How to become the best version of Yourself

#19 is the most actionable of them all.

1. Just show up. Say you want to run a marathon, but have no prior experience. The first step is lacing up you shoes and hitting the pavement. Even if you only make it half a mile on your first training run, you’ll be about 2% closer to your ultimate goal than if you didn’t put in any work at all.

2. Start from the beginning. You don’t just happen to stumble upon the best version of yourself. You need to start from the beginning and take a high number of small steps in order to become what you envision.

3. Recognize that the best version of yourself should be your vision, not anybody else’s. Don’t waste energy trying to live up to what somebody else wants you to be.

4. Stop looking for a secret trick. There is no miraculous shortcut to the better version of yourself.

5. Use Twitter to network. It’s never been easier to get in touch with influential and powerful people. Earlier in my career, I reached out a high-level executive of a company I was interested in. He was hosting an AMA session on Twitter. I asked him for advice about how to get hired for his company, and not only did he reply with some helpful tips, he also connected me with specific people at the company about an open position.

6. Don’t sweat the details. Just make sure that you’re moving in the right general direction. You probably don’t have the knowledge you need today to know the shortest path to your happiness 5 years from today. But you probably have some idea about how to move in the right direction. Take those steps.

7. Recognize the opportunity at hand. The Internet has fundamentally changed everything. Previously, knowledge was locked away in the minds of industry experts and in the pages of books that you needed to buy or check out from a library. But now, it’s easier than ever to learn new skills. This is essential to becoming the best version of yourself.

8. Write on Medium. Translating your thoughts into written narratives pushes you to think about the ideas in your head at a much deeper level.

9. Don’t count the hours. They don’t matter. Think about the last time you ran on a treadmill. If you looked down at the timer every few seconds, you probably didn’t enjoy your run. In turn, this made it far more difficult to run far.

But what if you took the opposite approach? You plugged in your headphones, lost yourself in the music, and took it one stride at a time….while resisting any temptation to look at the timer at all. If you did this, you probably discovered that you enjoyed the run and made it pretty far. Counting hours just slows you down from reaching your goal.

10. Accept help from other people. Don’t let your pride get in the way. Most successful people needed help along the way, too.

11. Launch a personal website. Maintaining an online presence of yourself pushes you to become the best possible version of you.

12. Write answers on Quora. Quora is an amazing place to help and inspire people at scale.

13. Ignore the social media scoreboard. People depict an extremely exaggerated version of life on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and other social platforms. We only share the good things, not the bad. So when you compare yourself to what you see on social media, you’re just hurting yourself.

14. Celebrate the small wins. Appreciating what you’re doing in the present gives you the motivation to keep making strides towards your ultimate goal.

15. Stop pretending to know things you don’t know. You’ll never learn anything if you pretend to already know everything.

16. Embrace failure. You can’t become the best version of yourself by playing it safe. Heck, getting fired could even be the best thing that ever happened to you, just look at Noah Kagan (employee 30 at Facebook).

17. Call your family. This is just the decent thing to do. But you can also learn lessons from your family that aren’t available through any Google search and aren’t accessible to pretty much anyone else in the world.

18. Exercise in the morning. Once I started doing this in the morning, I became far more focused and relaxed throughout the day. Science backs that up, too.

19. Create a side project. Doing something productive outside of work that makes you happy helps you become a better version of yourself. So, whatever it is...an app, film, album, whatever….start doing it on your nights and weekends. And who knows? It might just turn into a full-time job that you love.

20. Help other people become the best version of themselves. Pay it forward. Doing so keep you motivated on your own path, and you’ll find that the lasting connections you build from helping others will greatly benefit you moving forward.

21. Launch your MVP early. If you’re not satisfied with the current version of yourself, then the quickest way to solve the problem is to begin working towards the better version today. There is no “right time” to get started.

It can be tempting to think about the best version of yourself as some intangible point in the future. You know, the one where you are:

• More successful
• Doing what you love
• Existing as an overall happier person

You see your current self as the regular season, and you’re just waiting for the playoffs to start before giving it your all.

But if all you do is wait for the best version of yourself to happen, you’re forever going to be stuck with the current version.

So, how do you launch the best version of yourself? Start making progress today.

