How do you stay motivated?

Started by neocia
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neocia

neocia

Class of 2019
10+ Year Member
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How do you usually stay motivated to keep going onward? Do you have any mantras or activities that help you relieve stress from this career path?

I feel burnt out sometimes, eventually just reasoning with myself this is what I've always wanted more than anything (to become a vet)... but nonetheless, having hours and hours of difficult homework each week, crazy-hard labs, shadowing crabby vets for hundreds of hours without pay, volunteering all over town to get experience, etc.

Anyway, as I struggle to get through my summer physics class, just looking for solidarity between other pre-vets or vet students. Thanks 🙂
 
For me it's each day I am one step closer towards my goal.

Academically, I always think "alright, I'll learn this now so i don't have to learn it later!" It's amazing how "don't put off tomorrow what you can get done today" is true. When I study I try to mentally explain it to an idiot. Saying to myself "Alright basically this does X which causes Y - that's it"

I feel too much academically is trying to make the stuff more important than it needs to be. I look at chemistry as the grammar of science. Sure it's important, but it's no where as important as chemists think.

Of course, then the hard part is right before blocks when you feel you already know everything and struggle to look over lists of XYZ again and again.

A few solid hours of studying is worth triple of "studying." Remember to laugh. 🙂
 
neocia said:
How do you usually stay motivated to keep going onward? Do you have any mantras or activities that help you relieve stress from this career path?

I feel burnt out sometimes, eventually just reasoning with myself this is what I've always wanted more than anything (to become a vet)... but nonetheless, having hours and hours of difficult homework each week, crazy-hard labs, shadowing crabby vets for hundreds of hours without pay, volunteering all over town to get experience, etc.

Anyway, as I struggle to get through my summer physics class, just looking for solidarity between other pre-vets or vet students. Thanks 🙂
Click to expand...

I put on dance music and jump around singing along. I do circus arts. I do textile arts. I find that crafts (usually the textiles for me) are really good at calming me down on days when I feel like I haven't accomplished anything solid. Little is more solid than making something you can hold in your hand. I can't say I've accomplished nothing real today if I have a ball of yarn that I just made out of some random fiber, or a hat that used to be yarn. Same goes for other crafts.
 
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I make an effort to do things completely unrelated to school or vet med. I knit, do embroidery, sew something, bake, cook, play with photoshop, etc. Anything to get my mind off of school for a little bit to just decompress. Bonus points for seeing friends at a bar and catching up or going for a long walk around my neighborhood with my husband. 🙂

This might also sound counterintuitive, but I have a tech job at an amazing smaller private practice. I only work there once a week (because I have another full time office job) but that one day of the week is my favorite day. It's not perfect in every way but the vets are awesome, I love the other techs, and it's just generally a really positive, fun place to work. And I get to take care of animals. Going there and getting to experience "why I'm doing this" was extremely motivating for me during the school year when I wanted to pull my hair out over physics or organic chem. I might not have felt that way if it were my full time job though... :meanie:
 
I keep motivated by maintaining a real life outside my academic pursuits. I feel like this will be important when I'm a practicing vet as well. While school is important and comprises a huge amount of my life, it is not my life. My life is my husband, my friends, my hobbies. It seems like a small distinction, but I think its a valuable perspective to remember. It helps combat burn out, and thus I never feel guilty when I skip out on studying or skip a class to
take part in my real life (granted I don't do this often).
I'm also a big fan of taking a personal day when you need it. Stay home all day in your pj's and watch a tv marathon, or read a book, or super clean your house-whatever it takes to decompress and shut out the world for a day.
 
felinelvr44 said:
I make an effort to do things completely unrelated to school or vet med. I knit, do embroidery, sew something, bake, cook, play with photoshop, etc. Anything to get my mind off of school for a little bit to just decompress.
Click to expand...

CanHardlyWait said:
I keep motivated by maintaining a real life outside my academic pursuits. I feel like this will be important when I'm a practicing vet as well. While school is important and comprises a huge amount of my life, it is not my life. My life is my husband, my friends, my hobbies. It seems like a small distinction, but I think its a valuable perspective to remember. It helps combat burn out, and thus I never feel guilty when I skip out on studying or skip a class to
take part in my real life (granted I don't do this often).
Click to expand...

These two are absolutely right. Find something (or several things) that you can be passionate about outside of vet med. All the better if you can find a hobby that involves exercise; your brain and body will thank you 🙂
 
We all feel the burn out!

Here's a video I found that is for med students, but it totally applies to us future vets too! 🙂 I got a super kick out of it and I've been watching it a lot lately. Yes, I'm a disney freak!

