Episode 6: Advice to Our M1 Selves
Rahul
Welcome to Learning to Lead, a podcast about leadership, teamwork, and reimagining healthcare. This podcast is for learners, educators, and healthcare professionals interested in building leadership skills in a supportive community.
We are your hosts Rahul Anand, Maya Doyle, Peter Longley, Amber Vargas, and Brooklynn Weber.
Together we bring you conversations with emerging and established leaders, deep dives and hacks to help you become the best leader you can be.
Amber
Hi everyone. My name is Amber Vargas. I am a fourth year medical student at Frank H. Netter School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University here in Connecticut. So if everyone could just say their name.
Adebowale
So my name is Adebowale, but people call me Wale.
Emmanuel
Hello, my name is Emmanuel Jomo.
Liza
Hi, my name is Liza Landry.
Amber
So if there's just one thing that you can tell your M1 self, what would it be?
Adebowale
It's never as bad as it seems. Never. I always felt like my world was like crashing around me, but it was never that bad, it really wasn't, when I looked back. And I could have used a lot of that pent up energy and frustration to, you know, do more positive things or study more or whatever. But yeah, I just felt I spent a lot of time stressing, so I would have done a lot less of that. I would tell him to just relax and fall into your hobbies, things that make you happy. And then you know, get back to work after you feel happy again.
Emmanuel
For me, I would say Med school is hard, so take time to enjoy the little pleasures of life when you have them. When you have the moment when you have the chance, do something fun for yourself. Do those hobbies, those little things that you know really rejuvenate you and make you happy do those because Med school is hard.
Liza
I'd say resilience and grit are not the same thing. Grit implies a certain level of kind of brute force, and eventually it's pretty exhausting. Resilience is a lot more bendy and flexible, and in order to have that resilience, resilience is built from small celebration of all the little moments along the way. So don't be afraid to celebrate yourself and celebrate all the small wins, because that's what you're going to fall back on when you are feeling down, when inevitably something doesn't go right or there's disappointments. You can always fall back on the things that are the little glimmers in your life and the little celebrations and that will keep you going.
Adebowale
Absolutely.
Amber
For me, I would tell my M1 self to do more self-care things, like eating right, going to the gym, prioritizing those things. I think I felt like I just had to go above and beyond in terms of academics and extracurriculars and so I would tell my M1 self that it's OK to take an hour, go to the gym. You know it's OK to take an hour, cook something. So, that's what I would tell my M1 self.
Liza
I definitely feel like there was a lot of comparison, not not comparison like outright. But I think internally coming in that sense of impostor syndrome of feeling like everyone else has it together. I remember looking around our class and hearing people talk about this really cool research project they were doing, and that was always something that I felt really self-conscious about that I didn't feel strong in. There were other people who were doing, who had just the coolest back stories and such interesting paths to where they were. I was like, how am I ever going to measure up to these kinds of people when I have to when I have to apply to residency. And like I, I had confused the growth mindset for if you just push yourself harder and harder and harder and harder then you'll be successful. And I think it's really hard to navigate like that comparison of being like, OK, none of us are going to have all the same strengths. And that's what makes us such a great class. And I think that's what makes us such diverse providers in all the different fields that we're all going into.
Amber
I think we all have feelings like that, you know, like, I felt like that towards everyone in this room. You know, Liza like you would speak up and in our group sessions, and you had all your cheat sheets. And I was like, oh, my goodness, what am I doing wrong? I don't know all this stuff. You know, like everyone, you know, had their own strengths in their own ways. And I think it also helped the rest of us feel motivated and inspired, like OK well, I can do that too. That person is doing that. Let me ask them what they're doing like, let. Let's connect, right? Let's do it together.
Emmanuel
Yeah.
Brooke
Thank you for listening to our show. Learning to Lead is a production of the Quinnipiac University podcast studio, in partnership with the Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences.
Creators of this show are Rahul Anand, Maya Doyle, Peter Longley, Amber Vargas and Brooklynn Weber.
The student producer is Brooklynn Weber, and the executive producer is David DesRoches.
Connect with us on social media @LearningToLeadPod or email us at LearningToLeadPod@quinnipiac.edu.