Keeping New Year's resolutions can be hard. A lot of us fall off in the early months of the year, another group starts to slip into old habits halfway through the year, and only eight percent of people are actually successful in achieving their New Year’s resolutions. So, how can you be one of the elite eight percent?
You have to change the way you approach change. Switch up your mindset so that you’re embracing growth and action over the next year. It’ll help you prepare and stick to your long-term goals.
Another way to stay committed is: State your goal out loud—it helps you take accountability. Tell a family member your goal, post about it on social media, or commit to a friend with a similar goal and help each other stay on track. The more people you involve, the more pressure you’ll feel to stay true to your intentions.
And if you’re here to discover New Year’s resolution ideas that will make you a better physician, we’ve got ‘em. So, without further ado….
Keep mindfulness in your practice
Do you have 30 patients to see today, 20 phone calls to return, a backlog of clerical tasks to complete, and an exam to study for when you get home? Are you multitasking as you read this? If so, you’re not alone—more than half of the physicians in the US report at least one symptom of burnout! Managing all that busyness and stress may feel routine, but it takes a physical and emotional toll.
Mindfulness will help you alleviate stress, improve your health, and contribute to your emotional well-being. It helps you put some space between yourself and your conditioned responses. And, like any new habit, the hardest part of mindfulness is implementing it into your daily routine.
Start by committing to two-to-three minutes of mindfulness every day. Once that starts feeling easy, increase the time. Make this a habit, and you'll find it easier to stay mindful throughout your day.
Get more sleep
Why should this be your resolution? Getting more sleep will make a big difference in improving concentration and memory in your daily life, your practice, and even during your study sessions. When you sleep, your brain is busy consolidating everything you learned throughout the day into your long-term memory. Making sure your brain has enough time and energy to process memories will help you in every area of your medical practice.
You can get started by tracking your sleep with an app or by writing it down. This will give you an accurate picture of where you're at, sleep-wise. Make a point to set your evenings up for sufficient, restful sleep and take note of what helps you sleep better, and what keeps you from sleeping. If you stay consistent with tracking your sleeping patterns, you'll get a better idea of how you sleep and then be able to optimize your routine.
Exercise consistently
Did you know that regular aerobic exercise not only improves short-term memory but also increases the size of the hippocampus? For years, we’ve understood that exercise seems to have a positive overall effect on memory diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia. Now, we may know why:
- exercise contributes to stronger memory encoding
- it helps you decrease levels of stress, anxiety, and depression
- regular aerobic exercise helps you get better, longer deep sleep
Tracking can also be a great way to motivate yourself to stay consistent. Try keeping an exercise journal or downloading an app you can use to track your progress as you get stronger.
Plan a vacation or staycation!
Practicing medicine is very demanding, and if you go too long without a vacation, you can start to feel symptoms of burnout. When you return to work after time off, you are refreshed and likely to have higher performance levels. Taking advantage of your vacation time is proven to decrease stress, prevent physician burnout, and help you learn new things.
Even if traveling isn't an option right now, taking time off to do relaxing activities or catch-up with friends will have huge benefits for your morale and energy.
Keep your practice up-to-date with lectures
Are you current with all the latest ABIM/AOBIM guidelines? Make sure you have all the latest information throughout the year with lectures from our expert teachers.
Attend the live Online Review Course this March to review alongside other physicians, ask the presenters questions, and review with 12 months of access to all the footage. If you're looking for a more flexible review, you can get the Video Board Review now for two years of access to on-demand lectures you can fit into your schedule.
Ready to kick-start the New Year? We've rounded up the most important dates for your specialty, so you don't need to keep track of them all year long.
