What Med School Taught Me

Hey Weekly Growth Fam!

Quick reminder to check out my free newsletter series, "The Evolving Student Newsletter", if you haven't already. This bite-sized version of the "Evolving Student Course" delivers powerful strategies and actionable tips to help you become a more confident and effective learner.

You'll receive a series of 10 emails over 20 days describing evidence-based strategies designed to help you improve as a student.

From Prey to Predator: Lessons in Deep Focus

This week, I found myself revisiting some fascinating lessons from my college days when I was studying evolutionary anthropology. One particular lesson resonated deeply: how humans, once the ideal prey, evolved into the most dominant species on the planet.

This may be hard to accept, but we weren't exactly built for battle. We were smaller, slower, and physically weaker than many of our prehistoric neighbors. So, what happened? And what's the secret to our success?

It all comes down to our ability to focus!

Here are some key takeaways from our evolutionary journey:

• Focus became our superpower: Moving from the trees to the savanna required us to become bipedal (walking on two feet rather than four), freeing our hands for a crucial skill – tool manipulation. This ability to focus on a single object at a time allowed us to identify the objects and resources that could be manipulated in ways that could serve us. From the wheel to the smartphone, we were made to create. But this creation requires focus!
• Forward-facing eyes for forward progress: Our eye placement in the front of our skull, unlike the side-facing eyes of prey animals, is designed for laser-sharp focus. Compare this to a giraffe's eyes which are designed for constant scanning of their surroundings. Their eyes are located on the side of their skull, giving them near 360-panoramic vision.

But with that zoomed out vision from above, they miss out on the intricate details of what's right in front of them. Sometimes it's best to zoom out and get that 30,000 foot view of a situation, but with the diminishing ability to focus nowadays, reclaiming this evolutionary advantage can be a game changer in our life. In our daily quest for growth, we need to be intentional about where we direct our focus. Whether it's mastering a new skill, tackling a complex project, or simply being present in a given moment.

Bringing Focus Back into Our Lives

So how can we harness this evolutionary superpower in our pursuit of growth? Here are some ideas:

• Minimize Distractions: Silence notifications, schedule focused work sessions, and find a quiet work environment.
• Practice Mindfulness: Meditation can train your brain to maintain focus and filter out distractions.
• Break Down Big Tasks: Chunk large projects into smaller, more manageable steps, making them less overwhelming and allowing for deeper focus on each segment.

Remember, focus is the fuel that ignites our creativity and problem-solving skills. Let's reclaim this inherent human strength and apply it to everything we do!

Quote of the Week

 "The ability to concentrate and avoid distractions is the hallmark of success." - E.M. Gray

Book Club

This week's book club pick, The Mountain Is You by Brianna Wiest, tackles the often frustrating phenomenon of self-sabotage. Wiest explores why we create obstacles for ourselves and equips us with tools to overcome them. Is the mountain you're trying to climb truly external, or is it an internal struggle waiting to be addressed?

Wiest argues that self-sabotaging behaviors are the avoidance tactics your brain develops in an attempt to protect you from your fears. For example, if you fear failure, you avoid this fear with the self-sabotaging tactic of never applying for the jobs you truly want. Or if you fear being disliked, you may avoid this fear with the self-sabotaging tactic of pretending to be someone you're not.

In order to overcome our unhealthy fears, we have to develop what Wiest refers to as mental and emotional skills (ME skills). She refers to these skills as emotional intelligence and mental strength. She goes on to explain that there are two steps in overcoming self-sabotage:

1. Identify your self-sabotaging behaviors and the ME deficiencies that they stem from. This is essentially identifying the things in our life that we're unhappy about and want to change. Then we can list the behaviors that are preventing us from making the change. These are our self-sabotaging behaviors.

2. Strengthen your ME skills. Once we've identified our self-sabotaging behaviors and the ME deficits that are causing them, Weist explains that we must take active, and sometimes uncomfortable, steps to overcome them. The first step she recommends is following our intuition rather than our fears. This involves recognizing when our thoughts or feelings are driving us towards a certain action or behavior, and take a moment to reflect. Weist explains that we are often subconsciously driven by our fears because they are louder and more prominent than our intuition. The key is effectively interpreting and responding to our emotions. Sometimes just calling out the emotion we're feeling will allow us to better recognize it and respond appropriately.

Brought to you by Shortform

Check out my latest video!

5 Lessons I Learned (The Hard Way) During Medical School

Take Your Personal Growth To The Next Level

Sign up for my free Evolving Student Newsletter! Over the next 20 days, you will receive an email designed to provide you with the motivation and tangible strategies you need to approach your day in a balanced, productive, and fulfilled way. 

Or, if you're a student and want to take it to the highest level, sign up to complete the Evolving Student Challenge. You'll receive 30 days worth of videos, a 50+ page course guide, my personalized Notion workspace, lifetime access to my mentorship community, and more! And, as a Weekly Growth reader, you get 20% off when you use coupon code: "GROWTH"!

My Current Favs

The growth we want to see in the world starts with us. You just made an investment.

See you soon,

JR