Solution to Writing Obstacle No. 31:

“I’m beginning to wonder if being a professor is really the career for me and I probably won’t get a job anyway, so what’s the point of writing?”

It is easy to get discouraged when you have to keep doing something you don’t feel good at.

Being a professor depends on developing skills in teaching, writing, research, socializing, organizing, and discipline. Few jobs require so many different skills. It’s a really difficult job!

In fact, it is so difficult that most people spend decades figuring it all out, often after they have gotten their first jobs. So, be nice to yourself.

In my workbook, you are going to work on one facet of being a professor—writing. Fortunately, learning to write well is a skill that will serve you in any profession so it is not a waste of time even if you don’t plan to be a professor. 

When you are done with my workbook, you may feel better about your skills and may be more willing to spend the time to develop them. Or, you may feel more clearly that being a professor isn’t for you. If that’s what you decide, be kind to yourself about that too.

Solution to Writing Obstacle No. 31, one of the confidence obstacles listed on page 32 of Belcher’s Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success (University of Chicago Press, 2019).