 Take time off, don't put off that dental appointment. Go to the gym, get on a schedule, get a routine down. It's okay. How can somebody as smart as a physician make so many dumb mistakes? Well, I'm going to tell you in this video. Welcome back to the channel, everybody. For those of you who are new around here, my name is Michael, aka Dr. Cellini, and I'm a board certified diagnostic and interventional radiologist in New Jersey. So if you know me or have watched my videos for quite some time now, you may know that I like to keep up with medical current events. And I like to keep my eye out on current events and healthcare and dabble frequently in the op-ed and healthcare related articles. And I found this one article that I came across that I swear I felt like I wrote myself. The author is in fact anonymous, but I promise you, I did not write it. However, if I were to write something like this, it would be very similar. Also, do they even get paid for writing these articles, like these op-ed pieces in kevinmd.com or docsimdy? I always wondered that. Do they get paid? Because so many people write these articles and I always wondered if they get paid for them, but I did address. Anyways, this article is too good not to share with you all. So that's exactly what I'm going to do today. As usual, I'm going to break it down, add a few sprinkles of my own wisdom and give you my thoughts on it as well. So let's get into it. Okay, by now you probably know the drill. I will leave a link to this article in the description box below so you can proves it at your leisure. Now let's come straight out the gate with the first dumb mistake that doctors make. And that is making your career your life. Oh man, this is so true for oh so many doctors. And that's fine if that's what you want to do. However, just because being a physician is a calling and we devote a short period of our lives fine tuning this craft and helping people along the way, it doesn't mean you have to be defined by it. One of my friends and prior co-residents used to talk about this and he put it so eloquently because he used to talk about how he didn't want to be identified as a radiologist. He wanted to be known as a good husband, a good father, a fun guy to hang out with who is also a radiologist. And I thought that put in that perspective was just perfect. And I know what you're thinking, your name is Dr. Cellini, that's what you go by. Your entire YouTube channel is devoted to you being a doctor and talking about doctor things and that's sort of true. But outside of YouTube and the hospital, ATA work, I don't really identify myself as a doctor. In fact, my favorite thing ever is when I meet people, hang out with them and then I find out I'm a doctor and they're surprised to find out that fact. Or they just don't believe me altogether. I literally love that. And although being a doctor is a large part of my life, it's not the most important part of my identity because I am much more than my career. Having that mindset allows you to separate yourself from work and your personal life, which allows you to enjoy you. The second most common mistake doctors make is putting yourself behind others. Or as the article states, forgetting to put your O2 mask on first. Throughout our medical training, we are always taught to put our patient's needs above ours. We work insane hours with little sleep and get a little time off, all while telling our patients not to do these things. And as I've talked about at Nauseam on my channel, these are the things that lead to burnout. If we continue to live like this, we will eventually reach a breaking point. It's okay to take care of yourself and focus on your own health all while simultaneously taking care of others. Take time off, don't put off that dental appointment. Go to the gym, get on a schedule, get a routine down. It's okay because after all, if you are not in your best health, how do you expect to take care of patients to your best ability? The third most common mistake doctors make is not learning how to become financially literate. You see now why I kind of second guessed myself when I was reading this article because it sounds like something I would have written. Because honestly, I've probably done separate videos on all of these topics so far. But back to the financial literacy point. We spend an insane amount of time learning medicine and eventually end with a decent salary. And we also gathered a nice chunk of student debt along the way. So what happens when you mix a high salary and high student debt burden and no financial literacy? Well, you'll quickly run into issues. And of course, it's easy to get in trouble since we have delayed gratification for so long. However, it's very important to become financially literate early in our medical training so that we can prepare ourselves for further down the road. We clearly don't learn this stuff in medical school or residencies, but nowadays you don't spend your days watching YouTube videos and learn everything you need to know. This day and age there honestly isn't an excuse to not be financially literate. The fourth common mistake doctors make is not protecting your time. This is a huge one. I swear this article is me, it's so weird. Remember all those research publications we did in medical school and all those book publications we did as a resident? Why did we do all those things? Was it to get into a big academic meeting for free and have all of our expenses paid for? Or was it to pad our CV to get into residency or even a job after residency? And how many hours did we spend doing these things? During our medical training, we have little time for ourselves and oftentimes we spend that little time we do have to