Motivation

[dr.weiner]

I know this is brought up a lot, but what do you say to yourself for motivation? What makes you sit down for 5 hrs reading the dryest material ever and not get distracted? Is it just something you have, or can you cultivate it?

As I am writing this, I should be studying for the last class of the year. This class is really easy apparently, as half the class is scoring in the 90s on our tests. Except I didn't study nearly enough to get a high score on the first test, and have used that as an excuse to just coast into a passing grade by maintaining my poor study habits. I hope I can turn it on and study harder for second year, but this year has shown me that maybe I just dont have the desire to really excel. I've tried scaring myself into thinking I'll be a poor doctor, telling myself if I keep this up I wont get the residency I want, trying to compete with my roommate, even going materialistic by telling myself I'll never get that Audi A8 and other nice toys. No matter what, I find myself in the same rut, saying I'll study harder tommorow, but it never really happens.

Is there anybody like me out there that has gotten out of this rut? Any advice from those with steely resolve? Anybody out there to rebuke me for being lazy and demanding my own resignation from med school? Words of encouragement or a swift kick in the ass would probably both be helpful.

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[Law2Doc]

I know this is brought up a lot, but what do you say to yourself for motivation? What makes you sit down for 5 hrs reading the dryest material ever and not get distracted? Is it just something you have, or can you cultivate it?

As I am writing this, I should be studying for the last class of the year. This class is really easy apparently, as half the class is scoring in the 90s on our tests. Except I didn't study nearly enough to get a high score on the first test, and have used that as an excuse to just coast into a passing grade by maintaining my poor study habits. I hope I can turn it on and study harder for second year, but this year has shown me that maybe I just dont have the desire to really excel. I've tried scaring myself into thinking I'll be a poor doctor, telling myself if I keep this up I wont get the residency I want, trying to compete with my roommate, even going materialistic by telling myself I'll never get that Audi A8 and other nice toys. No matter what, I find myself in the same rut, saying I'll study harder tommorow, but it never really happens.

Is there anybody like me out there that has gotten out of this rut? Any advice from those with steely resolve? Anybody out there to rebuke me for being lazy and demanding my own resignation from med school? Words of encouragement or a swift kick in the ass would probably both be helpful.

I don't think anyone can set a fire under yourself but you -- you either want it bad enough or you don't. Most people's excitement about their upcoming career is enough to carry them through the science years even if that's not their cup of tea. If you don't mind a non-competitive residency and career down the road -- then plenty of people squeak by with the minimum effort. Money, Audi's and the like, as you can see, are weak and uncompelling motivators -- and you are seeing first hand why perhaps they are a bad reason for choosing this career path (not saying you did, but from your post it's clearly a component)-- if they cannot motivate you even through first year, imagine how little impact they are going to have during the later years or residency, not to mention the rest of your professional life.
All I can suggest is to do some soul searching and decide if medicine is really what you want to do with the rest of your life, and maybe find a book or two over the summer about medicine that make you excited about the career, and reinvigorated for the subsequent year.

 

[logos]

Yep...its hard to stay motivated. I feel like I accomplished my goal (got into med school), and now its time to take it easy. On the bright side, I have heard it said over and over again, including by a residency director in a pretty competitive specialty that grades the first two years just dont count for much. Its all about the USMLE scores, so next year pre step one will be the time to step it up.

 

[getunconcsious]

Studying material uninteresting to you is killing your soul? I think that's the story of all our lives right now....I really wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Ypo.]

I don't know but let me know when you find out.

 

[Skialta]

While I realize that preclinical grades are not that important, you really can't coast along and think you will kick it up a notch for step 1, believe it or not, a lot of what I saw on step one was crap that I really didn't study using kaplan or first aid, but was principles I learned in class. You can definitely concentrate on certain subjects (path, pharm, phys) but you really shouldn't be floating along or you are going to find yourself in trouble in more ways than one. This holds true when during third year you figure out you hate primary care and want optho, ortho or rads.

Skialta MSIV

 

[Blackstars]

Quite frankly the only motivation you need is to remind yourself of the consequence of failing. The fear of failure is the best motivator a student can have.

 

[Law2Doc]

Quite frankly the only motivation you need is to remind yourself of the consequence of failing. The fear of failure is the best motivator a student can have.

Yes - I've heard that this year's failures are next year's cadavers. It's part of the whole zero tolerance policy.

 

[chrisjohn]

Sounds like you're coasting, not in danger of failing.

So what, you're in the middle. You have to satisfy yourself, no one else.

Did you matriculate right out of UG?

 

[dr.weiner]

Did you matriculate right out of UG?

Yup... Coasted through my last 2 years of undergrad, hit a brick wall during Anatomy the beginning of the year. By now, I know how much I need to do to pass solidly, and cannot make that next jump to try getting honors. I thought it had to do with the way I was studying, but I've realized that I put as much time into studying as about the average student, but only concentrating about 15-20% of the time. But if I check my fantasy sports teams or read about random crap on the internet, or read SDN, my attention never strays. I'm not sure I can do anything else but accept the fact that I don't have the eye of the tiger.

