Where to find motivation?

[ksjohnsz]

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Hey everyone,

I was just looking for a little advice . . . I'm a first year, COMPLETELY UNMOTIVATED med student. I know what needs to be done and I do have good study skills, I just can't seem to use them. I waste so much time and I know that I can't, but I also can't seem to force myself to do work. If anyone has been in this situation or has any advice, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks,
*Kim
Full time med student soon to be full time waitress if I don't clean my act up

 

[marooner]

sometimes i think that every knowledge you gain, would mean a lot in diagnosing your ppatient. so just think of your patient/future patients! they rely so much on doctors. they trust doctors so much that they listen to whatever you say... at least study study and study so that you wouldn't do any harm in the future... and remember that the life of that person could be in your hands...

 

[ocean11]

Hey everyone,

I was just looking for a little advice . . . I'm a first year, COMPLETELY UNMOTIVATED med student. I know what needs to be done and I do have good study skills, I just can't seem to use them. I waste so much time and I know that I can't, but I also can't seem to force myself to do work. If anyone has been in this situation or has any advice, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks,
*Kim
Full time med student soon to be full time waitress if I don't clean my act up

Hi Kim, I'm assuming your school is probably pass/fail right? anyhow...... just remember if you don't do well you won't rank well in your class + Have lower board scores and you will have LESS choice of competitive residencies...... IF that dosn't work think to yourself "If I don't learn this, when I'm a doctor I might screw something up and affect someones life etc......" that usually works for me!!

Take Care,

Ocean11

 

[orientedtoself]

You could find a study group and get together a couple of times a week. Sometimes studying in groups is a little less productive, but it can be more fun. As far as wasting time, you could pick up another extracurricular activity. Then, when you do study, you will know that you need to get down to business.

 

[PublicHealth]

Psychotherapy. Talk it out, find ways to enhance motivation, relieve stress, manage time, etc. Very helpful if you find a good therapist.

 

[quideam]

Kim, I completely understand the lack of motivation thing - especially first year, when so much of what you're learning seems to be (and actually is) irrelevant to being a doctor or even for the boards. So, I think the key thing to getting through first year is remembering why you're putting yourself through this now. For instance, I went to med school because I want to do EM / disaster relief. So I made an effort to read up on international humanitarian responses, current relief efforts, and even looking at EM residency websites. That kept my spirits up by reminding me that there is something out there that I REALLY want to do, and that I have to get through this BS in order to do it. It works. The other thing is remembering that this crap you're learning now is only temporary - second year is much more interesting and relevant, and the wards (from what I hear) are really good.

Best of luck, and remember - what you're learning right now is generally boring and of little relevance, and *most* of us feel the same way. And try to ignore those basic-science-loving types who go on and on about how the characteristics of various receptor subunits are interesting. Those peple will really make you want to quit.

Good luck!!

Q

 

[DW3843]

at the bottom of a bottle

 

[NPursuit]

I've found fear tends to work quite well.

When that doesn't do it, just make sure you move to yourself to a place where there is nothing else to do. Study in library, maybe. What are you going to do? Pick up journal articles and start reading them? Makes studying sound kind of nice, huh?

Just make it a routine. Treat it like a job. Put in your time, set a few goals, and then punch out at a given time every single night. The more repetitious you are, the more you'll get over this.

Reward yourself. Maybe buy a song online for every good night of studying.

 

[justcurious09]

Nothing boosts my motivation like shadowing. It helps me to remember that the classroom stuff is important, but it's only part of a larger picture. If I want to be like that doc I'm shadowing, I should hit the books. It's more of a positive motivation thing.

For me, fear just makes me shut down and ask "why am I doing this?" I work better when I'm happy and I know why I'm doing it.

 

[rpkall]

^ I agree with just curious. Sometimes, if shadowing doesn't do it, finding neat little volunteer opportunities can help. I did this thing the other night where you get to hang out and play with kids on the heme-onc floor, and that really helped me reaffirm my desire to study medicine and do well in school--just holding a baby with cancer reminded me of all the reasons I wanted to go into medicine in the first place.

It wasn't so hard to get back to studying after that.

 

[gary5]

Try getting some exercise daily - even 5 flights of stairs helps at study breaks works well. If you're going to have unproductive time, be sure to do something you enjoy.

 

[yellowcat322]

I definitely have stretches of unmotivation as well -- especially right after block exams that take half of my brain and then we're expected to just go on learning without any breaks. I think your personal motivation depends on why you chose to go into medicine. I think for most of us it's the combination of wanting to be able to help alleviate people's diseases as well as an inherent interest in the biological sciences. Sometimes it takes a conscious effort to remind yourself but all the stuff you're learning is about how the human body works (and yes that includes the classification of various receptors as well) and that in itself is one of the most interesting subjects to study. However, perhaps the most rewarding part of it is actually baing able to recognize for the first time the pathology of a disorder in a real patient (in my school we get to interview patients right away and it's amazing to actually be able to understand even a small part of their symptoms). That's why I think shadowing really works if your school doesn't provide access to patients in the first year. More practically, I also tend to structure my studying so that every hour or so I get 20 minutes of a study break (I'm on one right now). I find that nothing kills motivation faster than long stretches of hard core studying. I think most studies on this have proven that you only have enough concentration for an hour and a half straight -- after that you need a break. Good luck!

 

[LADoc00]

Hey everyone,

I was just looking for a little advice . . . I'm a first year, COMPLETELY UNMOTIVATED med student. I know what needs to be done and I do have good study skills, I just can't seem to use them. I waste so much time and I know that I can't, but I also can't seem to force myself to do work. If anyone has been in this situation or has any advice, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks,
*Kim
Full time med student soon to be full time waitress if I don't clean my act up

I was the same way, in fact so were all my friends. One guy commented to me in gross lab he had never blacked out more times, had sex with more strangers or generally partied as hard has he did as a med student. Often, whole months vanished for me and I was left cramming for every test I ever took in preclin years. The woman I dated my second year was actually partying so hard she didnt even attend a whole semester aside from the required intro to clinical medicine courses. In the end, all these people became successful physicians: dermatologists, retinal surgeons, orthopods, radiologists and even pathologists.

So, here's to you Ms. Slacker! There is hope. Trust me.