It may sound unrealistic but it is actually optimistic. It is optimistic because it creates a ray of hope that it is ok for a PhD scholar to have a life beyond research. Sometimes students and scholars would feel guilty about having the need to refresh and diver from their research. Well, how much ever unrealistic it may sound; it is certainly necessary and perfectly normal. Indeed a happy thought.
- Have other fields of interests: The three years that you invest in doing research have been given to you to invest in research and not spend on entertainment or so called fun in life. This is the pre conceived thought in the minds of many of the scholars. Those who divert and do other things simultaneously are labelled as quitters or not serious. How much do we relate to the productivity and applicability of this perception?
- Have a social life, a family life: A friend is someone who would do nothing but distract you from your research. Staying in touch with family, well that is not a pre requisite for earning a PhD. Rather it is a deterrent.. Make your software, your library and your research papers your partners throughout your research journey. Well, it is scary and the thought and approach keeps many people away from starting a PhD
- Depict Emotions: You got to be a robot from Star Trek to be able to do a doctorate. A robot that has complete control over his emotions. You cannot be weak and vulnerable. That doesn’t feel better. Now is that needed for the PHD degree? Really?
- Stay away from getting publications: Publish or perish calls the tough competition that is there in the field of PhD. People are getting published by thousands in a day and we need to be in that race to sustain. Can slow and steady be the approach? The common perception doesn’t agree though. But what does the law of balancing say? We need to understand.
- Make peace with reality: You have faced failure and it is ok to fail. Or is it not for a PhD scholar? Are the rules different? Can they not fail? Do they need to sulk in the depression of a mid-way failure? Maybe that is the characteristic of a Scholar. The one who faces reality and takes failure upfront is not serious about research is what most people would think.
Let us break away from these rigidities and give way to more freedom and a humane approach to the process of earning a PhD than ever before