TELE HEALTH AND CONSUMER EDUCATION

It’s funny, though. At other times you’ve felt that you’ve written something worthwhile.

Now, however, you feel the urge to read several more articles, add more footnotes, edit it some more, or check your email. Anything but wrap it up and send it in.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a “revise and resubmit” article for a journal or a draft chapter to show to your dissertation advisor. There’s something anxiety-provoking about letting go of your work and putting it out there for the wider world to see.

One very brilliant client of mine told me how she had a similar feeling when she was 9 months pregnant. The baby’s room wasn’t ready, and she had so much more to do. She tried to will herself not to give birth yet. Luckily, her body didn’t cooperate. Now she tries to do the same with journal articles.

This reluctance to release one’s work is so common in academia, that it may well be the norm. In some cases, though, it can become crippling.

• Reasons for Reluctance to Release Writing.
• Here are the kinds of statements that I hear from academics in regards to this issue. Each statement is followed by an alternate way to look at the situation. If you’ve found yourself saying anything like this to yourself, try the alternate way of thinking on for size.
• · Who am I to make that definitive a statement?
• o If not you, then who? What makes someone else an authority and not you? Where and when did the current authorities start having the authority to make their statements? · I have an idea, but I can’t find any references to cite that say what I’m thinking.

o Maybe that’s because it’s an original idea! Sometimes new ideas really are leaps. Run it by some colleagues and see what they think.

· I’m intimidated by the fact that others have written about my subject for much longer than I have.

• o Sometimes people who are steeped in a subject can’t think about that subject in as clear a light as a newcomer.
• o A new voice is always welcome (and if it isn’t, too bad for them.) · My viewpoint doesn’t fit the mental maps of academics in my field, so they will disagree with what I say.

o Try to welcome disagreement! The best scholarly contributions often incite others to argue vociferously against the new ideas. By generating discussion you’re advancing the field.