taking a break. Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to fall back into the thought patterns and behaviours from before you left. A holiday is not always the answer.

I revisit a journal entry I wrote in January 2014. This was the first journal entry of the year, just at the end of my initial 2 year postdoc contract. Within a week of returning to Germany after a Christmas break in the UK, I received an email that made me feel like a total failure.

I reflect on the academic value system (again!), how we outsource our opinion of ourselves to others, defining your own success, the need men have to be of value, the need to be good at everything in academia, how to take advice, and how weakness can be strengths in a different context.

Timestamps:

[00:00] Intro

[02:51] Journal entry

[05:41] Returning to an unhappy situation after a break

[07:16] A reminder about the academic value system

[09:26] Outsourcing our opinions of ourselves to other people

[10:30] Defining your own success

[11:14] Masculinity and the need to be valuable

[12:16] Impostor syndrome is still there

[13:15] The need to be good at everything

[15:10] How to take advice

[16:37] Weaknesses are just strengths in a different context