When summarizing my ‘perfect life’ as portrayed on my social media accounts, I would use the words science, sports, and nature. Nearly all my photos and messages match with one of these keywords, and most of them match with a combination of two or even three of them. Taking the photo of Lac Léman which I used on social media accounts to link to my previous blog post for example, I described somewhere in this post that I needed to get the creative juices flowing to come up with a research idea (science) for which I took a long hike (sports) along the banks of the Rhône river (nature). Somehow this combination works well for me when I need to be creative, and I actually always mention that I need to visit a mountain top when novel insights or ideas are needed.
Zooming in further on these three keywords, sports and nature are basically intertwined in my life as my motivation to exercise is largely fueled by my desire to be outside the house as much as possible. The science part is less connected to the other two, as I do most of my work sitting behind a desk thus being indoors and inactive. This part is furthermore the only part that really needs the other two to thrive. Since, I can enjoy nature without being active or without my current profession, for example when lying on the beach. Also, I can exercise without being outside or without my current profession, for example when riding on my indoor bike trainer. Enjoying and practicing my professional life is, however, not possible without getting out into nature AND going out for a ride or a run once in a while.
With regard to my rides and runs, I got addicted to running and cycling at the beginning of my PhD project roughly 8 years ago, and these activities help me to clear my mind and fill up my head with non-work-related thoughts. Do I need a new bike? Will I run faster if I increase my running cadence? Do I need two new bikes? Would carbon-plated running shoes make me run faster? Do I need three new bikes? What is my next challenge (and could this next challenge potentially kill me)? Do I need four new bikes?
My outdoor activities also helped me to become more satisfied with myself. More specifically, I always had issues deciding whether something was good enough, and these issues sometimes led to me displaying some perfectionism-like traits. My outdoor activities, however, taught me that perfection is something I will never ever achieve as there are numerous people who are far more talented than I am. Upon realizing this, I stopped chasing perfection and started demanding (from myself) to make the best of every situation considering the given circumstances and my capabilities (or: limitations). I can thus be proud of myself when running a rather slow race after a long working week during which I did not have time to exercise. While conversely, I can be disappointed when running my second-fastest race ever after months of hard training and when experiencing perfect racing conditions.
When translating this change of perspective to my work, one example pops into my head, and this example relates to the writing of manuscripts in order to share my research findings with fellow researchers. A typical writing process starts with me preparing a first draft of the text after which my supervisors and colleagues provide me with feedback to arrive at an improved version which will be submitted for publication in a scientific journal. The preparation of the first draft took an enormous amount of time when I wrote my first papers. My writing experience was limited, my English writing skills were not spectacular, and I wanted send my supervisors an excellent manuscript without knowing what they considered as ‘good enough’. Many years later, however, I know that my manuscripts generally match the expectations and quality standards of my supervisors and collaborators. Furthermore, these papers are typically well-rated when we submit them for publication, although this depends largely on the excitingness of our results. And given that these results often rely on biological factors which are beyond our control, we just have to deal with these ‘circumstances’ and ensure that we neither undersell not oversell our findings.
At last, I realize that the perspective change as discussed above still features some components that require optimization, and it is certainly no quick fix for others. In my case, however, the notion that perfection is out of my reach was reassuring, and my sports activities were quite helpful in realizing and accepting this.
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