For couple of days I have been going through all the motivation related posts for PhD student. I am a PhD student in my 3rd year. My adviser always told me I lack creativity and should always analyse the problem in multi-dimensional way. Every year he told me he wants to see me progressing and be a competent PhD student. He is a nice guy, always supportive and encouraging. I have always struggled in learning how to be creative.Its been busy time all 3 yrs and its sad that my adviser still has the same comment for me that I am not creative and curious enough, thinking the PhD research work from different angle.

So far I have not taken major long break expect one of a week long break around at the end of 2nd year. I am not a typical hard working student who is all into the research and spent all hours in lab. I am in my office 9 to 5 mostly. Usually weekends I work less and try to keep some time for other stuff. Not taking breaks does not mean I am working always. Recently I took a break of a week long hoping to return energized to work. But this time I came back all lazy to be back in the lab. So depressed and tired of my professor's expectation of me coming up with unique ideas for the research. During a week long break I took a trip, visited beautiful places , spent time with families and just enjoyed every single day. Now when I am back I feel miserable not having that fun moments again. I feel so lazy, unmotivated to work and exactly on "doing nothing" mood.

Not living up to the expectation of my adviser makes me feel "I may not be the hardworking talented candidate that he always wanted and that he always encouraged me to be." I know my adviser always commented on my poor side for encouraging me to work hard but I feel so unmotivated every time he comments of my weaknesses. Currently still in the hangover mood of the fun vacation and knowing that I can never meet my adviser's expectation, I feel totally passive to get back to lab work.

My recent vacation and my adviser's high expectations from me and all the huge pending PhD research works making me so unmotivated to get back to work. It is making me think may be I should not be spending time in lab stressed with reports, publication, results but rather should be doing something else that i would enjoy in my life... I am questioning myself am I not ready for the PhD. On the other hand I feel all this will go away and I will get back to working mood. I already spend like 10 days waiting for me actually have a feeling wanting to work in lab seriously and still am waiting....Any comments suggestion would be appreciated , Thank you.

Hi Sofi,

So sorry to hear about the way you feel. The first thing I'd like to say is that your third year is not a time for you to think about quitting. You are close to the finish line.
Is it possible to ask your supervisor to spell out what he/she wants from you?
Sometimes when my supervisor says something that I do not know how to apply, I ask him to be explicit. That might make me look stupid at the time, but at least, I leave the meeting with a clear understanding of what is expected of me.

All the best.

Hey Sofi. It is possible that your supervisor is using a negative motivational strategy. Some managers take this approach. In my view, it isn't at all helpful. It just knocks you down instead of boosting your confidence. Personally I think it is a much more effective strategy to show that you believe in someone and give them some positive feedback. But some seem to think that warnings and causing anxiety will actually spur someone on to do better and be great. Maybe that works for some people...

Sorry this isn't advice as such - just an opinion. But I would say if there is someone you can talk to who IS more positive and motivating, and who shows that they believe in you, then this might help somewhat. Is there someone in your department - an academic advisor or similar - who might be able to encourage you in this way?

Whatever you do - don't give up! I could be wrong, but I get the impression from reading your thread that no matter how rubbish you feel it is going right now, if you were to quit now then in a month or two you would actually regret it.

Hi Sofi,

I think you have been given some excellent feedback already from HiT and TD, and I thought I would offer my perspective on your comment below: "I may not be the hardworking talented candidate that he always wanted and that he always encouraged me to be." .
You are not doing a PhD to gratify your supervisor's expectations of what he believes you should be or to please him. And the PhD is not about 'you'-the PhD is about your study. Once you have submitted and completed your PhD, you and your supervisor will probably part ways. (For many of us-both candidates and supervisors- this will be a huge relief, I might add).

So given this, when it comes to the PhD, perhaps you can listen to what he is saying about trying out different ideas. For many of us that means reading more of the literature or research to expand our thinking and asking 'what if?' questions, or trying out something new, even if we are not sure how it will go. I think you might know this anyway. Being 'creative' on a PhD often comes down to the strategies we try or work through as we go, and these can be learned (from books, from other people, from the literature we read). And to committing to thinking through things rather than going with the first option. So creativity relates to what we do, not who we are.

You, Sofi, are fine just as you are. Your supervisor may have 'expectations' of you. These are fine as long as they relate only to the work you do and with regard to you meeting your PhD obligations-doing the work, researching and finally writing and submitting a PhD. If you are doing that to the best of your ability, and in good faith, then you are meeting your obligations and any reasonable expectations of your supervisor. This PhD is about you and your study, and your supervisor's job is to guide you to this end point. Hope this helps, I mean it well, so please don't think this is a criticism of your post or your position.

Excellent advice from pjlu.
Your PhD has absolutely nothing to do with gratifying this supervisor because you cannot control how other people feel about you.
It is about getting what YOU want out of it. After all, you are going to have to sell this puppy in job interviews for years to come.
Make your own mind up about how you want to expand your research ideas and start caring less about what this one unsupportive person expects of you.
It might be time for you to stop seeing this supervisor so often. Stop worrying about getting his approval and take charge of your own immediate future. You will feel more in control that way.
There are plenty of us out there who actively avoid overly involving our supervisors in our work. I know one guy who actively refused to give his supervisor unsolicited requests for progress updates and is now a professor himself. He used to tell his supervisor "When I have something to publish you will be the first to receive the manuscript". I would never go that that length but I certainly need my space.

Good luck.