Finding Freedom In The Middle of War — Mindset

Hoover  5 Dec, 2007  Freedom

Without a doubt the most frequently asked question I get from readers is about what I do that provides the amount of freedom that I have. I’ve been wanting to write about these topics for a long time, but I wasn’t sure if you guys would want to read that type of content on a medical school-related blog. Judging from the number of emails asking similar questions, I think you guys have spoken.

First and foremost, to obtain the freedom that you want and desire requires that you first get into the right mindset.

The mindset portion of the freedom equation might be the most difficult part for most of you to grasp. It’s not your fault, either. For your entire life, most of you have been told to blindly chase the following simple algorithm:

Work –> Save –> Retire

Work
Find a job that provides a paycheck on a regular basis. You are to mindlessly continue to work this job — no matter how unfulfilling it may be — for hours every day, until you are roughly 62 years of age. You will receive on average one to two weeks of vacation per year and maybe weekends off.

Save
For each of those regular paychecks, you are to allocate a set percentage to a savings account or some type of investment to prepare for when your life is essentially over. That is, retirement.

Retire
Retirement is for when you’re tired of doing whatever it is you’re doing to put food on the table. With inflation factored into the equation even the well-prepared who saved while slaved will be living a middle class lifestyle by the time they retire. Not only that, but they will be so used to working that they’ll be bored without a job and will probably find some type of work to fill the void. Kind of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?

Familiarity For Me

Does this sound familiar? I bet it does. You’re the worker bee, and anything else is unacceptable. Get up at the same time each day, perform the same (for the most part, even in medicine) tasks, go to bed, and then get up and repeat it all over again. If you try to buck the system, you’re lazy. I was told throughout medical school that I was lazy, uninterested, and not a team player. I was told by my parents and grandparents that I’m better off having a regular job making somebody else rich while I punch a time clock.

Just look at what medical training tries to force into your virgin minds: You can’t take off if you’re sick because it’s a sign of weakness. Asking to go home when your work is done is a sign of weakness. Showing distaste for unfulfulling work is a sign of weakness.

I call horseshit. It’s no wonder that the burnout rate in medicine is so high.

Rebel Against the System

To get into the right mindset for freedom is going to require you to throw out all conventional thoughts that you currently have about working and making a living. You will need to become a rebel.

Once I finally got it through my thick skull (it took awhile even for me), this is exactly what I did. Sure, I already had a sickening taste in my mouth with the hoops and inefficiencies that plague medical training — this made it even easier for me. As I wrote about earlier, I turned negative thoughts and emotions into positive actions.

It was at this time that I got into the right mindset, which was a foundation to the freedom that I have today.

Your Necessary Mindset Changes

As stated earlier, you will need to throw out everything you currently know about making a living to take your first step towards absolute freedom. Here are some ideas to get that mind churning:

  • It’s OK to question the system. The system is backwards.
  • You should enjoy life now and not wait until retirement.
  • Conventional means of cash flow are inefficient (i.e. the daily job grind).
  • Doing less is not laziness.
  • Medicine is a job with enhanced social status.

As of now, this might seem like vague information. That’s OK because you need to first digest the vagueness and then begin to apply it to your individual situation. There’s no universal blueprint, but the individual principles are universal. In future posts, we’ll dive into more specific information.

The next time you’re on the wards and you are reminded of the inefficiencies in medicine while your fellow students are sitting around twiddling their thumbs, think about the following quote:

Everything popular is wrong.
–Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

Popularity: 6% [?]

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10 Comments so far »

  1. jim said

    December 5 2007 @ 10:45 am

    Though I am not in the medical field I have enjoyed your blog for some time. The first four lines of ideas to get the mind churning I have subscribed to for some time. The last one makes one think—which was your intention I am sure. Elaborate?

  2. Hoover said

    December 5 2007 @ 5:42 pm

    Jim,

    If you remove all of the “fluff” and really strip medicine down to its most basic component, it is simply a job. Enhanced social status is referring to how the majority of the public view physicians - they are frequently thought to be in a somewhat higher socioeconomic class than non-physicians.

    Stripping medicine down and looking at the no-frills bare-bones aspect of it will allow one to release themselves from the misconception that the practice of medicine is “special.”

    Viewing medicine for what it really is — just a regular job — helps to get into the right mindset for obtaining a freedom lifestyle.

  3. Gail said

    December 7 2007 @ 5:06 pm

    Its such a farce, especially surgery, it seems as if they are all in it solely for the enhanced social status, raised from birth with that one thought in mind by physician parents, born with a golden jp drain in their mouth. It sucks so bad, I hate them all. Medical school is worse than hell.

  4. Tea said

    December 8 2007 @ 4:06 am

    Hoover– I know it’s just a job, but as someone who has born a lot of children in the grossest branch of medicine (if it’s gross to a doctor, think of what it’s like for the patient– I cried through those visits) I think that they are amazing for having chosen the field and staying in it. Those “worker bees” were at the hospital with me in the middle of the day or the middle of the night and I was extremely thankful and told them so. I wrote letters to the hospital thanking them for my care never wavering. (I never heard anything from the hospitals. Do you think that the doctors ever saw the letters?)

    Why don’t doctors have unions with lobbyists to advocate for better conditions for med school students and for themselves to treat patients?

  5. Shining Hector said

    December 8 2007 @ 10:57 am

    The AMA has arguably been the most effective labor union in American history.

    As for lobbying for better conditions for med students, doctors are the ones directly responsible for continuing the hazing process, if they really wanted to change it, all they would have to do is stop abusing students themselves.

  6. Peter said

    December 8 2007 @ 12:15 pm

    What’s your take on doctors that open up their own practice? (Or in conjunction with partners)

    Reading this blog has made me glad I chose to do engineering :) (Less job security, but more entrepreneurship opportunities and definately shorter hours)

  7. jim said

    December 8 2007 @ 2:04 pm

    Thanks for the explanation Hoover. I know 2 people who finished med school and who, like you, did not proceed into residency. They saw what was ahead and knew it wasn’t for them. You have to respect that.
    As to the “enchanced social status” perhaps it would be interesting to discuss from where this originates. The profession? Med schools? Society in general? Or perhaps a confluence of all?

  8. bronx43 said

    December 8 2007 @ 8:11 pm

    Hey Jim, if you don’t mind my asking, what are your friends are going to do (or did do) after medical school if they did not proceed onto residency? I know Hoover opened his own business, but I want to see what other options are available for those of us without any business acumen. Thanks.

  9. jim said

    December 9 2007 @ 2:16 pm

    Bronx43:
    In both cases these guys are faculty teaching biology at a junior college. One woman I knew years ago left med school entirely and became a writer. I would have stuck it out to finish med school. At least that way you have an MD. But it seems that the whole training process leads one to be a very good clinician. Outside of that I don’t know how transferable the education is. Just my 2 cents as an “outsider.”

  10. Amy said

    December 12 2008 @ 1:24 am

    Bronx43:
    If you are training in the Bronx I feel your pain. Get out of NYC- the Bronx made me suicidal.
    There are places where med students are treated like human beings.

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