 Today's video is brought to you by Picmonic. So tell me if this sounds familiar. You should go into medicine, you'll get to help people and you also get to make a good amount of money doing so. I know for a fact I heard it a ton growing up, but the one thing most people don't tell you is how easy it is to be unhappy during the actual journey. Long hours of studying, constant stress, being compared to your peers and likely the doubt along the way that maybe you're not good enough for this at all. And of course you can't forget that feeling of FOMO when you're wondering if you chose the right path, as you see your peers and friends look like they're already years ahead of their own lives while you're still in school and training. So today I'm super excited to finally make an episode on how to be happy on this challenging journey, hopefully helps. So number one is to look at every experience from a teacher's lens. Now I have attributed this one tip to be one of the biggest reasons that I've been fulfilled and happy on my medical journey. And it's also the same reason that two people can go through the same experience, but come out with completely different outlooks and mentalities. In the medical journey, we have to accept that things are going to go right and they're also going to go wrong. And while the default state on the medical journey is to be happy when things are going well and not so much when things aren't, you can use something called the teacher's lens to be able to overcome those challenges. And the basic principle is to ask yourself, what would I tell somebody that is one day going to go into this experience? And that doesn't matter if the experience was a good one or a bad one, but essentially what are the main lessons so you can either replicate a success or avoid a failure or a setback. Now I would argue that I accidentally came across this piece of advice because as I'm making content for medical students and pre-meds, despite of how I did on that specific phase, people still want to know how to do well. So if I didn't do well on a specific rotation, people still want to know what resources I use, how should I study for a shelf exam, how should I study for this board exam? And it doesn't matter what my own performance is, my main perspective will be, okay, if you did well, how can somebody else replicate that? And if you didn't, what type of things would you tell somebody to do or not to do to increase their chances of success? Now you don't have to have a YouTube channel or be an Instagram influencer to be able to use this on your own medical journey. You can simply look at every experience that you've had good and bad and saying, what are opportunities for improvement? How can I use the success and focus on the things that really made a big difference and replicate those so I can then be successful again in the future and things that didn't go so hot and what type of things would I avoid or increase doing? So then my chances of doing well on a test or productivity or time management, whatever it may be increases by doing this, you understand that things that had gone bad, the things that are setbacks really weren't that big of a deal anyways on your medical journey and things that did well are things that you can easily replicate. Sometimes we get a good score on a test and saying, ah, this is probably going to be something that I'm only going to be able to do like once or twice. This was a red herring. But if you focus on the things that actually led to the good grade, you likely will increase your chances of getting those in again in the future. So again, if you look at every experience as a teaching opportunity, you'll be able to notice that your happiness will go up because even when things don't go well, okay, at least I spotted a few things that I can avoid in the future. And when things are going well, there is a little bit of a confidence that builds and say, okay, let me focus on those things that will increase my chances of replicating this and you continue to have this machine where their chances of success continue to increase and increase because you're always focused on learning everything from every single and big moment. Now, tip number two is to increase your supply of golden nuggets. Now, if you are a longtime subscriber or listener to the channel, then you probably are well familiar with my golden nugget principle. But if you're not, it's essentially this idea that all of us go into healthcare for a level of experiences, then increase and motivate us to do it again. So if you're early on, for example, you may look at personal experiences or experiences with your family that inspire you to go into healthcare. Maybe you saw a sick family member, you saw what medicine could do for them, you want to go ahead and pass the buck forward. Or if you're later on in your journey, you may go through a great clinical experience or have a great relationship with a patient or learn something so amazing that you're like, this is definitely what I'm meant to do. But these are your golden nuggets. These are those experiences that you can always fall back upon when things don't go your way. And as we talked about earlier, things will not necessarily go your way all the time. So if you're noticing along your journey that you're not happy, you're not motivated, you're not excited to continue to do so and you're finding yourself in a slump, whether it's through grades or just not being interested in going to work or the hospital, the best thing you can do for yourself is say, okay, what golden nuggets do I have that really kept me going forward? What patient experiences were so worth that so memorable? What kind of areas, like if you're struggling on studying for an exam and finding that last bit of motivation, like when was the last exam that I just absolutely crushed it? How hard did I work then? What did I do to increase my retention, my long-term retention, and my confidence going into it? Reflect on those golden nuggets that really were big wins for you and then ask yourself, okay, was that result, was that amazing patient experience, that amazing clinical encounter, that amazing result on that test, that quiz, was it worth it for the hard work that I put into trying to replicate it? If the answer is yes, which it almost always will be, then you can say, okay, well let's put in that same level of effort and see if I can duplicate it. Now that doesn't mean that every patient encounter is going to be a golden nugget, it's going to be memorable, but as you put in the effort and try to again focus on tip number one, which is ask yourself, what type of things led to a golden nugget and what type of things minimized my chances of achieving one, you're going to do more and more of the things that are going to increase your chances of having more of a supply of these golden experiences that you can always fall back upon. And full disclosure, as I'm making YouTube videos on podcasts about how to do well on your medical journey, and even now as I'm making a video on how to be happy on your