The modern world is ripe with opportunity, however, pursuing every bit of it can leave you stretched too thin. This is the classic conundrum faced by medical students. You spend years building your application, but have the joy of building it all over for your next stepping stone: residency. Don’t worry though, this simple, reflective exercise, inspired by Brian Tracy’s book Focal Point, will provide perspective and allow for optimization. Essentially, he proposes: highlighting the high-yield activities you do on a daily basis, and eliminating the low-yield activities, which exponentially increases your happiness and success (however you define it). Now, let’s find your focal point(s)!
Step 1: Define Yourself
Who are you? If you were to categorize your life into the things you work at, interact with, or think about on a daily basis, what would they be. Then, rank them, beginning with the most important. My list looks like this:
In my experience, if the previous item is not in order, then the latter suffers. For instance, if my mental and physical well-being are in shambles, then my performance in school deteriorates.
Step 2: Create Short-Term Goals
By short-term, I mean less than a year. If you want to think in terms of a shorter timeline, be my guest. Some of my short term goals revolving around the 1st item above, family, include the following:
These are the goals that look beyond 1 year, or whatever corresponds to beyond your short-term goal timeline. Some of mine, again for item 1 (family), are listed here:
I am in an accelerated, 3 year program, so I will actually begin my clerkships the summer after my 1st year of course work. My fiancee will be a 4th year med student in Minneapolis, so if I am able to get placed in Eau Claire, WI (roughly an hour and a half drive), this may be a possibility. Keep your fingers crossed for me! Hopefully then we could live together during her intern year, which would be my final year of clerkships. Thereafter, I intend to match in the same city as her, even if it is just a 1-year transitional spot. This is where your priorities come into play. I have family at the top of my list and school down lower at 4. Therefore, I would gladly do a transitional year, even if it meant reapplying for the match, just to be with her. Just as dates are important to a relationship, I feel trips are as well. Your flexibility definitely depends on your specialty choice, but regardless 4 seemed like a reasonable goal. Maybe the kiddo goal is a bit ambitious, but time will tell!
Step 4: Identify Your Focal Points
This is the most important step. Critically look at your goals and figure out what is needed to accomplish them. This is your focal point. It may require more of certain activities, less of certain activities, initiating new behaviors, cutting behaviors out altogether, or some combination of this. For instance, when I looked at my goals, 3 themes emerged: mindfulness, awareness, and strategy. The mindfulness applies most to items 1 and 2, Family and friends. Being mindful encompasses interacting with them often, whether in person or through electronics, and being truly present during those interactions, not having my head buried in thoughts of pharmacology. The awareness also applies to these relationships because it involves recognizing how the relationship is doing thanks to my efforts. For instance, am I taking my fiancee on enough dates or am I texting my sister enough. Last, the strategic element largely incorporates items 3 through 5. There are a myriad of things I want to accomplish and unfortunately not enough time. To combat this, I decided that every night I will map out my schedule for the ensuing date, prioritizing these elements to slowly chip away at the high priority targets.
Step 5: Keep Your Focal Points Close
