Gradlife

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Whether you’re approaching this side of the break as a graduate student who is soon to be moving on to the “real world”, as a student who is heading into the final push of your first year, or as one of the 200 brand new grad students to UofT (Welcome!), there’s a lot of pressure to work harder, perform better and succeed. Add those pressures of being a grad student to the hallmark January 1st date that comes with an added push to write resolutions, to do more, and to be more than you were in 2015 and you have a recipe for grad student disaster. Let’s get one thing straight right out of the gate: you’re awesome. Whether you’re a “write resolutions” kind of person or not, the fact that you’re pursuing your passion, learning new things, filling in gaps in the literature, and striving to add more to your immediate and global community is phenomenal. Don’t forget to take that into account as you forge ahead into 2016.

Now that we’ve dealt with that piece of 2016 news, let’s talk more about what this coming year might hold for us. I’m definitely a “make goals for myself” kind of gal, and judging from the caliber of grad students that attend UofT, I’d say most fall into that category. That being said however, there’s a healthy way to go about setting goals for ourselves; one that won’t burden us with more “to-do’s”, that won’t make us feel like we’re failing if we don’t achieve them, and one that might actually help to make us healthier, happier people.

That’s the key here: healthier, happier people. Don’t forget that you may be a grad student, but you’re a person first, and that person has needs and goals and desires totally separate from your identity as a grad student. That being said, how can we make goals (I purposefully use the word goals because I think working to better ourselves is a lifetime deal, not a once-a-year checklist) for ourselves as people without compromising our positions as grad students?

1. Don’t forget that you’re a person first! Notice how I added that again? Pretty important.
2. Be specific: no goal has weight if you don’t break it down. Being specific makes a goal concrete, achievable and tangible.
3. Make a plan: we’re grad students, we know how to do the research and make an outline, so use these skills to make your life easier! When you have the how-to’s of a goal, it becomes a whole lot more possible to achieve, making it less stressful on yourself while getting there.
4. Be reasonable and realistic: we all have major life goals, but when you’re transitioning out of Grad school or working hard to get your thesis done it’s important to remember that the small things add up to the big ones. Make small goals that you can achieve everyday, every week, every month. The small successes will reinforce your self-improvement, and generally work well toward making you a happier, more well-rounded person who can go on to achieve those wonderful life goals down the line.
5. Learn that not achieving all of your resolutions right away isn’t a failure: pure and simple, life happens and it gets in the way of even the best laid plans. Sometimes, we have to dial back our goals and resolutions to fit a change in our lives, sometimes we have to put resolutions completely on the back burner when something more pressing demands our time. That’s ok. Just know that the goal is simply on the back burner, it hasn’t been dropped to the ground and kicked under the sofa to collect dust. You can bring it back to the forefront whenever you are able to, whenever you want to.
6. Know that resolutions aren’t just for 2016: there isn’t an expiry date on a resolution. If you are committed to making any sort of change in your life, that change doesn’t evaporate or become less important when the clock strikes 2017 next January. Time is what we make it, our goals are what we make them,and how we incorporate them into our lives is up to us, not a date on the calendar.
7. Be kind: above all, be kind to yourself if you’re thinking of making a resolution or two this year. We all have faults and flaws, but we are also all made up of some pretty wonderful things that we can’t forget about as we head into 2016.

Now that we’ve talked a little about how we can make healthy resolutions and goals for the coming year,I want to share with you Gradlife’s hopes for you, as grad students and as people, for the coming months:

We hope you find joy in the small things, that you take care of yourselves first, and remember to appreciate the obstacles you’ll encounter for the lessons they can become. We hope you appreciate who you are everyday and know that even if you don’t set any resolutions this January, you’ll still accomplish things this year that are resolution #1 on someone else’s list.

We hope, most of all, that you don’t undervalue the strengths that you have, and that you’re able to carry these strengths with you to have a wonderful 2016. Happy New Year, and welcome back!