Today I turned in my research proposal!

The process of writing a proposal encompasses a great deal of learning. You have to be willing to admit what you don’t know and get busy learning it. The learning curve is uncomfortable. You feel awkward, unsure and overwhelmed. You begin to hear voices that say things like, “You’ll never make it. You don’t know what you are doing.”

You will be tempted to give up and instead relapse into doing something familiar. Familiarity is easy because it is familiar. There were many times when I walked away from my writing goals to fold laundry because I knew how to fold a towel. It was familiar and easy.

Sounds like my 6th grade students. They felt awkward when learning new vocabulary. They were overwhelmed with five-paragraph essays. They complained at new tasks and begged for familiarity. Often times discouragement morphed into distractions. Giving up was disguised behind misbehavior.

My college students often feel unsure about their ability to learn after studying for days only to receive a C in a major exam. They feel stuck when trying to manage four timelines for four different papers, exams or projects.

Back to my proposal writing, at one point I was so stuck, I looked up a dissertation coach. What? A coach? That’s what I do. I work with college students to help them reach their academic goals. Well, that’s what I needed. I needed someone to coach me out of this hole I was stuck in and on toward my PhD goals.

Being on the receiving end of coaching opened my eyes to the power of coaching. The coaching process was a tool to bring out all the unresolved obstacles. My coach linked arms with me. She drew out an array of viable options from within me. She helped me identify my strengths and leverage them to finish projects. She calmly offered tools to manage, prioritize and plan the many unfinished projects circling around my head like airplanes around a runway.

I felt what I had seen in my students eyes. Relieved, confident. strong. The project had been clarified. The next actions listed. I knew what to do next.

Research tells us that coaching increases retention and graduation rate for college students. Now that I have been on both sides of the table, receiving and giving coaching, I know why! Academic coaching offers students tools to manage the increase complexity of life in college.