 All right guys, what is going on? Luxury from the MD journey helping you succeed on your medical journey with less stress. This video I'm gonna answer a question for one of my subscribers who asked me, how do you deal with self-doubt or fear of failure or just failure in general on your medical journey? And it's an amazing question we all deal with. It's, I'm gonna give you not only my personal example of something that I consider to be a failure at the moment, but also give you the top five things that I always do when I'm in a position of doubting myself. So we're gonna get to those tips after this intro. All right guys, let's get to the video. First of all, if you are new, welcome to the channel. My name is Luxhine, I'm a fourth year medical student who has been teaching and helping both pre-meds and medical students over the last two and a half years on how to do well with a little bit less stress. So if you enjoy that concept and you enjoy this video, first of all, make sure you give it a like, subscribe to the channel. I think we are almost at 1,000 subscribers by the making of this video. So make sure and help us get there. But let's get to the video, which is what are the five things you can do to overcome self-doubt, fear of failure and actual failure. And let me share with you a quick example, a story of mine. Back to my pre-med days, some of the most common examples we have as failures on a medical journey is when a test or interview or an application process didn't go our way. Those are usually the things that most people consider to be a failure. And something that really resonated with me at that time was when I took my MCAT, it was a terrible test. I did decently find, but the score that I got back was not representative of where I wanted. You know, I was trying to shoot for the start and the score wasn't gonna allow me to do that, or at least it didn't seem like that on the surface. When I got my score, I was disappointed, a little bit just uncomfortable and uneasy. And I considered myself to that moment to have self-doubt, to feel like I wasn't good enough maybe if I'm not doing well on the initial test that you have to take to go into medical school, maybe I wasn't good enough to become a physician. And obviously I wiped that away because I'm at this point where I'm about to become a physician in about like five months. So it's super exciting, but I'm gonna show you guys five different things that I've learned along the way that I did back then that have helped me overcome these mental hurdles as well as these actual life events that can kind of make it feel like you're taking a couple of steps back. So let's get to those tips. So the first tip that I like to give you guys is when you're in a position of fearing a failure or actual failure, make sure you understand that you separate your failure or your self-doubt from your own identity. I like to give you a quick story. It's probably one of my favorite examples where we are looking at a young gentleman who at the age of around 24 started a business and it failed within a year. He decided after 24 that he was gonna go into politics and he failed at that in 25. Started another business the following year, also failed. Year after year, even in the 30s, continued to try to be a politician, a businessman every single time you would lose the race until he was 52 years old, guys. And that's when Abraham Lincoln finally got elected to become president. He had so many losses that a normal human being that didn't know how to approach failure would have probably given up. But even at the age of 52, he persevered because his failures or his setbacks or probably the better examples did not necessarily represent his identity. So if you have something that I like to consider to be a setback, if you have an MCAT score that may not allow you to go to the school of your dreams at that moment, it is a setback, it is not you. So you are not a failure, that situation just didn't work out. So remember that separate yourself or separate your failures from your own identity. So tip number two that I love to give is understand this equation that lessons equals growth. People really dread that feeling of being at rock bottom. There's a great quote that I have, which is rock bottom is really just your foundation. It's going to help you become a better person if one, you have to learn from it. So if you have a setback or if you have self doubt, understand what were the reasons for it. For example, if you had a poor exam, it's very easy to call yourself dumb or stupid and maybe I'm not good enough, I shouldn't have come through this process in the first place, but just flip it on as mindset. You had a poor exam, like everyone has those, I still have those, put that as a lesson. Ask yourself, okay, using this, how can I become a better student? How can I make sure? One, I don't get this great again, but to use those lessons to become even a better student. So understand that your lessons equal your growth. So you've learned best from your mistakes, you learned best from your setbacks. So if you are feeling a sense of self doubt, it's because you're worried too much about messing up. And sometimes messing up is going to allow you to do the best versions of yourself. Allow you to amaze your potential. I remember when I was making these first YouTube video guys, a lot of you guys probably watched one of my first YouTube videos on the channel because it's probably one of the more popular ones, but it was terrible. But versus considering that to be a failure, it is more of a lesson on how to improve. I'm still improving, these videos aren't amazing, but I am going to learn through that and make those as my foundation to improve. So understand that lesson equals growth when you are in a situation of doubting yourself and wondering if you're good enough. So number three, and I really like to share this approach, is understand the true definition of a successful person. When we're in a position of self