medical journey, there are days that I am not interested in going to the hospital. That is natural, that is not a failure on your part or a failure that you are not good enough or have chosen the wrong path, that just means that you're having an off day and off week or off month, but the more of those experiences you can constantly build, the more I can say, you know what, I'm not enjoying work today, but these are some experiences that I absolutely loved coming to work to and I know I freaking love this job, I'm good at it, and these are the types of things that I did to increase my chances of having another one. Let's see if I can achieve a golden nugget today. And if I don't achieve one today, I can go with the motivation of trying to do it again tomorrow and the next day and eventually you find yourself doing it and having another golden nugget that you can always fall back upon. Now tip number three is to truly prioritize you. One of the biggest issues with medicine is that there's such a focus on wellness without really understanding how to do that in your own life. We are taught things like meditation and exercise and nutrition and good sleep, but honestly no one really tells you how to balance the long hours of studying with all of those things that are supposed to be helpful for you. Honestly, the biggest win that I've seen for my own medical journey as well as other students that I worked with is understanding that you cannot be a 24-7, 365-day medical student, nursing student, pre-med, whatever may be on your medical journey. Having that specific time that says, you know what, I could study another hour, but I already know from my personal experience an extra hour doesn't really change my grade, if anything. I am studying less effectively and I'm more depressed and more tired of putting in this extra hour and thinking about what other types of things I could be doing and who I could be hanging out with. So if you learn how to prioritize yourself and what easy way to do this is having a time that says I'm going to stop studying at this time every single day regardless of what needs to be done and that forces you to change your schedule around, but if it's 7.30 is 8.30 or 9.30 giving yourself an extra hour or two at the very end of the day and maybe something at the very start of the day that are specifically focused at you, fitness, exercise, cooking, watching TV shows, doing absolutely nothing, but prioritizing you there's a big difference between that student who says I'm going to fill this entire day with studying and preparation for exams versus the student says I'm going to study but I'm going to study effectively and still get myself effective time for myself. This student, student number B you could say for example is going to feel so much more fulfilled because the parts of their life that are still important to them are still there, but on the flip side a student who is very much like me starting medical school who fills their entire day with studying and sometimes gets the grades they want but sometimes don't, necessarily don't have more hours to dedicate and they definitely don't have any time to dedicate in themselves just feels down and depressed they feel 100% tied to their medical experience. The best way to be happy on this experience is to have time that is dedicated to progress for your future career but also time to progress on things outside that are important to you. And since we're talking about being happy on your medical journey one of the best ways you can do that is to have a resource that can complement all of your class material all in one place and that's why the sponsor of today's video, Picmonic is one of my favorite resources recommends medical students, nursing students, and everyone on the medical journey. And if you're unfamiliar with Picmonic it's all in one resource that includes countless numbers of videos on literally any topic you would need for your medical career. So if you're bearing your medical student for example you can find the classes you're currently taking such as microbiome and then find those specific videos in Picmonic that related to class material you may cover tomorrow and then be able to really understand truly what's important and what's not. If you're studying for your board exams you can find relevant videos and playlists regarding those individual topics as well as follow along really common and popular texts such as first aid and papoma. And Picmonic is not just made for new medical students or classroom learning if you're on your rotations for example you can go through their respective videos and try to understand what type of materials will be fair on your rotation shelf exams as well as USMLE Step 2. And so if you're interested in an all-in-one resource that can help you on your medical journey by focusing on long-term retention every phase of the way then definitely consider giving Picmonic a try. If you're interested there'll be a link down below. If you use the coupon code the MD journey at checkout they'll be able to give you a sweet 20% discount thanks to our friends at Picmonic and again thank you for Picmonic for being today's sponsor. Now tip number four is to compete against your own goals and not to your peers. One of the biggest reasons for unhappiness is just all of the examples that we have around us of how smart we are but yet also how many people are just as smart. And sometimes when we are going through the medical journey we're maybe the top of our high school class doing really well in college doing well on the MCAT and then you get to medical school and suddenly you have a big ego burst where everyone around you is brilliant and smart and sometimes that is intimidating because in a way you believe all of them to still be competition. They're still going to be in your way of getting into AOA or getting into a residency that you want and so you're always looking at your peers as a form of competition and comparing and contrasting the things that they're good at that you're not but as you probably already know from personal experience and if you don't let me just be the first to tell you comparing yourself to your peers doesn't give you any extra benefit and your peers never really know that you're competing against them so the only person that's really losing out is you. Another thing that I've come to appreciate along the journey is that just because somebody else is succeeding doesn't decrease the chances that you'll do so as well. Just because somebody else is getting a good board exam or doing really well on the rotations doesn't necessarily mean that you will do poorly. If instead you can ask yourself okay what type of things am I good at and how can I capitalize on these skills and what type of skills am I not so hot on and what type of things can I do to improve those then you set yourself up for constant progress and getting towards your goals. So remember your peers are not your competition. They can be a source of motivation for how much more room you have left to grow but they should not be the