The Belonging Lady with a confused expression

“If it hasn’t passed peer-review, it doesn’t exist.”

This is the mantra pounded into the head of every PhD student. After four years of this conditioning, I emerged with my five components of belonging. The model began with a thorough literature review of many keywords across several disciplines: I-O psych, ed psych, social psych, management, leadership…

Also, when you’re writing a dissertation, there are no books, podcasts, or social life. You’re head down in the only source of information that exists: peer-reviewed sources of your research topic. If you’re a high-performing female terrified you’ll miss something, you attempt to read ALLL of that research. Every.Last.Bit. Twice in case you missed something the first time.

Then you graduate. Then you go on organizational webcasts. You give your TEDx talk. THEN, only AFTER ALLLLLLL of this, you try to title your TEDx YouTube upload to reflect YOUR ENTIRELY ORIGINAL IDEA. The punchline at the end of your talk that came from the magical combo of the Almighty Lit Review and Your Brain. You land on the perfect title and give it a quick Google to make sure it’s original. 

It’s not. 

It’s been said before. 

And not just by some nobody that no one listens to. It’s been said by one of the loudest voices in the speaking world.  

Brené Brown. 

“But wait!” you exclaim as you frantically type this into AIfred, “Brené Brown is the shame and vulnerability lady; she’s not The Belonging Lady ™!”

And AIfred, bless his little algorithm, does what AIfred does. He pulls up the receipts.

Turns out? Brené HAS talked about belonging. A lot.

So you read what she said. And you know what?

It was good.

You think: It SHOULD be. It's what my lit review said.

Four years of reading ALLLLL the research will do that to you. You don't just know your topic. You know (almost) everybody's take on it. So when Brené Brown says something about belonging, you don't panic.

You nod.

Because you already read the research behind it. And the research behind THAT research. Twice.

Some things exist before they've been peer-reviewed. Turns out Brené proved that.

So, if you’ll excuse me, I've got some podcast listening to catch up on.

- The Belonging Lady ™

 

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