Lessons Learned From My Short-lived Masters

It’s Sunday, it’s time for the weekly review. Here’s some life lessons from this week.

I quit my Masters this week and it’s the best decision I’ve made this year.

I was studying an online, distance Masters in International Relations and was not getting the advertised value out of it at all. There were lots of issues with it, but the main one was that lecture notes on the Arab Spring were 6 years out of date… when I brought this up to the course leaders, I was not happy or assured by the response and I lost all confidence in the course I’d signed up to do. I was 6 months into a 2.5 year Masters that I was already struggling to complete and I lost the excitement that made me sign up. And then on Tuesday when reading a book that was the intersection of many of my interests, I felt bored, and flat and sad and I didn’t want to do it. I lost the motivation to continue and I realised I didn’t have to. Within 2 hours I’d withdrawn.

Here are some reflections from this first week.

1. Trust your gut

Some might call it being impulsive, others might call it trusting your gut, but most of the decisions I’ve made in life that I’m most grateful for have been made impulsively.

I have to act on what feels right at the time, I hope that’s how I live a life with no regrets.

The spark in my head of “wait do I actually have to continue” just didn’t feel scary. It felt appropriate so I acted on it and I believe it was the right thing to do.

2. I like learning on my terms

I thought I wanted to be pushed academically, to be asked to think critically and to find new questions and answers. Turns out I’m pretty good at critical analysis (and ChatGPT helps me uncover new avenues to critically analyse) and can still read and analyse books from this perspective without a lecturer telling me too.

I also flit between interests very quickly because I literally want to know EVERYTHING so you can imagine the tangents I go on. Last week I was interested in the British Aristocracy and today I’m looking at the Boston Tea Party having learned about the Tudors and the Reformation on Friday. I’m all over the place and it’s so fun.

This makes me realise that 8 week blocks of modules on one topic might not be the best for me, which is what the Masters was.

If this ever changes, I’ll rethink a Masters. I’m 24 and have my whole life ahead of me.

3. Having mental space is great

I don’t have guilt when sitting and not doing anything now. Rest is OK! The feeling of rushing all the time has gone. I read in bed before getting up this morning. That’s what Sunday mornings are for.

4. Systems really are everything

The number of apps I used to manage my life exploded, all out of need. My use cases changed. I needed structure to help me manage what was going on. I just needed to get things done in a way that set me up in the best way for success, which was key as I was feeling so demoralised about everything. I think I’ll do a separate post about this!

5. Doing many things badly does not feel good

The choice to do a Masters was an empowered move. I wanted to learn and grow as a person. I certainly did learn things, but I was not enjoying it and never had the time or the will to put my all into it. And this spilled into other aspects of life too.

I was doing my day job to a lower standard, my studies to a low standard, PKM Beth content was always on hold and big ideas have to be pushed until October “when I’ll be more free” (when I leave my 9–5). I didn’t have confidence in any of the three areas of my life. My social life was non-existent and I was not exercising or eating well.

Collectively this was really affecting my self-esteem. I had no time to think and it ruined my relationship with learning which is what made me sign up to the Masters in the first place.

Doing many things badly did not empower me. It was quite the opposite. That’s not how I want to live my life.

Whilst I always struggled with just the Masters and my job, the thing that really added complexity to life was when PKM Beth started to grow. I had new ideas, new opportunities and content that I really wanted to put out. That didn’t exist when I applied for my Masters. This is what I feel true passion about in life and I need to honour that.

I am very grateful for the opportunity to do the Masters, grateful to the student loan set up in the UK that paid for it, grateful to have the security of a job, to have a business that is growing enough to allow me to hand in my notice to freelance. But it’s just not practical to do all of that well and keep a healthy body, mind and relationships. That’s the biggest lesson of all.

What’s next?

I am leaving my job in October to focus on content and freelancing full time. I have so many ideas. I’m really excited to put out some content for students still about what I learned, but I also want to delve into my true passion in life which is ‘PKM In The Wild’, showing people how to use PKM practices all the time, not just when taking notes about taking notes on a note-taking app. Can’t wait!

Grateful for the lessons but more grateful that chapter is over!