Where has this woman been all my life?

We could all benefit from the kind of honest eye JaneB casts on her own professionalism and what it means to her to be a scientist. (via Zuska)

The lesson I'm trying to learn this year and next is that when I try to 'play the game' using externally set values for the things I do and am, I will be off balance - the weights of the different parts of my life will be wrongly distributed. It is up to me to recognise the true weight of things, and to distribute them appropriately for efficient and enjoyable carrying.
...
By treating these aspects of the job as less weighty, I end up berating myself for underachieving and feeling like a failure. "I did nothing today" often actually means "I saw three students, taught a class, had an email exchange about why so-and-so's data is making the model play up, ran so-and-so's data myself, found the problem, sent a long message explaining the problem and the work around, popped into the lab three times to check what was going on and lend a hand, talked to the technician about whether we needed to get some new sample bottles or could clean the old ones, wrote a reference for someone, prepared a handout, took two phone calls... and didn't do anything that will directly lead to a publication or grant".