Guest blogpost at Profellow – Tips for applying for a Fellowship

 

Back in 2009 I was a Japan Society for the Promotion of Society Fellow based at the National Institute of Mental Health in Tokyo. The application process for Fellowships like this can be a bit tricky, but the payoff in the experience and contacts you gain is enormous, both professional and culturally. In this guest blogpost at Profellow.com, I outline some tips for getting through a Fellowship application process. I hope you find them useful.

The knack to asking the right questions, at the right time

Think of using questions as you use a good search engine – the right keywords get you to the result you want. You still have to be discriminating with the information you get, but if you can master the skill of knowing how to phrase your request then you’re better placed to sort out the wheat from the chaff.

You live in an age of unprecedented availability of information. Not all of the information that’s available to you is good, honest, valid or useful, yet it’s sometimes hard to distinguish what’s beneficial from what’s pretty useless. You need good questioning skills to tell the difference. That goes for asking questions of yourself too. So how do you know what questions you should be asking yourself? And when?

Reflective questions are probing, clarifying questions that are great at getting to the heart of an issue that you might be wrestling with. They encourage you to reflect inwardly, and consider possibilities in a particular way. Light bulb moments can follow a tightly phrased reflective question and thinking about its context. Here are a few:

• What will make me most comfortable with this situation (or action, or decision)? Subtext – remember your unique preferences and strengths
• What stops me from taking decisive action? Subtext – what tightly held beliefs may be holding me back right now? Get in touch with these, and you may be able to start challenging whether these hard and fast rules are working for you right now
• What would achieving this goal give me? Subtext – what is the link between this goal and what you truly value in life?
• What’s great about the option I’m mulling over? Subtext – switches your mind into a positive frame when chewing over the solutions you’ve come up with
• How will I know when I’ve reached my goal? Subtext – keeps your focus on positive actions, results and milestones along the way.

Pre-supposing questions are also probing or even hypothetical questions. They can help you overcome a self-limiting thought or belief, and show you what can be achieved if you imagine what lies beyond. They say, “Just put aside your reservations for a moment and see what the world could look like.”

If I knew I couldn’t fail, what would I do next?

If I could play my perfect game, what would that look and feel like?

Dream freely, and think big.

 

Tips for getting through that difficult run

If you are trying to extend out the time or distance that you are running, it can be tricky to break through some limits. You might be running a bit too quickly for the distance you are trying to accomplish. The speed makes a difference – it changes the proportion of fuel you draw from in your body from either carbohydrate or fat sources. A greater proportion of fat sources tend to be drawn from if you run relatively slowly and for periods of 25-30 minutes or more. Quicker, shorter runs tend to draw from your carb stores – which tends to be glycogen.

If you are having trouble breaking through a barrier, try out these three tips:

1. Try some self-talk. If you’re running alone and struggling, give yourself a bit of self-coaching. Tell yourself that you’re mentally fatigues — not physically tired, and that you can push through it. Trying telling yourself things like, “I’ll have some water in five minutes — that will make me feel better.” If you’re extending distance and doing your longest run ever, remind yourself how great you’ll feel when you’re finished.
2. Break up your run into smaller goals. Dividing up your run into smaller chunks will make the distance feel much more manageable. For example, if you’re running 20 km, think, “OK, it’s four 5-km runs.” At the start of each new chunk, visualize yourself just starting out on a new run with fresh legs and attitude and just focus on getting to the end of that section. This works for shorter distances too, and can work on the fly. You can focus on maintaining good form to get to the end of that street, and then focus on speed between those two lampposts.
3. Remember: It’s not always easy. As you’re doing a long run – maybe your weekly long, slow distance run, remind yourself that it’s not so easy to train for a long-distance event. If it were, everyone would be doing it, right? Remind yourself that you’re taking on a challenge and the difficulties you face will make your achievements all the more worthwhile in the end.

Keep getting out there!

Health and running on the Runner’s Round Table show

I really like running. I was a late starter, impelled by the very apparent onset of middle-aged spread. But I have come to love the feeling of running, the mindful opportunities, the extreme geekfest and statistics heaven of Garmin gadgets, compression garments and nutritional analysis. I embrace both the journey and the finish, though learning to love the journey was a journey in itself.

Tomorrow night at 6pm EST, I get to talk about running with some esteemed company on the net. I have been invited to join the Runner’s Round Table live broadcast, where runners from around the world share tips, tell stories, and keep each other motivated. So, pull up a chair and join us at the table.

Some of the topics we are planning to talk about include:

• Do statins degrade muscle performance?
• Sudden deaths during running – should I be worried? (Unfortunately topical after the death of Claire Squires during the London Marathon just this last weekend)
• Do you need to take a multivitamin if you eat a healthy diet?
• Five tests that can save your life.

You can find the link to the articles we will discuss here, as well as links to the recording of the broadcast once it is done, and previous shows. If you want to join in online and ask questions, then join us on Talkshoe – follow the link above for instructions.