If I look at potential specialities, Anesthesia and ER are the two I could really see myself doing, and they never put a lot of stock into basic science years, and aren't a huge obstacle for the run-of-the-mill US allo grad. But I'm also a lowly MS1 who shouldnt have a clue about the future. So alas, I check this website every 5 min for replies when I should be getting studying done before going out.

 

[drmota]

maybe this'll help
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/05/19/internet.addiction.reut/index.html
-mota

 

[Anka]

I'd recommend staying away from the whole motivation trap. There are plenty of times you aren't going to feel motivated. Motivation is a passion; it is unreliable, and will most likely desert you when you need it most (e.g., you're tired, sick, overwhelmed, depressed, disinterested, etc.). Instead, use the times when you're motivated to build discipline, which is far more reliable, and will see you through tough times. Just wake up every morning and work, and force yourself to work until your work is done. You may well find you have more energy to be passionate about your work once the groundwork of good habits are laid down.

Best,
Anka

 

[dr.weiner]

I'd recommend staying away from the whole motivation trap. There are plenty of times you aren't going to feel motivated. Motivation is a passion; it is unreliable, and will most likely desert you when you need it most (e.g., you're tired, sick, overwhelmed, depressed, disinterested, etc.). Instead, use the times when you're motivated to build discipline, which is far more reliable, and will see you through tough times. Just wake up every morning and work, and force yourself to work until your work is done. You may well find you have more energy to be passionate about your work once the groundwork of good habits are laid down.

Best,
Anka

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense. I think my lack of discipline might be the bigger problem. Hopefully I can get into a routine the last couple weeks of the year and carry it into next year.

 

[tupac_don]

I'd recommend staying away from the whole motivation trap. There are plenty of times you aren't going to feel motivated. Motivation is a passion; it is unreliable, and will most likely desert you when you need it most (e.g., you're tired, sick, overwhelmed, depressed, disinterested, etc.). Instead, use the times when you're motivated to build discipline, which is far more reliable, and will see you through tough times. Just wake up every morning and work, and force yourself to work until your work is done. You may well find you have more energy to be passionate about your work once the groundwork of good habits are laid down.

Best,
Anka

Yea but those two concepts motivation and discipline, pretty much go handd in hand. You have to be motivated to be disciplined. Yea you can discipline (force) yourself to sit with a book. But you have to be motivated to have that material stick and want to read it. If the motivation isn't there, at least in some degree, you simply can't force to discipline yourself.

And you can't run to long only on force, you will wear yourself down. There has to be a baseline of motivation that you need to get through it. Then you put discipline on top of that. But if you are completely amotivated to study, it's unlikely that discipline will do much. In that case it's like whipping a tired horse, it won't get too far!

p.s. I find that the best way to get motivated is to see results

a) You do good on a test
b) Or see the knowledge that you are studying say in anatomy actually used in practice when you go watch an operation

The more successful results you have the more motivated you will become. And when you know you can do something, that you get hooked to the idea of performing successfuly and that is what keeps you motivated.

 

[Anka]

Tupac_don,

Probably works different ways for different people, but my own experience has been that at some point discipline becomes habit -- you don't conciously think "I've got to keep running" every minute of the marathon. If you did, you'd wear yourself out pretty quickly. But at some point, you have decided to keep running, and you just keep doing it, without remaking the decision each step. As far as your example about reading a book and nothing sinking in, you really can just force yourself to focus. At some point your brain will focus because that's what it does as a matter of course. While you're building up your habits, though, you're right --motivation is helpful.

Enough philosphy on my part, though. I'm curious, what is your plan for when you aren't successful? How do you plan to dredge up motivation to study after scurrying frantically on the wards and standing absolutely still in the OR from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. on your average surgery rotation day, spent with a team ripped straight from Lord of the Flies, being reminded constantly that your knowledge is insufficient, your judgement is ill-formed, and you can't even cut suture the correct length? How do you plan on being motivated when woken from a dead sleep at 2 a.m. to see the most drunken, foulest mouthed patient in the city, and still, in the moments after he pukes on you, treat him with all the care and respect a human being deserves? How do you plan on continuing to care for a train wreck of a patient day after day, when she resists every one of your treatments and tests but is too sick to leave the hospital, who continues to get sicker and sicker in front of you, for whom you have very little to offer?

Because in a year or so, those are situations you'll probably be in -- and you're ability to be a good doctor depends on your ability to act in an existentially toxic environment, however you go about it. Motivation, in my experience, is one of the first things to go. Loyalty to your team is great if you have a good team, but difficult when you're team is drawn from the ranks of satan's little helpers. Passion for patient care works well when you have nice patients, but as a doctor you are expected to care just as competently and professionally for a non-compliant ax-murderer as for a nun who takes all 22 of the pills you perscribed at the exact moment they should be taken. Discipline and a sense of duty, while dry as dust, are among the most constant of supports.


