Hello Reader,

In the last weeks, I have been connecting with researchers on LinkedIn and asking them a simple question:

I believe research should be enjoyable and easy.

The more enjoyable, the happier we feel and the easier the process becomes.

The easier it becomes the more positive impact the result of our research can create in the world.

Today I would like to share two of the most interesting answers I got:

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1. Embrace Uncertainty

I like to say that research is like swimming in a Sea of Uncertainty.

During the journey, we don’t know what the final result of our research will look like. We don’t have all the pieces of information we need, and from all the information we have accumulated most of it won’t really contribute to our final result.

Everything is uncertain.

As we throw ourselves into that Sea, we have two options: swim or drown.

To drown is easy: just let the amount of information and uncertainty overwhelm you.

To swin, embrace uncertainty (in your mind first, then in your methods as well).

Here are two frames of mind that other researchers (that remain anonymous) have shared with me:

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I love the idea of framing the research process as a “suspense”. To research is to investigate. It is to collect the clues, try to connect them, and see what we can learn about the big picture we are trying to create.

It is almost like we are living inside a movie or a Sherlock/Enola Holmes story as it is unfolding. In those stories, even the dead ends provide a clue on where to move on next.

So if you want to embrace uncertainty, it may be fun to think about yourself as an investigator in a suspense book. The case unfolds as you work on it and, yes, you may find a dead end. That's not the end, but a part of solving the case.

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2. Move at a Steady Pace

Oh, I get that 😕

During my PhD years, my stress was so high that my shoulders couldn’t take it.

Once I was working in the lab at my computer when I felt a sudden acute pain in my shoulder. I tried to call my colleague sitting at a cubicle desk behind me with a fainty voice but he couldn’t hear me through his noise-cancelling headset. He was in his own world.

I opened a messenger app (Skype at the time) and wrote something like: “come, sick”.

That’s the maximum I could type.

Less than 2 minutes later, my husband (boyfriend at that time) who worked in the same building appeared at the door:

“What happened!?”

I was there: pale, fighting to not faint, and with an excruciating pain on my shoulder.

From there I went directly to the hospital to learn I should spend one week resting without moving my arm. No writing on paper, no computers. Just painkillers and total rest.

At that time I then learned:

“So THIS is what burnout feels like”.

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I attribute that to my continuous desire to move 120 miles per hour without rest. The result of growing up surrounded by a few toxic narratives:

Toxic Narrative 1. You should be the smartest, fastest, and strongest. Otherwise, there is no place for you in the competitive marketplace.

Toxic Narrative 2. You are not cut out for it, so if you want to make it then you need to work harder.

Toxic Narrative 3. If you want to achieve anything, you just need to work harder.

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It is interesting how we build these narratives in our daily lives, but if we stop to point to who said them, we can’t find anyone.

No one actually told me these things, but these were the impressions that movies, school, workplace, and culture built in me.

When we write them down and start challenging these assumptions, we notice they don’t make much sense.

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1. Ask any successful person you admire if they are the smartest, fastest, or strongest.
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   The most likely answer you will find is “I am not”.
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   In fact, most successful people still carry the feeling of being imposters, believing everyone else has more capabilities than they do.
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2. Saying that “you are not cut out for it” is just someone trying to impose a self-limiting belief on you.
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   You are definitely cut out for it!
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   All skills we learn in life are acquired, so everyone who amounts to anything has acquired the skills for that thing.
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   The difference is that some people have acquired the skills much earlier than you, they have social advantages you don’t, or they don’t have to fight against the self-limiting beliefs you’ve acquired.
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   ​Yes, you can! You just need to learn how.
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3. Working harder on the wrong thing doesn’t lead to success. Working harder in the wrong way doesn’t lead to success. Working hard without rest also doesn’t lead to success.
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   It is important to not slack, of course, but working harder is not a synonym for success.

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Instead, the key is to “work steadier”. 80 miles a day in the same direction is already very fast. We don’t need to go 120 miles just to crash in the next mile or so, right?

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So, what can we learn from these two pieces of advice on how to make research enjoyable?

Embrace uncertainty and work steadier.

Accept that we don’t know what that paper, dissertation, book, or article will look like.

Enjoy the process of making it.

Enjoy the investigation and write your report as you go along.

• Why did you choose to pursue an investigation question?
• Why did you choose a direction over an alternative one?
• Why are you using the methods of another investigator?
• Why are you NOT using the same method as another investigator?
• How did you conduct the investigation?
• What did you learn in the process?

Capture all these in writing as you go along. If you leave it to the end of the investigation, odds are you will have forgotten most of it, and you will feel overwhelmed trying to write it all from memory.

Embrace uncertainty, but also work steadier: a little bit every day.

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Meanwhile, I keep asking the question as there is a lot we can learn from each other, so if you are on LinkedIn, let’s connect! 😊

Talk to you soon.

Until then, take care.

Bianca