ourselves doing projects like these. But why do we do them? Is it because we don't wanna disappoint our attendings or that we have trouble saying no? Or maybe it's because we don't want our attendings or mentors to think we don't like to work hard. I felt all of these things and more. I'm not saying this is the right thing to do but that's just what I did once I realized how valuable my time was. I could go on more about this but I don't want it to be the dead horse so let's get on to the next one. The number five mistake doctors make is not knowing your worth. The first line here says it all. We often forget that medicine cannot run without doctors. We often ask for time and better resources to help our patients. And too often the answer is no. In the article states that doctors usually ask rather than tell. We forget that the system needs us more than we need them. We are replaceable to an extent but that's how we were trained to think. We just wanna go about our day and if something comes up we take it on the chin because we don't wanna burden or disappoint someone else. We don't wanna seem like we can't handle things or like we are incompetent. So we just devalue ourself and work harder and longer and it's a perpetual spiral. We forget our own true value. We don't just provide care. We deliver a depth of knowledge in training that no one else even comes close to. And the most important part which they mentioned in this article is that we assume a level of responsibility and liability that nobody else wants. The system literally cannot function without doctors and we should never forget that. Number six mistake we make is that we do not set our own goals. Most hospitals and organizations have mission statements that outline the values of that organization. When you are part of a group or hospital system you are following the mission created by somebody else, not your own. And as the article states how many doctors have actually created their own mission statement that they live by? Most of us don't. We finish residency and just start working with no real goal other than to help patients. Wouldn't it be good to set goals for your career in and outside of medicine? At least then you have something to keep you moving forward and bettering yourself. Number seven mistake doctors make is looking to medicine to heal ourselves. I've come across many people who kind of fall into medicine because they don't know what else they enjoy. It's a great job that's still considered somewhat prestigious by some but you shouldn't go into it for that reason. Most of us go into medicine to heal others. We shouldn't go into medicine to get rich or to be perceived by others as being smart or successful. If you go into medicine to heal yourself you are in for a world of pain. Number eight, basically the eighth dumb mistake physicians make is that they don't take care of themselves. And what I mean by that is that there are times when we are patients ourselves but we are just treated as another patient which is fine. We wait in line like everybody else. We wait months to get that appointment, et cetera, et cetera. And just to be clear, I don't see a problem with that. However, the author is kind of ingest asking why haven't we created some VIP track for doctors for all of these appointments? Why don't we take care of each other in that respect? Sure, we have friends that can pull some strings from time to time but why don't we have the Disney equivalent of a fast pass in healthcare only for doctors? It's an interesting point that the author brings up but I'm curious to know what the people in the comments think about this. Just to be clear, I didn't write this Number nine dumb mistake that physicians make is that we fail to maintain friendships. Throughout med school we study alone but sometimes we study with people but we ultimately meet a ton of different people along the way and make lifelong friends if you keep up with them. But the hard part is that then after we meet them in med school we go on rotations and then ultimately to residency in a different state and then ultimately fellowship and then get jobs later on and we're constantly moving everywhere and it's difficult to stay in touch. So you really have to work hard at maintaining these relationships and developing not only through your tough training but once you get a job and thereafter. And if you don't do this, you may not have anybody in your immediate circle that you can go to or relate to or knows exactly what you're going through. The author states that they would tell their younger self to cherish and nurture those early friendships and keep them forever. And I totally agree. This is exactly what I do with my friends. Some of you have seen me on social media. I still hang out and talk with every single day core group of friends from med school were really close but we really worked at maintaining that relationship through the last 10 years. The final mistake that physicians make is that we don't remember ourselves or who we were before medicine. Remember when you were just starting medicine? Remember that passion you had to be the best in the drive like none other? You wanted to change the world, help everybody, explore, develop long meaningful relationships with people. That person is still there but it's easy to lose sight of them. But if you ever feel stuck, just think of that person you were before you started this whole journey. And that officially concludes this video. Hopefully you all enjoyed it. Let me know in the comments below what you think of this article. As always, smash the like, subscribe button, follow me on Instagram and TikTok if you don't already. And as always, I'll see you all on the next video. Bye.