Guts and Goals UK Afternoon
2pm – 3pm UK time

The Guts and Goals Programme for Doctoral students helps you on a daily basis, to clarify, commit to and implement your goals.

It works like this: For six days every week you get a brand new training from Chartered Psychologist, Dr Natalie Lancer. She walks you through prompts, strategies and psychological principles of motivation and perseverance to rev you up to implement your goals and help you remove any internal obstacles for why you shouldn’t follow through on them. The trainings are about four minutes long. Short, sharp and to the point.

How do you implement your goals? We meet every Monday and Friday for 6 weeks in a small group on Zoom, to set our goals for the week, announce our goals for the next week, look back to the past week to celebrate our success and to reflect on the prompts in the videos.

In our WhatsApp group we communicate daily on our progress and cheer each other on. We hold each other accountable to our goals – making it easy for you to show up and make steady progress.

This is for committed students who want to totally focus on their work.

Price: £525 for the six week block

Please click here to pay

If you have any questions about this programme please email [email protected]

Guts and Goals UK Afternoon 2023 Dates
2pm-3pm UK time

Guts and Goals Feedback

“The last two blocks of Guts and Goals have put me on the path to success. I was a little scared to write before, not believing in myself and with no real writing routine. Natalie’s Guts and Goals programme has made it possible for me to write 1st and 2nd drafts of three thesis chapters. Her schedule, videos, coaching, tips and tricks, as well as the supportive group who meet twice a week online (and in-between on WhatsApp) has really inspired me to keep this new flow going. Thanks so much!”

Polly Bence
Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Bristol, and
University of Exeter, South West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership

“Guts and Goals has been an unbelievable asset for my PhD journey. Natalie has created a real sense of community and support in addition to helping me break down tasks into manageable goals that I can actually meet and also reflect on my writing process. I recommend it to everyone!”

Lizy Blake,
School of Politics and International Relations,
Queen Mary University of London

When I first approached Natalie my goal was to complete a thesis, but I didn’t really know how. I was in a state of paralysis. Natalie’s approach helped me learn how to restructure my day and how to align my actions with my ultimate goal. I’ve really gained a lot from Guts and Goals: the programme created a positive environment for me to work on my goals, I relearned how to be accountable, and more importantly, that I always have the power to begin and begin again.

PhD student
University College London

My first contact with Natalie was when my university offered doctoral students the opportunity to participate in her three-month Smart Self-Care and Personal Growth Programme. As a mature student, I thought I was great at multi-tasking. My spouse’s job meant that we had frequent family relocations to various parts of the world. I could handle this, help the children adjust to school systems in different languages, etc. And as a part-time distant student, I believed that I had LOTS of time to work my way through my studies and that my multi-tasking skills and life experiences gave me an advantage that many of my younger colleagues might not have. I was wrong. To the point that I became completely overwhelmed and had to temporarily put my studies on hold.

Natalie’s Smart Self-Care programme re-booted my studies. It was my very first contact with a psychologist and, even more importantly, within a coaching context. It helped me understand myself, my way of studying and how to be a more effective researcher. It was such an eye-opener (I really recommend it), that I went on to do her Guts & Goals programme which has truly been a game-changer for me!

The ‘Before G&G Me’ avoided my supervisor, went down multiple research rabbit holes, stalled on data collection (due to MY insecurities and belief that I was doing everything wrong), got easily distracted by life admin and had perfected the ‘productive procrastinator’ label. The ‘Post G&G Me’ is a completely different person! With my participation in the Guts & Goals programme, I not only found a supportive community of like-minded individuals (each one facing their own challenges at different stages of the research process) but also learnt so many tools and techniques to help me develop focus, accountability and even initiative. The accountability factor has been integral to my new and improved Researcher 2.0 mindset. The twice-a-week group meetings and Natalie-hosted study sessions, the daily WhatsApp study goal announcements/check-ins, the various logs to document what does/doesn’t work and different goals, hosting and/or attending Zoom study sessions, etc.: all of this has made me feel like I finally control my PhD! And this has led to a major boost in both my self-confidence and productivity.

I know both that both my PhD research and self-awareness are works in progress. And different tools will work at different stages of this journey. But, thanks to Natalie’s Guts & Goals programme and my new support ‘tribe’, I’m actually extremely motivated and excited for the challenges ahead.
So, again (and a million times), THANK YOU!

PhD Candidate
Durham University