You and ONLY YOU

Friends!

I've been studying for boards for just over a month now and honestly I think this is more difficult than studying in medical school.

THERE.IS.SO.MUCH.TO.KNOW.

And only a limited amount of time to know it.

So stress is sky high.

With stress comes negative thoughts and emotions. Which I know we all deal with at one point or another. But I've found one that is ALWAYS CONSISTENT among the people I know...

Comparison.

We all, AT ONE POINT OR ANOTHER, will compare ourselves to someone else. I've noticed it myself, "I bet people started off their NBME practice exams with this score... and it's my improvement score." I ruined my own succeeding moment that I managed to up my score, with a lot of personal things happening in my life, in a month. When you think about it it's kind of silly.

Why does it matter what other people got on their UWorld set, how much they've covered up to date, their practice NBME scores... THEY'RE NOT YOU!!!!

They don't have the same strengths as you, or the same weaknesses, they have a different learning style and the list can go on forever.

I've been struggling with comparing myself to others (for no apparent reason - just assuming people are doing better) but after sitting down and really thinking about this whole medical journey I've come to realize it is so different for every single person. So, ultimately there is no way to compare my journey with my neighbour, my best friend, the person at the beginning of the alphabet or the end.

The only person you can compare it to is yourself. Are you doing better? Are you improving your scores? Are you working on your weaknesses?

I was told this quote and I'm going to leave it with you
"Aim to be 5% better than you were yesterday"

- Jen