Also, I hit the gym when I am feeling burnt out. Take a few minutes, come back. I can't study for longer than an hour at a time. 10 minutes if I'm frustrated and I'll hit facebook for a minute and come back to studying. So it takes me extra long to study. Adult ADHD, maybe? Lol.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTaIWU6xCmI[/YOUTUBE]
 
Died laughing at that video 🙂 Thank you for cheering me up!

When I get stressed out, I watch Criminal Minds or Law & Order (my guilty pleasure TV shows), play with my rats - let them run around everywhere, or draw. It's definitely good to de-stress when possible.
 
neocia said:
Died laughing at that video 🙂 Thank you for cheering me up!

When I get stressed out, I watch Criminal Minds or Law & Order (my guilty pleasure TV shows), play with my rats - let them run around everywhere, or draw. It's definitely good to de-stress when possible.
Click to expand...

Lol! Glad you liked it! It's bookmarked so I can pull it up whenever I need too!

I have 2 dogs and 3 cats so I have them to help me de-stress.... or stress me out in different ways 😛 And SVU? My fave! I've been on an SVU kick for a few weeks. I am on season 13, started at 1 😵
 
These are the things that I do to decompress and motivate myself:

1- I remind myself to workout side of my comfort zone in order to gain success.
2- I remind myself that I can and will be Dr. MysteryCat DVM, if I work hard enough at it. Being a veterinarian is my biggest goal, so that's pretty good motivation in itself.
3- I spend a lot of time in the car between two jobs and school. This gives me a lot of opportunity to de-stress by singing excessively loudly in the car to my favorite songs (the Beatles, Frank Turner, Journey, and other random artists.)
4- I run. 4 nights a week, to be exact.
5- I always am reading a book that I enjoy.
6- I love to write, so I try to make time for it. I hope to compile my random journalings into a book someday,
7- I am highly schedule, and goal driven. So setting goals makes me feel more driven to succeed. Current goal: gain some actual phlebotomy skills.
8- I also like beer.

Good luck! In the grand scheme of things, college is a fairly short, albeit difficult and trying time. You can do it! Every day you're closer!
 
Trilt said:
My partner and I were deciding whether he wanted to do evening classes on a Mon/Wed or Tues/Thurs schedule, and the various drink specials at our favourite bar definitely came up in the discussion. Hobbies and things you like to do are important in staying sane! 😀
Click to expand...

Haha! That is a perfectly good thing to work your schedule around! 😉 My mom works in a bar near my school, so when I get out of night classes sometimes I drop by for a beer or two. Usually for free. 😀
 
felinelvr44 said:
This might also sound counterintuitive, but I have a tech job at an amazing smaller private practice. I only work there once a week (because I have another full time office job) but that one day of the week is my favorite day. It's not perfect in every way but the vets are awesome, I love the other techs, and it's just generally a really positive, fun place to work. And I get to take care of animals. Going there and getting to experience "why I'm doing this" was extremely motivating for me during the school year when I wanted to pull my hair out over physics or organic chem. I might not have felt that way if it were my full time job though... :meanie:
Click to expand...

Yes, yes, yes - this is exactly how I feel! I think working a full time job I dislike and enjoying 1-2 days working in an awesome hospital give me great perspective.

It's really important to me to make time for something I enjoy that makes me feel healthy, alive, and like I'm doing something good for myself. For me that's exercise - it's my time to push myself both physically and mentally and not think about the stresses in my life. I also workout with a great group of people so it provides what I need socially as well 🙂 (since I don't really have time for "social gatherings")
 
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nickyfdoc said:
We all feel the burn out!

Here's a video I found that is for med students, but it totally applies to us future vets too! 🙂 I got a super kick out of it and I've been watching it a lot lately. Yes, I'm a disney freak!

Also, I hit the gym when I am feeling burnt out. Take a few minutes, come back. I can't study for longer than an hour at a time. 10 minutes if I'm frustrated and I'll hit facebook for a minute and come back to studying. So it takes me extra long to study. Adult ADHD, maybe? Lol.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTaIWU6xCmI[/YOUTUBE]
Click to expand...

I think I will just marry the guy that comes in at 4:25 right now 😍
 
nickyfdoc said:
We all feel the burn out!

Here's a video I found that is for med students, but it totally applies to us future vets too! 🙂 I got a super kick out of it and I've been watching it a lot lately. Yes, I'm a disney freak!

Also, I hit the gym when I am feeling burnt out. Take a few minutes, come back. I can't study for longer than an hour at a time. 10 minutes if I'm frustrated and I'll hit facebook for a minute and come back to studying. So it takes me extra long to study. Adult ADHD, maybe? Lol.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTaIWU6xCmI[/YOUTUBE]
Click to expand...
This was amazing hahahah I wish there was a vet med specific one!
 
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