Self-efficacy

     I have had many opportunities in the past few months to increase my self-efficacy. In case you don't know what self-efficacy is (and I didn't, until a colleague in Miami taught me about it), self-efficacy is your belief in your ability to do something. For example, I strongly believe that I can cook almost anything, but I don't believe that I can play sports or do computer programming. In science (and perhaps in other fields, although I don't know the research there), your science self-efficacy is connected to whether you'll be successful in science. And one way that you build your self-efficacy is by trying new activities and being successful at them.

     I lived on my own as an adult for many years before getting married, so I'm not too intimidated about taking over some of Andrew's tasks, like paying the bills. But one of the beauties of marriage, as far as I'm concerned, is the division of labor. You only have to be good at half as many things as when you were single. So I was good at cooking, cutting hair, purchasing clothes, and staying in touch with our families. Andrew was good at keeping the car running, training the dog, and cleaning the house. Now, all those jobs are mine as well. It is overwhelming to take on every task another person used to do, but each week I manage a few more of them.

    My most recent accomplishments were making cat food and roasting coffee beans. These tasks were Andrew's, and of course, the notes that he kept for these activities were cryptic, and written only for him. "10 minutes at mark 2" doesn't tell me much about how to roast. But with some careful googling, I am drinking good coffee and the cat is eating homemade pork food. And my self-efficacy for both of these task is increasing.

     And thanks to my Star Trek friends, S and N, I'm increasing my self-efficacy in the handyman realm. After our success with the toilet replacement, I came back last weekend and learned how to clean gutters. (I also learned that ladders oscillate a lot when you climb up to second-story gutters.) They are also building a chicken coop, which let me learn how to use a circular law and an electric drill. The hammer I already knew how to use, but it wouldn't hurt if I got a bit more efficient with that.