Good morning everyone,
As we close out the first month of 2024, we also close out the first month of Morning Rounds with Rosh š©ŗ. Welcome to Week 5.
You all see the headline. Overall, Iād say I am a very passionate individual. Ever since I was a child, Iāve always known medicine is for me. That early interest, plus my own personal experiences, I know how motivated I am to becoming a physician. For a long time Iāve seen this as one of my biggest strengths. My motivation and the reasons why I am doing this are why I get out of bed early in the morning. It is why I can stay up late to get work done.
One thing I learned though, although motivation is a big factor of MY progress, it couldnāt have been the only thing pushing me. College wasnāt so hard. Especially with the latter half in the pandemic, studying was not really a concern for me. But, as we all know, medical school is a whole other beast. It is consistent hard work with minimal breaks. Couple that with psychological warfare, and taking on other projects onto my plate, I can easily say this has been one of my toughest experiences.
Now no matter how clutch my motivation has been in pushing me to study and perform, I am human. Like everyone, I have emotional swings. I get lazy š“. I get distracted. Having those swings are totally fine, its part of life, but, if I can, itās important for me to control, and realize when I am in those swings. Many times, in those swings, itās easy to forget the reasons that motivate me. Iām sure a lot of people can relate to that. Itās part of being human. This is where discipline is important. Being disciplined in itself is difficult to do. But coupling motivation and discipline has been key for my progress. How do I maintain both?
Creating cues to remind myself about MY WHY has been important. Some of my tattoos are linked to that. Seeing them in the mirror every morning gets me fired up for my day. The most recent one on my left forearm, seeing it when I am typing or writing, reminds me of why I do what I do as well. In moments where I may lose site of MY WHY, these strategic cues have consistently been a reminder.
But even then, there are times where those cues fail. In these times, discipline is important. One of the big things I have done to build my discipline is building elements into my daily functioning system to accommodate for discipline. What do I mean by that? By realizing where I need help with discipline, I can set myself up with shortcuts ahead of time to help out. This all starts with reflection. In taking time to be with myself, ask myself hard questions, and reflect, I can realize areas that I want help with, and want to improve in. In doing so, I can set up cues to discipline myself.
Letās take the gym šļøāāļø for example. This rotation has been LONG days. Starting my morning early with pre-rounds, to late clinics, to ending my days off in the evening back in the hospital often times, I found it pretty hard to want to hit the gym after. The big thing that I hated was the thought of going home, changing, going back to the gym. That would take up an additional 30 minutes (which is precious). Plus, if I got home and decided to sit on the couch for a second, I know it would be over for me LOL. So something small I would do is pack my hospital bag with gym clothes, and keep running shoes š in the passenger seat of my car. When I am packing up at the hospital and getting ready to head home, seeing that cue would remind me that āI wanted to hit the gym X amount of days this week.ā Although I often did not feel like I wanted to gym in the moment, seeing that cue, I often decided to just gym anyways, even if it was a quick one. I left the gym every single time, feeling extremely satisfied with myself.
Another simple thing I do is scheduling out EVERYTHING šļø. I mean including things like when I want to study, what I want to study, etc. Itās easy for me to get distracted on my phone, or even by a friend, but when I see that calendar notification for āPEDs UWORLD Q Set,ā thatās my cue to know that I have to focus, and get on what I wanted to get done in that time block. I even schedule things like getting groceries, and eating lunch. Iāve found that system to be highly effective for me. Some people look at my calendar and laugh at it. I donāt really care, itās my calendar, and it works for me.
What I realized is discipline does not need to be this very difficult feat. Rather it can be fun and simple alterations we make in our lives that help us do what we want to do. When we start doing it, we start to embody the āmindsetā of discipline, and that just turns into the snowball effect.
All in all what I am trying to say is medical school is difficult. And for the average person, motivation can only take you so far. That is why finding ways to be disciplined is important, especially if you want to measure yourself on a grand scale in terms of success. When you can find motivation and discipline, and when you can find a balance āļø of the 2, you can really make some strides in your progress.
āļø Weekly Coffee Count: 18 cups of coffee this past weekā¦it has been quite the week.
š Here are some recent news that I think you may find interesting!
Elon Muskās Neuralink Announces First Human Implant
Elon Musk says his company Neuralink has placed an experimental brain device in a person in the first human test of the technology.
Malaria vaccine rollout in Cameroon may lower death risk in children by 13%
An effective new malaria vaccine was rolled out for the first time in Cameroon, Africa, on January 22.
US Board Discloses Cheating
USMLE is invalidating scores attained by some examinees after an investigation revealed a pattern of anomalous exam performance associated with test-takers.
Our answer from last weeks case: A) HF with preserved EF
š©ŗ Our Patient Assignment For This Morningās Round
A 32-year-old male with no significant past medical history presents to the emergency department with acute, right upper quadrant abdominal pain and fever. He denies nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea. On physical examination, he is afebrile with stable vital signs, but appears uncomfortable and has right upper quadrant tenderness on palpation. Laboratory studies reveal leukocytosis (WBC 15,000/mm3) with neutrophilia, and an elevated lipase (350 U/L). Ultrasound of the abdomen demonstrates a distended gallbladder with pericholecystic fluid.
I will drop the correct answer at next weeks round!