Animal Crackers and Dissertations

April 18th is National Animal Crackers Day! In honor of this day let’s look at the most famous song about animal crackers ever performed and see how it relates to your dissertation…

In this song, a very young Shirley Temple sings about the big task of eating a bowl of soup full of animals:

“…Animal crackers in my soup
Monkeys and rabbits loop the loop
Gosh oh gee but I have fun
Swallowing animals one by one 

In every bowl of soup I see
Lions and Tigers watching me
I make ’em jump right through a hoop
Those animal crackers in my soup…”

Yikes! A little kid might be a little intimidated by those scary animals just like you might be a bit intimidated by the process of writing your dissertation.

Do you know what I love about this song? I love how Shirley Temple has an undefeatable attitude. How do you eat a bowl full of scary animals? One bite at a time.

You can do the same with your dissertation. Break that overwhelming project down into bite size chunks. Simplify the project if you need to. Find out what the hoops are that you need to force each part to jump through.

And then, go for it! Write that dissertation. One bite at a time.

“…When I get hold of the big bad wolf
I just push him under to drown
Then I bite him in a million bits
And swallow him right down.”

Wow! If we could all be this fearless we could get so much more done! You can watch Shirley Temple perform the full song here. (It might bring back some memories of movies were only on TV on Sunday afternoons. #SimplerTimes)

Are you having trouble breaking your dissertation down into bite size chunks? Click here to schedule a quick, 15-minute chat with me to see if you’re a good fit for our Fast Track Your Dissertation Coaching Program. If you are, then I’ll invite you to join the fastest group of dissertation students out there and help you to reach graduation a good year or two faster than you would on your own.