Crippled by the fear of submitting something

Or to use Clara's full phrase, "crippled by the fear of submitting something s**t."

That pretty much sums up the stage I reached last night after a week of slow progress on the research proposal. I'd met Clara to talk about my contribution to Online Assessment 2013 however it was too good an opportunity to ignore, to update Clara on my progress. She didn't seem impressed by the subject, however it was useful to hear her use the above phrase to describe how she feels about her own Phd work. Further reassurance and guidance followed in her encouragement to view the research proposal as a working document rather than "something cut in stone." She went on to suggest that if the content of the proposal isn't up to scratch its the function of that document - and the role of the dissertation supervisor - to move things forward.

Which is my task for this evening. I need to get a proposal as close to done and dusted as possible. Even if I think it's a bit, ah, mediocre. It's going to be a late night.