Best lifestyle changes for excelling

[Chemistry>Physics]

What are good lifestyle changes that really make a difference if you want to excel and you want to go to medical school.

Also I'm assuming we don't have to mention the ones we already know like exercise, eating well, no excessive drinking.


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[eteshoe]

Learn how to relax and enjoy college a bit. This can mean picking up a hobby for the point of it - not just as another EC.

 

[Bergamot]

Learn meditation. It can increase your ability to focus, and most importantly, (I'm talking to you fellow neurotic pre-meds) it can clear your mind allowing you to get back to the game refreshed. I'll use a weight lifting analogy here: don't expect to walk out of the gym after a few months looking like Arnold. The benefits are subtle at first, but require consistency.

My answer is really an extension to @eteshoe's. The mental relief achieved by relaxing from the premed chaos, taking some deep breaths, and temporarily directing all of your focus into something you enjoy is critical to success. Whether it's meditation, playing an instrument, rock climbing, etc, the end result is the same.

 

[Lucca]

Sleep regularly and a healthy amount.

 

[cardzkp]

Learn how to relax and enjoy college a bit. This can mean picking up a hobby for the point of it - not just as another EC.

This. Enjoying my last year of UG much more now that my life is not robot premed and I do things that I like. Grades haven't taken much of a hit either.

And I'm not talking about FIFA/NHL and/or boozing. Although those are relaxing every now and again too.

 

[Revolution9]

I think I spent so much of my college days working on getting into medical school, that now that I've been accepted, I realize that I sort of let what should have been the best four years of my life pass me by. I'm trying to live it up now (did you know that people go out to bars on weekdays?) and am planning on traveling as much as I can this summer. But I realize that I should have taken an art course, or joined a club that had nothing to do with medicine, or did something absolutely off the wall crazy that I could think back on down the road instead of text books and the library.

 

[Bones 2020]

I think I spent so much of my college days working on getting into medical school, that now that I've been accepted, I realize that I sort of let what should have been the best four years of my life pass me by. I'm trying to live it up now (did you know that people go out to bars on weekdays?) and am planning on traveling as much as I can this summer. But I realize that I should have taken an art course, or joined a club that had nothing to do with medicine, or did something absolutely off the wall crazy that I could think back on down the road instead of text books and the library.

I agree. I studied all the time freshman and sophomore year, realized how much I hated it even though I had good grades. Started going out Thursday-Saturday nights, got an average GPA but had the absolute best last 2 years and met tons of people, and I still got into med school. Work hard, play hard OP

 

[Willfrye027]

I had a 3.0 going into junior year and asked myself the same kinds of questions.

The biggest game changer for me was surrounding myself with successful people. I realized that I had no idea what it took to get an A, but learned it from my new friends. I ended college with a 3.5.

 

[Summerlax2016]

yoga

 

[JustAPhD]

Exercise routinely. I see so many premeds live such unhealthy lifestyles because they are cooped up in the library from dusk to dawn (and vice versa). Make time to get a workout in every day, it will help you in more ways than one.

 

[ac62994]

Be open-minded.

 

[DingoPingo]

What are good lifestyle changes that really make a difference if you want to excel and you want to go to medical school.

Also I'm assuming we don't have to mention the ones we already know like exercise, eating well, no excessive drinking.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

1) Be easy on yourself. The thing (I think) medical schools fear the most is you burning out and giving up. So don't push yourself too hard. Being happy and healthy is more important than your GPA.

2) Be social and helpful. Make compassion a part of who you are if it's not already.

3) Remember college is college, not premedical school. Be open-minded, like the previous poster said. Do what you love, not what you need to do to become a doctor.

4) Work towards professionalism. I've found that important values are integrity and flexibility. Start thinking about your role in the community and how to present yourself so you can serve in that role.

 

[HybridEarth]

Don't compare yourself to anybody else. Easier said then done, but if you can master that, the sky's the limit

 

[EverStriving]

In order of importance:

1) Develop good sleep habits. This will give you enough energy to make other changes.

2) Develop good time management skills. There are great books available about this. Read them. Apply them. This will give you enough time to make other changes, as well as relieving a huge amount of stress.

3) Be social. Go do fun things with your friends.

4) Improve your diet. Getting away from processed foods and making healthy plant foods a majority of your diet can improve your psychology in ways that you probably can't even imagine. I know it did for me.

 

[TheCruelOne]

In order of importance:

1) Develop good sleep habits. This will give you enough energy to make other changes.

2) Develop good time management skills. There are great books available about this. Read them. Apply them. This will give you enough time to make other changes, as well as relieving a huge amount of stress.

3) Be social. Go do fun things with your friends.

4) Improve your diet. Getting away from processed foods and making healthy plant foods a majority of your diet can improve your psychology in ways that you probably can't even imagine. I know it did for me.

Any suggestions with respect to good books to read about time management?

 

[allantois]

1) Sleep
2) Diet
3) Exercise

 

[Okazaki Frag Grenade]

FIFA ... relaxing

Unless you bump it up to World Class on the CPU settings...

 

[Okazaki Frag Grenade]

1) Be easy on yourself. The thing (I think) medical schools fear the most is you burning out and giving up. So don't push yourself too hard. Being happy and healthy is more important than your GPA.

2) Be social and helpful. Make compassion a part of who you are if it's not already.

3) Remember college is college, not premedical school. Be open-minded, like the previous poster said. Do what you love, not what you need to do to become a doctor.

4) Work towards professionalism. I've found that important values are integrity and flexibility. Start thinking about your role in the community and how to present yourself so you can serve in that role.

I want to doubly agree with #3 here. Adcoms can tell when applicants come in with all the right boxes checked but they never did anything they truly enjoyed. If you get involved with stuff that you are passionate about, I think it's (usually) easier to do it well because you're excited about it. Like with the research I ended up doing, I hated it when the topic was boring/too out there for me. But once I found some areas of interest that I really thought were cool, I loved it. Even typing in numbers on an excel sheet was more than bearable because I was pumped to see where the project was going

 

[EverStriving]

Any suggestions with respect to good books to read about time management?

I recommend the one by Kevin Kruse. Whenever I find myself getting stressed out, I go back to what he wrote about making a schedule. Fixes the problem in no time!