Best,
Anka

 

[tupac_don]

Tupac_don,

Probably works different ways for different people, but my own experience has been that at some point discipline becomes habit -- you don't conciously think "I've got to keep running" every minute of the marathon. If you did, you'd wear yourself out pretty quickly. But at some point, you have decided to keep running, and you just keep doing it, without remaking the decision each step. As far as your example about reading a book and nothing sinking in, you really can just force yourself to focus. At some point your brain will focus because that's what it does as a matter of course. While you're building up your habits, though, you're right --motivation is helpful.

Enough philosphy on my part, though. I'm curious, what is your plan for when you aren't successful? How do you plan to dredge up motivation to study after scurrying frantically on the wards and standing absolutely still in the OR from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. on your average surgery rotation day, spent with a team ripped straight from Lord of the Flies, being reminded constantly that your knowledge is insufficient, your judgement is ill-formed, and you can't even cut suture the correct length? How do you plan on being motivated when woken from a dead sleep at 2 a.m. to see the most drunken, foulest mouthed patient in the city, and still, in the moments after he pukes on you, treat him with all the care and respect a human being deserves? How do you plan on continuing to care for a train wreck of a patient day after day, when she resists every one of your treatments and tests but is too sick to leave the hospital, who continues to get sicker and sicker in front of you, for whom you have very little to offer?

Because in a year or so, those are situations you'll probably be in -- and you're ability to be a good doctor depends on your ability to act in an existentially toxic environment, however you go about it. Motivation, in my experience, is one of the first things to go. Loyalty to your team is great if you have a good team, but difficult when you're team is drawn from the ranks of satan's little helpers. Passion for patient care works well when you have nice patients, but as a doctor you are expected to care just as competently and professionally for a non-compliant ax-murderer as for a nun who takes all 22 of the pills you perscribed at the exact moment they should be taken. Discipline and a sense of duty, while dry as dust, are among the most constant of supports.


Best,
Anka

Well, you pose an interesting question Anka. I do understand, as you put it that at times the environment will be toxic and not all nice and dandy. In that case you go into war mode, survival mode, soldier in a trench mode whatever you wanna call it. Whatever you need to do is seen as a means to an end, you go in like a good little soldier and get things done. But what I am saying is there must be a baseline of motivation keeping going through all this stuff. If you believe that there is a goal towards which you are motivated waiting for you at the end, and what you are going thru is a temporary and neccessary part of the training you will be A ok. But if you don't have that motivation of wanting to be a doctor, and see the big picture, the rough conditions will just wear on you.

And I do call it motivation, b/c I have known people who were under similar conditions you explain, and they just lose all motivation, everything is miserable. It is in those times that a higher goal motivates you to dig deep and keep pushing forward, like a bulldog.

I think we are talking about the same things more or less, but we are using different words to describe them.

 

[Arctic Char]

wow, Dr Weiner . . .

my friends who use SDN are convinced my SDN screen name is Dr Weiner . . . i have articulated many of the exact same sentiments, and am interested in the same fields.

as has been said, preclinical years mean very little. and for me, my apathy towards this material is due to my previous, extensive educational background in the sciences (2 undergrad, 2 grad). its boredom, not a discipline issue. if i need to get a fire, i pick up First Aide while sitting in my sun-chair and it does a good job of reminding me of what i have coming next year. reading a page or two feels good.

like you, perhaps, i am anxiously awaiting the excitement to return when i start clinical work. i am so detached from any sense of purpose with this tedious science . . . its why i left the science field to begin with (professional labrat).

lets hang in there and count on our intuition, lifeskills, and curiosity to make a strong positive combination on the wards. we'll get there . . . don't beat yourself up. the guilt issue is what will drag you down most of all.

 

[dfagod]

wow, Dr Weiner . . .

my friends who use SDN are convinced my SDN screen name is Dr Weiner . . . i have articulated many of the exact same sentiments, and am interested in the same fields.

as has been said, preclinical years mean very little. and for me, my apathy towards this material is due to my previous, extensive educational background in the sciences (2 undergrad, 2 grad). its boredom, not a discipline issue. if i need to get a fire, i pick up First Aide while sitting in my sun-chair and it does a good job of reminding me of what i have coming next year. reading a page or two feels good.

like you, perhaps, i am anxiously awaiting the excitement to return when i start clinical work. i am so detached from any sense of purpose with this tedious science . . . its why i left the science field to begin with (professional labrat).

lets hang in there and count on our intuition, lifeskills, and curiosity to make a strong positive combination on the wards. we'll get there . . . don't beat yourself up. the guilt issue is what will drag you down most of all.

I think you guys might be underestimating the importance of preclinical years. Although they are not as important as your clinical grades, they are still important. Your first 2 years will factor in to your class rank, and if you're trying to match into something competitive, it will hurt you. Believe me, I know. I slacked off my first year, and am still working my ass off trying to boost my class rank.

In addition to class rank, as someone has already mentioned, it will pay off to know some of that basic science in your clinical years. At a minimum, you will be able to answer all the inevitable pimp questions you get on rounds (which will also affect your grade, and class rank, etc.)