Give yourself a break. Understand and plan for the fact that different elements of your career and personal life will progress at varying times and rates, and that’s perfectly fine.

Many established researchers often feel demotivated, believing they’re not making significant progress across all areas—whether it’s research outputs, visibility and reputation, teaching programmes, research group development, or personal roles like being a parent, spouse, or carer. Instead of dwelling on what you haven’t achieved, focus on celebrating what you have accomplished.

Adopt a positive psychology approach by intentionally dedicating periods of time to excel in one area. For example, decide, “This day/week/month/year, I’m focusing on advancing element X of my career and feeling good about this progress. I accept that elements Y and Z may slow down or pause, but next day/week/month/year, I’ll shift my focus to element Y, allowing X to take a back seat.”

Each month, make an appointment with yourself to take a few minutes to reflect on and celebrate the progress you’ve made and the tasks you’ve completed, rather than focussing solely on what remains on your to-do list.

Seeking inspiration? This blog from Tress Academic suggests five small wins to celebrate and serves as a valuable end-of-year reminder to recognise and celebrate your smaller, often overlooked achievements. When was the last time you took a moment to reflect on all that you’ve genuinely accomplished?

“‘Good enough’ really is good enough. I do not need to be perfect in all parts of my job or life for things to work.” Perfectionism is costly.”

Read more from this career story.