19 September 2012

The sports psychology of academia

At about the one minute mark in this clip...


The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward.

Rocky Balboa, Rocky Balboa (2006), written and directed by Sylvester Stallone

Every academic gets hit. And hit. And hit again. Bam. Whap. Smack.

Your grant proposals and papers are going to be rejected. A paper you slaved over won’t be cited as much as you want. Your students will think you’re boring sometimes.

Persistence and grit are key to being an academic. Playing sports or games is a good way to remind ourselves that success is never final and failure is never fatal.

Inspired by Kate Clancey (here, here) and Scicurious (here).

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