{"id":88178,"date":"2018-06-21T09:46:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T07:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=88178"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:23:01","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:23:01","slug":"kleine-overwinningen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2018\/06\/21\/kleine-overwinningen\/","title":{"rendered":"Small victories"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLevien Willemse<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Just a few days to go until my Master\u2019s thesis is due. I\u2019m currently holed up in my room like a recluse, glued to my laptop\u2019s monitor, surrounded by piles of articles, books, sheets of paper, large mugs half-filled with coffee and countless empty cans of (sugar-free) energy drinks. Whenever my boyfriend enters my room \u2013 he is pretty much the only person I talk to at present \u2013 he very kindly does not remark on the complete and utter mess that is my room right now.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re a Master\u2019s student stuck in your bedsit or in the university library, busy performing SPSS analyses and transcribing interviews, or burying yourself in articles so as to be able to hone those last few bits of your thesis to perfection, the chances are you will experience some anxiety. Did I correctly perform my analyses? Did I properly process all the feedback I received? Is my thesis sufficiently in-depth? Will I manage to complete the work in time?<\/p>\n

Questions like these may well make you feel insecure. You\u2019ll be wondering what is going to happen and whether everything is going to be OK.<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018Bombarding yourself with questions will not help you be easy and happy\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Although you can answer some of these questions yourself \u2013 for instance, by working your arse off to attain your goal \u2013 the fact that you simply don\u2019t know the eventual outcome will prey on your thoughts, regardless of whether it is your thesis you\u2019re worried about or a job application. Will my thesis be all right? Will I be hired for that new job I\u2019ve applied for? Because I keep tormenting myself with questions such as these, I sometimes forget to enjoy the things I\u2019m doing.<\/p>\n

According to the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore<\/a>, it is very easy to be happy, but very difficult to be easy. Bombarding yourself with questions will not help you be \u2018easy and happy\u2019. For that reason, my remedy for such questions and niggling worries is to focus on small victories more often \u2013 for instance, by celebrating the fact that I just successfully completed another paragraph of my thesis.<\/p>\n

Just three more days until my thesis is due. Although I still have a lot of things to do and am secretly longing for my holiday and all the nice things I will be doing, I actually rather like being able to work on my Master\u2019s thesis for just a little longer. There are plenty more small victories to claim. It will all be worth it in the end, even the hours I\u2019m spending like a recluse.<\/p>\n

Pooja Guptar is about to complete her Master\u2019s degree in Media and Business<\/em><\/p>\n\n\t

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De redactie<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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