person that you constantly compare yourself to and to really hit this point home because sometimes I have to remind myself of this as well. If you're watching this episode then you are likely in the shoes where somebody else is looking at you currently and saying I really want to be like him or her and you'd probably look back as long as you're a decent human being and saying what you're gonna do just fine. You need more time, you need more experience but don't compare yourself to me. You should give yourself that piece of advice routinely and understand that your peers should be a source of motivation but not necessarily a measure of like how far you are and how far you're not compared to them. Tip number five is something that I've recently picked up in the last two and a half years and that's understanding that rapport is so much more important than knowledge especially as a new training early in my medical school career. I thought I just needed to know everything to be a good doctor and let's be happy but I found that the best way is to really enjoy going to work and taking care of patients is to really one hone in on how I can increase those chances of having amazing patient interactions. How can I communicate better with patients, their families, especially in a time where they're sick or the family is just super concerned of their loved ones well-being. And once I got over the pressure of knowing everything you start to look at every patient experience of saying okay one can I make sure I develop an amazing patient rapport so this patient trusts me and then two use this patient experience so the patient comes with a pancreatitis DKA needs a surgery you can use that experience and say okay like let me raise my knowledge level on this so next time I have a patient with the same problem I've already worked on the rapport scale hopefully I can continue to replicate it but now I've already taken care of a patient with that experience and hopefully I can use that to even build up more trust. Again everything is a stepping stone but if you use that rapport somebody will be able to trust you and even if you don't have the information for them as long as you know where to look for it whether it's a colleague an upper level resident and attending up to date whatever it may be that trust will go so far along the way. But for me more often than not the days that I leave the hospital saying that that was an amazing day are not days where I like made a fancy diagnosis or like treated some crazy disease but they tend to be times where I just felt like my patient rapport was just on point. I feel like every time I go in and talking with my patients they're able to understand how I was able to manage them diagnose them and what type of things will be doing today tomorrow however long they'd be in the hospital. And as long as your patient has that trust then you have an increased motivation to go back and learn more about their medical condition make sure you're not missing anything but then you see them the next day you're excited to see them because they're happy to see you and it just continues this ball of motivation. So increasing that happiness sometimes starts with increasing those most simplest skills of listening and making sure that the patients really hear you and then just going from there. The knowledge will always come there's always going to be pieces of missing knowledge as long as you know where to acquire it you'll be fine but no one can necessarily teach you how to talk to patients unless you focus on making that a priority. And last but not least understand that it's okay not to enjoy your job every day. As I mentioned earlier there are days where I do not want to be in the hospital there are weeks where I'm just not having a great time that doesn't mean that medicine is making me unhappy or I don't love my job it just don't really want to be there there can be other elements in my life that I'd rather be spending doing more whether it's sleeping being with my wife being with my puppy exercising is training for a marathon there are other elements of your life that can have upswings that are more important than medicine in your personal career and that is okay it is not a failure to be unhappy in the hospital as long as you understand why Steve Jobs nicely said if you continue to wake up day in and day out or not happy with what you're about to do then you really need to rethink what you're currently doing in your day-to-day life but if you're happy with the decision of being on this journey if those golden nuggets that you acquired over time continue to motivate you to do so even if you're not happy now is okay. And as a bonus a few ways you can overcome these kind of difficult weeks and stretches can simply be of having releases on the side of your schedule so either side hobbies people that you love to interact with hobbies that you are completely unrelated to medicine or things like cutoff times where you're just telling yourself after this time i'm no longer going to be studying no longer be focusing on my job and i'm okay to focus on those other elements of my life but those guys are some of my favorite tips on how to be happier on your medical journey now it'd be naive for me to think that these tips apply to everybody or these are the only tips that you need so if there's something that's working for you definitely include it in the comment section down below because if somebody else doesn't get benefit from my tips maybe they'll be able to benefit from your own so comment down below on things that you're doing on your medical journey that keep you happier keep you going if you guys have any questions you know where to find me drop them in the comment section down below if you did at all enjoy this video if one tip was able to really get you thinking on what type of things you would start doing differently then go ahead and hit that like button it really supports this channel supports this video and also consider hitting that subscribe and notification bell now if you're listening to this on an audio form because yes we do have a podcast in the TMJ show then go ahead and consider hitting that follow and subscribe button there as well as leaving an honest review on iTunes and once again i want to give another shout out to the sponsor and pick monik if you guys are interested again they'll be linked down below and you guys can use the code the MD journey at checkout for 20 off but as always guys super super appreciative for all of you guys that eventually do make it to the very end of this video if this video is really helpful again don't forget to hit that like and subscribe button and as always thank you for being a part of my journey hopefully I was a little helped you guys on yours if you did enjoy this video then definitely check out this video and how you can use onky like a pro step by step as well as how you can use this video to understand how to study and medical school step by step hopefully you guys enjoy these and i'll see you guys in the next one take care of my friends peace