Monday musings: self pep talk

So I've had a fairly tough weekend and Monday so far. Ok, pardon me while I rant about my first-world problems.

I've been writing, writing, writing a manuscript for hopeful publication and it's been quite a process. Just when I think that my draft is ready, my advisor thinks that I have some pretty significant re-organizing to do. True enough, sometimes things make sense to me in a certain way and I write accordingly; but my organization and logic may not make the most sense to readers. And writing is communicating. So I've been back to the drawing board; cutting out sections of writing entirely (but saving elsewhere so I don't panic later in case I need the information), re-organizing, and doing additional research.

Another colleague and I submitted a manuscript several months ago only to get rejected due to some flaws in our research design. 

Seriously, how does anyone get published? It really is such a complex process that starts about 1-2 (or more) years before finally getting published, if you get there. We worked so hard on planning and carrying out our research - and granted we've had to make some design changes due to extenuating circumstances (as such, the less-than-stellar design). But when you are doing research with human participants and especially children, there are variables that are difficult to control. But we ended up carrying out the research as far as we could anyway. Then we wrote a manuscript, went through 154,762 rounds of edits (ok, an exaggeration), submitted it to a publication last fall, and after waiting 6 months, got rejected. Granted, reviewers did suggest another outlet for publication that would be a better fit - which means we need to re-write (again) following a different format to suit a different publication, go through another 45,947 rounds of edits, submit to the publication, and wait. Again. With chronic lower back pain and shoulder tension from sitting at a computer all day.

So anyway, I've been working on another manuscript in tandem (because time is of the essence, we always have to have projects in the hopper) and I'm feeling pretty discouraged. Sometimes I can't help it and the Negative Nancy part of myself just says, "this is just so hard."

I was definitely in need of a self pep talk. And then I came across this video, which fit the bill. It has gone viral already, but I thought I'd re-post here. I couldn't stop laughing.



After almost a minute of laughing, I think I'm ready to get back to work. Hope this helps you get through your Monday as well!

"I can do anything good..." (repeat 10x every hour of writing, ideally while doing a happy dance in front of a mirror)


What do you do for when you need to give yourself a pep talk?