101.5 Lessons for Success in Academia
During a casual search for “seeing ourselves in others,” I came across Robert J. Sternberg’s "Psychology 101½: The unspoken rules for success in academia." While it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, there is so much wisdom here I thought it worth sharing. I’ve highlighted a few lessons that are speaking to me today. May you find something useful here:
Lesson 1: Don't believe things just because other people do
Lesson 2: When you make mistakes, admit them, learn from them, and move on
Lesson 3: Decide what is important to you, and then be true to it
Lesson 4: Delay gratification
Lesson 5: Do what you believe is right
Lesson 6: Be not a saint, a sinner, or a sucker
Lesson 7: Believe in yourself and yours
Lesson 8: There is always room to grow
Lesson 9: Don't take yourself too seriously
Lesson 10: Learn when it is time to make gracious exits
Lesson 11: It is more important, ultimately, to be wise than just to be smart
Lesson 12: Avoid the major pitfalls of the foolish
Lesson 13: Reinvent yourself on a periodic basis
Lesson 14: Practice what you preach
Lesson 15: Accept losses graciously
Lesson 16: Create your own style of work to distinguish yourself from the rest
Lesson 17: Don't procrastinate
Lesson 18: Capitalize on strengths; Correct or compensate for weaknesses
Lesson 19: Compare yourself with yourself rather than with others
Lesson 20: Be ethical all the way
Lesson 21: Learn to tolerate ambiguity
Lesson 22: Don't shoot your mouth off—In speaking or in writing
Lesson 23: Control self-pity
Lesson 24: Redefine yourself as often as you need to
Lesson 25: Don't put off your personal happiness forever: Enjoy your life
Lesson 26: You will not succeed in your relations with everyone
Lesson 27: Don't take things personally
Lesson 28: Get it in writing
Lesson 29: Don't cover up
Lesson 30: Actively seek out guidance and feedback
Lesson 31: Avoid defensiveness
Lesson 32: Make friends in the field
Lesson 33: Be true to yourself and let others be true to themselves
Lesson 34: When you make a professional commitment, honor it if at all possible
Lesson 35: Give students and colleagues guidance, but allow them the freedom to find themselves
Lesson 36: Don't try to please everyone
Lesson 37: Don't bad-mouth people behind their backs
Lesson 38: Be generous with your time, but don't let others rob you of it
Lesson 39: Be open and be straight
Lesson 40: Think before you speak
Lesson 41: Networking matters—Up to a point
Lesson 42: Distinguish between more and less important battles
Lesson 43: Don't hold grudges
Lesson 44: Stay away from exploiters and parasites
Lesson 45: Help each person find his or her own niche
Lesson 46: Give what you hope to get
Lesson 47: Understand the benefits and limits of loyalty
Lesson 48: Maintain your good reputation
Lesson 49: Acceptance is not necessarily good; Rejection, not necessarily bad
Lesson 50: Don't accept someone’s views just because he or she is supposed to be an authority
Lesson 51: Communicate clearly
Lesson 52: Be a little ahead of others, but not too little or too much
Lesson 53: Let others do your bragging for you
Lesson 54: Look for collaborators with whom the whole is more than the sum of the parts
Lesson 55: Be respectful and pleasant toward others as much as possible, but don't use ingratiation
Lesson 56: Deal with the impossible problem of "assassins"
Lesson 57: Find your mission and define success in terms of realizing it
Lesson 58: The world is not fair
Lesson 59: The ivory tower is not spotless
Lesson 60: Institutional cultures are slow to change
Lesson 61: Fuse teaching, research, and service
Lesson 62: Know what’s expected of you
Lesson 63: Know the rules and regulations—Both formal and informal—That affect you
Lesson 64: Love it or leave it
Lesson 65: Don't assume that good ideas sell themselves: Sell them
Lesson 66: Invent your own “game”
Lesson 67: Nonthreatening ideas pay off in the short run, but threatening ideas often pay off in the long run
Lesson 68: To persuade is as important as to inform
Lesson 69: Never get stuck on seeing a problem in just one way
Lesson 70: Surmount obstacles flexibly
Lesson 71: Nip problems in the bud
Lesson 72: Pick important problems on which to work
Lesson 73: Be guided by problems, not methods or fields
Lesson 74: When you can't start but have to, start small
Lesson 75: Most things take longer than you think they will
Lesson 76: Seek the action in the interactions
Lesson 77: Seek syntheses of ideas that on the surface seem incompatible
Lesson 78: Use converging operations
Lesson 79: Check your work
Lesson 80: Ask colleagues for informal comments on your work
Lesson 81: Ask about the best and worst possible outcomes before you even begin
Lesson 82: Sometimes the reason we start doing things is not the reason we continue doing them
Lesson 83: Be proactive, not reactive
Lesson 84: Turn defeats into opportunities
Lesson 85: Create opportunities and take advantage of them when they arise
Lesson 86: You can go very far on reflective hard work
Lesson 87: Balance long-term goals with short-term goals
Lesson 88: Spread yourself neither too thin nor too thick
Lesson 89: Specialize, but not to the point of losing the forest for the trees
Lesson 90: If you do it well, you'll most likely do it again
Lesson 91: Don't sell out
Lesson 92: Luck seems to come in streaks—Both bad and good
Lesson 93: Be patient about making a difference
Lesson 94: What may seem like a crushing blow now may seem like a little tap later
Lesson 95: Be programmatic in your work
Lesson 96: All bad times come to an end
Lesson 97: Know when to move on in your work and when not to
Lesson 98: Strive for impact
Lesson 99: Seek to be remembered for your positive, not negative, contributions
Lesson 100: Go your own way and the rewards will follow
Lesson 101: Knowledge is a double-edged sword
Lesson 101½: Don't just read it, do it
Sternberg. (2004). Psychology 101 1/2 : the unspoken rules for success in academia(First edition). American Psychological Association.