doubt, we are anything except successful in our own heads. And to us, we think who's successful. We point to people that are wealthy, people that have done well for themselves in terms of developing a name. If we look at our peers and we say who's successful, we look at the people who seem to get the good grades all the time or seem to always do well in their rotations or their classes, whatever it may be. The success is not a point in time, it is a process. And you too are successful in the eyes of somebody else. If you are a pre-med, if you are in med school, if you are about to go into residency, there are people looking at you like, man, I wish I could do what he or she is doing because you have gone through so many different hurdles to be able to make it to this point. So my definition of success is basically everything that I've gone through to get to this point. I am successful today because of all the hurdles and obstacles I have overcome. Because I know if I was to put myself back in the past and try to do it all again, it would be super difficult. And to know that I've made it to this point, I have to consider myself successful. So that helps you get through some of the self-doubt. Once you understand how much you really have done for yourself at this point in time. So understand that success is not a point in time but progress. And if you have made it to this point, whether you're a pre-med, whether you're in high school, whether you're already a med student, you are successful. You're just in a moment where you're having another setback and you're gonna get through it just like you always have. So last two tips and number four is me being completely honest because I dealt with this myself is stop doing it for other people. If you are from an immigrant family or a high expectation family, you know what I mean. Especially going into medicine, sometimes we are a little bit peer pressured into the expectations we set for ourselves because those are really reflective of the expectations other people have for us. And then the self-doubt comes in because we are not executing or doing according to what other people want from us. Forget those people. They may be your parents, your loved ones, it doesn't matter. You are going to be the one that's or is going to have to deal with a burden of stress. You need to set your own expectations. Stop doing it for other people. My parents told me to become a physician when I was a very young kid, when I moved to this country and I told them no countless amount of times. I chose to be a physician because of my own choice and I continue to want to do well for myself because of my own expectations. My parents want me to do well but they don't ever continue to force upon meaning a goal or expectation. That's because I've set in stone that I really don't put priority into their expectations over mine. If I have high expectations and goals for myself then that's all you really need. So stop doing it for other people. If you're trying to impress people, if you're trying to put on a face and you're struggling as a pre-med and the rest of your classmates are doing well, ask for help, continue to move on but get over that feeling of wanting to impress people of looking around and saying how what everyone else is doing and understand that you are also good enough. So last tip number five is basically understand all the doors that are still open if you do have a setback. You know, when I had that MCAT score which is fine again but not probably good enough for me to go to an Ivy League school. At least that's what I thought. And so when you are in those situations you're like, man I blew it, all my options are done, I can't get into medical school, I'm not gonna be able to residency. You have those conversations with yourself. Instead of worrying about all the doors that are looking like they're closing, look at all the doors that are still open. Again, you are a successful individual because of all the hard work you have put in to get to this point and because you've done so there are still gonna be doors open for opportunity for you and to understand that they're still there. So if you are a first year or second year med student you take your step one exam. You don't do as well as you want. That's gonna be considered a failure initially in your mind but understand there's so many doors still open. You can still do whatever you want to regardless of what somebody tells you. And so just focus on the doors of opportunity that are still open versus the doors that look like they're closing inside your head. But guys, all of those five tips were basically how I approach failure and self doubt on a day to day basis. I deal with it all the time, it's hard not to. I'll be honest on your medical journey but there are so many amazing people that are brilliant, they're smart, that are successful around you but remember that you are one of those individuals too. So if you deal with self doubt make sure you remember these five principles. If you have another principle that you kind of use to help yourself overcome self doubt or failure you know I love to hear about it and I know other readers, subscribers want to hear about it so make sure you comment down below. But if you did enjoy this video first of all as always make sure you give this video a like. Subscribe to the channel as I mentioned we are almost two of our subscribers. That was my goal for 2018. So I would highly appreciate it if you helped me get there. But as always, if you guys have any questions you can comment down below. You can send me a message. Check out the links in the description if you want some free resources. If you're struggling with something specific on your medical journey whether that be studying or something else there's probably something in those links for you. But I'm gonna stop babbling. If you enjoyed this video make sure you like and subscribe. And as always guys thank you so much for watching and I'll see you guys in the next one.