Help for every stage of your veterinary career
You all know I strongly advocate that you Aim for Zero. The basic premise is that those who aim to excel (to be a +1) often fall flat and end up being a liability (a -1). I heard one of our surgeons telling his resident a line that really stuck with me, “Better is the
My wife and I were walking around downtown Asheville, NC several years ago and there was a whole fence made into a blackboard on which you could write with some provided chalk. There was a prompt on the board, “Before I die, I want to…” People had written all kinds of interesting things. “Fall in
In the early 1800s, some textile workers in England opposed the use of certain automated machinery in their work. They destroyed machines in organized raids and were eventually defeated by the powers that be. They called themselves “Luddites” after a mythical character named Ned Ludd. I am a luddite. I did not have a phone
I’m reading a book right now about habits– how and why they form and how to use them. In it, the author cites a study in college students where they are put in a room with freshly baked cookies and told not to eat them for 5 minutes. Then, they have to complete a willpower
What do you do if you have found this blog after you have submitted your application materials, or after you did an interview, or after you scheduled your clinical year? You read some of the advice and realize, “Uh oh, I didn’t do that.” Well, now what? Fortunately, all is not lost. First, realize that
A couple of weekends ago, I presented a CE talk. It was a one-hour talk which I’ve done before. I enjoyed giving the talk- the attendees laughed in all the right places and I felt like I dispensed some good advice and information. The talk was preceded by a four hour drive, and followed by
I was watching an interview with my favorite role-playing game GM, Brennan Lee Mulligan, and something he said made me literally sit up in my chair. I thought, “This. This is why I teach students.” And if students understood it, life would be so much easier for themselves and for me. First, though, a quick
Imposter Syndrome is the feeling that you are in a certain position but don’t deserve to be. Someone made a mistake somewhere- you’re not as good as people think you are. You feel inadequate as a consequence of this belief. Even though there’s external evidence of your success (e.g. getting a job, getting good annual
I believe that grade inflation hurts everyone- admissions committees, faculty, and parents. But, most importantly, it hurts students. To understand why, we have to examine the purpose of grades and what grade inflation is. Why Grades? There are two types of assessments. Formative assessments are designed to provide feedback to the student so they know
The other day a work friend of mine and I were chatting about student loans and the current forbearance for student loans. They are working in academia partly to get Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), which pays off all loans after 10 years of working for a qualifying charity or government organization. Unfortunately, they didn’t