A little "Identity Crisis"

"when a cow not look like a cow, a Giraffe not look like a giraffe and I don't look like me, ..... we need to find that back.... THE IDENTITY!"

I had a little "Identity Crisis" today. Next week is the beginning of the Easter holiday and I will be at a conference in Cardiff. I was not able to concentrate very well today preparing my presentation material. I know what's bothering me. My mind was taken away by the big question of "who am I?", "what suits me best in the long term about my research career". I was surfing the web like I used to do, but now looking for some academics that I heard or knew of, and then see their research profiles and ask myself if I wanted to be like them or do they act as "good enough" role model.

Yesterday I mentioned BI and feel his published paper make me "feel at home". Today, I came across PS, she was my external PhD examiner and her profile is even better. I saw in her published papers over the years to consist of topics of a wide ranging but within a certain scope. She didn't appear to run out of focus, so to speak. There are some 3* published papers and some 2* one as well. I look at them and I think, these are not going to be easy as it takes YEARS to build up, knowing her family commitments and kids, etc, she is just incredible.

I can also see some form of "strategies" she used in her research. Something I could also give it a go. She starts from something simple and she seems to know which approach or topic of research suit which type of journals. I believe she knew all these over times and this makes it even more efficient when publishing Journal articles. Maybe I should start thinking from where I stopped in my PhD and start extending ideas from there, maybe from my published papers and the journal they got published and see if it goes anyway? These should be areas I am more familiar with, including the literature reviews and their developments, which cannot be ignored in writing a paper. This should be a good starting to develop "own independent research". And so, by the end of the day, I found my "identity" back and THAT made my day, Yay! :D