Tenacity and Dissertation Success

When your friends and family, and even strangers heard you were working on your doctorate degree, many if not all assumed you were very intelligent, therefore, success was certain. Little did you or they knew that while academic acumen was important when working on your dissertation, there were some other attributes that were just as or more important than intelligence. To name a few, doctoral candidates needed to have self-control skills, time management skills, a growth mind-set, and resilience.

There is another construct attracting the attention of researchers recently. This construct has two dimensions to it that include measures of well-being and mental strength. Researchers found that TENACITY and Self-Composure together accounted for 44% of the success of candidates. Tenacity is the ability and capacity for overcoming adversity that threatens educational goals. Candidates must develop and build academic resilience in the face of challenges real or perceived. Persistence, a core concept of grit can predict academic resilience, and academic resilience is a strong predictor of academic achievement.  Academic resilience is therefore a key aspect of consistent engagement and persistence in your academic tasks.

Researchers also contended that self-control was strongly linked with academic achievement and in a study on online education and self-efficacy, self-control was the strongest predictor of academic success. Adopting a growth mindset was also a strong predictor of academic achievement. This result indicated that students with a growth mindset believed that their efforts and consistency had a positive influence on their abilities and academic outcomes, such as completing their dissertation. Many factors associated with academic success were under the umbrella of attitudes and behaviors. Having the right combination of both constructs made academic success more likely that not.

Incorporating these characteristics builds tenacity and self-composure, which are crucial for completing the dissertation process. Researchers found that although tenacity was functional for completing projects like the dissertation, many candidates began feeling a sense of hopelessness and loss in motivation because the learning stopped. If your work is consistently returned and many efforts have not influenced the progress of your study, investing in some more resources like hiring a dissertation coach is likely very useful.

Most candidates have and many will invest heavily in getting a doctorate degree, but the dissertation study is where things fall apart. My goal is helping you produce a winning and completed study that you can defend. I too want to join your friends and family in celebration as you cross that graduation stage, which demonstrates your skills, strength, tenacity, and success. If you believe you need to build tenacity, get motivated, get direction, and make sure your investment in yourself pays off, do not hesitate to contact me. I am a fulltime one on one dissertation coach and I am quite sure I can help you.

Kindly,

Dr. D. Chris Alleyne (13 yrs. Experience)

Dissertation Coach