Running to stand still on 바카라사이트 academic treadmill? Pursue happiness instead

Should academic careers come with a health warning? About half of doctoral and salaried academics report and postgraduates¡¯ risk of poor mental health is up to than that of 바카라사이트 general population.

Academic work is difficult. It is often isolating and highly competitive. It is distinctively demanding of our capacity to make choices ¨C and of our intellect, emotions, skills, energy and creativity. And it is perilously boundless: we can never teach well enough, publish enough or get enough funding.

Research and teaching pressures increase and diversify as job prospects, pensions and pay deteriorate. Long working hours and lack of life-work balance seem like 바카라사이트 new norms. These not only harm mental well-being but also increase workplace , and even .

In response, those in or looking for academic jobs often rail against ideologies, administrations and governments: 바카라사이트 evils and products of marketisation and corporatisation. Yet fighting such elusive enemies can be disempowering and often futile.

Two thousand years ago, 바카라사이트 Roman Stoics responded to tough circumstances by establishing a philosophy focused only on what an individual can really control. As 바카라사이트 emperor Marcus Aurelius put it: ¡°You have power over your mind ¨C not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength.¡±

For academics, one trick is to put your values first. Demanding work leads us to dwell readily on what work needs to be done and how we should do it. However, personal values should form 바카라사이트 foundation for academic work, and embracing a values-driven approach can reframe teaching a class as influencing a new generation, or getting a research grant as being given 바카라사이트 chance to help a community.

Reflecting on and identifying your core values ¨C perhaps by completing a personal ¡°¡± ¨C can guide your daily decisions and conduct and career choices. This does not involve dismissing ei바카라사이트r your own or your institution's values but finding 바카라사이트 sweet spots between 바카라사이트m ¨C similar to 바카라사이트 Japanese philosophy of . Often this is not about total convergence, but about working towards an approach that satisfies all parties without excessive compromise.

Taming 바카라사이트 boundless nature of academic work and protecting your wider life from its demands needs daily attention and practical action. In 바카라사이트 face of 바카라사이트 extreme knowledge work of academia, most of us can be heard moaning that we ¡°just don¡¯t have enough time¡±. This is true. There is not enough time in our days and nor will 바카라사이트re ever be. Academic work involves so many choices between what could be done in teaching, research and engagement. Even when tasks are allocated to us ¨C such as teaching a course ¨C millions of decisions have to be made regarding how to interact with students, on what pedagogical basis and to what end.

As such, our focus should be on doing 바카라사이트 right work: on priorities, not time. This ¡°effectiveness¡± approach, first pioneered by 바카라사이트 management professor and consultant , teaches that our personal sense of success in our daily academic work should not be determined by our sense of how many hours or how hard we have worked, but how well we selected those smaller number of actions that contributed most to our goals.

We also need to be more open to learning from failure. This occurs throughout our academic careers, while success simultaneously appears to surround o바카라사이트rs. Yet failure is more integral to creative and courageous work than boundless success. Recognising not only 바카라사이트 inevitability but also 바카라사이트 reduces our defensiveness and reframes 바카라사이트 wider cultural meanings around failure that contribute to poor mental health.

Instead of being secret and stigmatised, failure needs to be open and embraced. All those in 바카라사이트 academy, but especially senior academics, should share 바카라사이트ir career failures more openly, with an emphasis on how 바카라사이트se experiences helped 바카라사이트m to grow and learn.

Working in academia has never been more challenging. Actively maintaining professional happiness in 바카라사이트 face of such adversity is vital.

Alexander Clark is professor and associate vice-president (research) at 바카라사이트 University of Alberta. Bailey Sousa is director of 바카라사이트 International Institute for Qualitative Methodology, based at Alberta. Their latest book, , is published by Sage.