I write and dedicate this poem to honor you, our beloved daughter... Neona, may all your dreams come true...

Ring all the bells, chime all the clocks.
Encourage the animals to crowd with goody stocks,
Sound all the trumpets and with a steady drum,
Break out the flag, let the patriots come.

Let airplanes circle shrieking overhead,
Scribbling in the sky, SHE IS WELL.
Tie red, white, and blue ribbons round turtle doves,
Let the patriots salute with white cotton gloves.

She is my North, my South, my East and West,
My awaken state and my nighttime rest
My light by night, my breath with song;
I never knew that love could be this strong.

The stars are welcomed now; light every one,
Unfurl the moon and unpack the sun.
Calm the storm and tidy up the mess;
For all things now are wonderful and jest.

We Love You Neona! Now & Forevermore!

A successful life is not really about “finding yourself”. It is about creating yourself.

— vlad1959

NOVA TIMELINE - Fall 2014

FALL 2014 - NOVA DO TimeLine

1. 1/01/13 Start collecting LOR's for Interfolio file (Fall & Winter prof.) - sent directlly to schools (not AACOM)!
2. Read SDN DO Thread
3. 1/01/13 Review AACOM Manual
4. 1/01/13 File out "MOCK" AACOM on-line application
5. Register for MCAT 2/15/13 (last day to register 6/30)
6. Register for MCAT Princeton Review 9 weeks Course ($1,899-$200 discount, good for 1yr)
7. Begin working on AACOM app. - opens 5/01/13, but can only submit after 6/1 (note: app deadline for NOVA is 1/15/14 for FALL 2014)
8. - NOVA class 2012: sciGPA 3.31, cGPA 3.41, MCAT 27
9. - Note: Summer 2013, sciGPA 3.13, cGPA 3.43 (Bio1, Phy 1,2 all A's = sciGPA 3.25 = more competitive to apply for FALL 2014!) 
10. Wait for Winter 2013 grades (5/2) before "submitting" final AACOM app.(note: AACOM only begins processing after Winter grades posted!).
11. AACOM Supplemental due by 8/15
12. Take MCAT 7/14/13
13. Submit Summer grades to AACOM 8/6 (BC classes ends)
14. MCAT test score release date 8/14 (submit to AACOM)
15. AACOM sends updated files to Schools
16. Set-up NOVA DO folder, prepare mock interviews, read med issues., volunteer
17. DO interviews schedule Sept 2013 - April 2014
18. Determine how to pay for Med Sch, NHSC, Complete 14/15yr FASFA,

Note:
AACOM Primary: Transcripts, MCAT
AACOM Supplemental : LOR, Clinicals, Personal Essays, etc

How long does it take to repay medical school loans?

I'm hoping you let me offer another answer to this question. Everything that DrDave said is absolutely right (with the only exception being that an extended term for paying off school is 30 years, not 20 but that is insignificant because lenders will pretty much let you set up any term you want). And his advice is sound. What I'd like to help with though are some ideas that will help you to realize how important it is to dramatically decrease the first part of DrDave's equation (how much loans you take out).

Let's assume for a minute that you take out around 300K in loans between medical school and undergraduate school. This is pretty common for private medical schools. Please remember your interest will be accruing during residency so at 7% (low side) interest rate after 4 years of a psychiatry residency you will be 400K in debt. Then comes repayment. Your monthly payment on a 10 year plan is $4645, and on a 30 year plan is $2661.

Now let's assume you can half that debt (this is extremely doable) to 150K on graduation. That is 200K at end of residency and 10 year payment is $2,322 (Int rate 7%) and 30 year is $1,330.

If you want to be wealthy in your life (most doctors do not retire millionaires even though the median income of millionaires is 130K a year and doctors median income is 190K a year), so if you want to be out of the norm for doctors and retire wealthy, a 30 year plan is just plain out. That big a payment for that long will kill you. So 10 years is what you should shoot for. On a psychiatry pay (160K a year on average), a 10 year plan with 300K after graduation is very VERY difficult. But a 10 year plan with 150K at graduation is very doable, and you should even be able to pay that off more quickly (5 years or less in some cases depending on your income). That will open the door for you to get the debt monkey off your back and start becoming wealthy.

The universe as a hologram

Are We Just Simulations?