The key to success

I woke up at 7:30 A.M. and I think I would have rather been dead than awake. Somehow I managed to pull it together. Today I tutored allllll day long at the library, and did some prep for the course I am teaching Monday night. It was exhausting. I don't think I have an ounce of energy left to do anything today. Tomorrow, I was hoping to get into the field, but Hurricane Sandy is wreaking havoc across the Northeastern US and the tail end is hitting us here I guess. That complicates things a bit. So hopefully that means instead that I can get to the gym and KHS! I haven' been in 7 days (yes, another broken October goal) and I am excited to go!


Now, on to what I actually wanted to blog about. The key to success. I have taken a real interest in the blogosphere these past few months. I first learned about blogging in a communications course I took and the professor spoke really highly of blogging. He said that it was a great tool for scientists to use. Anyways, I came across a great blog called Study Hacks: decoding patterns of success. I wrote about this blog, written by Cal Newport, in my last post as well. I went back through his blog archives and read years worth of his posts. He is a very talented guy. One of his older blogs was about how to succeed in your field. He suggested, find someone who is exactly what you want to be, and do what they do. I couldn't think of anyone. I had read this blog on Thursday morning and then at 12:30 on Thursday was the weekly EEB seminar. On Thursday it was given by Dr. John Smol (probably the most renowned scientist in the department). After that seminar, I knew who I wanted to be like . . .  him! He is amazing. He is very well-known as a teacher, students rave about him. His research is relevant and interesting, all about climate change and paeleolimnology. I went to his website, and was shocked with the sheer number of awards he has one, books he has written, and everything else. He is a Canada Research Chair, has done over 700 conference presentations and in his 25 years at Queen's brought in over 15 million dollars of funding. Importantly, he is passionate, a down-to-earth-guy and  clearly loves what he does. He is everything every academic would want to be.

I guess, according to Cal at least, I need to figure out HOW he did that. That's the hard part. I guess he did his PhD at Queen's. That's one thing in common. His research is waaaay more important, and well-funded than mine. I guess we'll see how it goes...as is with everything. More research to do!