Personal Growth Program
The Office of Student Affairs is excited to partner with you and offer an optional program on Personal Growth. The Personal Growth Program is an opportunity to assist you with self-exploration, self-awareness and self-esteem to increase your skills and fulfill your personal goals. The process of exploring your innermost self to attain a purpose or a goal, especially in the pursuit of clarity and passion in life, is important. A focus on your personal development alongside professional development helps create a well-rounded physician.
Communication
Why Communication Matters - psychologytoday.com
- How we communicate helps relationships get off on the right foot, navigate problems, and change over time
- In communication, we develop, create, maintain, and alter our relationships
- We communicate to work our way through family changes and challenges in verbal and non-verbal ways
Thought Prompt: Is email/text the best form of communication? Have you ever found that someone misinterpreted your intention because of email or text? Have your relied on forms of communication that distance yourself from personal interaction (particularly through the pandemic)?
Read:
- What makes teams work? | American Psychology Association
- Are We Communicating? Or Do We Just Think So? 7 Tips to Make Sure | Forbes
Listen: OSA Insider Podcast
Action Items:
- Interpersonal Communications Skills Test: Psychology Today
- Team Roles Test: Psychology Today
- Social Skills Test: Psychology Today
Spotlight:
Gratitude
Gratitude is an emotion similar to appreciation and helps people focus on the positive aspects of their life. Gratitude can help build and maintain relationships with others, resulting in hope, life satisfaction, and more proactive behaviors toward others (Passmore & Oades, 2016). Studies have shown that gratitude is an important “predictor of wellbeing and other desirable life outcomes” (Portocarrero et al., 2020, p. 6)
Gratitude can be cultivated and learned!
Read: The Psychological Benefits of Gratitude and Being Thankful
Listen: Finding Gratitude in Challenging Times | Harvard Graduate School of Education
Action Items: Gratitude Test (idrlabs.com)
AAMC Spotlight: Attitude of Gratitude: How Just Three Minutes Per Day Can Increase Joy, Happiness, and Resilience | Students & Residents (aamc.org)
Leadership
Leadership: “If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then, you are an excellent leader.” —Dolly Parton
Read:
- To Become Your Best Self, Study Success | Harvard Business Review
- "There are five practices of noticing and capitalizing on everyday opportunities for development based on your best self: noticing positive feedback, asking the right questions, studying your successes, enacting your best self, and paying it forward" - Roberts, LM et al.
- Leadership | Psychology Today
- Contents: The Qualities of Great Leaders and Becoming a Better Leader
Listen: OSA Insider Podcast
- Episode 100: Two MS4s Reflect on Leadership Lessons
- Episode 83: Non Traditional Career Paths and Entrepreneurship with Maurice Reid
Action Items:
Spotlight:
Motivation/Passion
Motivation allows you to increase your creativity, expand your goals/pursuits, develop your skills and improves your engagement with others and your environment.
Read:
- How to Keep Working When You’re Just Not Feeling It
- What's Holding Back Your Career Development? | Harvard Business Review
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“The authors, who train over 100,000 people a year in career development, have identified four common challenges that get in the way of people’s growth. They categorize them as when, who, what, and where challenges. Here’s how you can think and act creatively to overcome these challenges and continually invest in your career development.”
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Listen: OSA Insider Podcast
- Episode 10: Finding Your Passion
- Episode 23: Financial Health and Student Debt
Action Items:
- Motivation Style Quiz - What's Your Motivation Style? Quiz
- Learn more about Motivation Styles - Differences of Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation - Simply Psychology
- Pick a Theme, Image, Music Lyrics or Quote for this year.
- Need help? Check out - https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/motivational-quotes
- Identify 1 person who is a POSITIVE person in your life. Positive support enhances your positive self-talk.
- Career Motivation Test | Psychology Today
AAMC Spotlight:
- Breaking Through Barriers - Aisa Iyawe | AAMC.org
- The Journey of Medical Student Burnout by Elise Kao | AAMC.org
Optimism/Positivity/Happiness
Positive psychology: "a branch of psychology focused on the character strengths and behaviors that allow individuals to build a life of meaning and purpose - to move beyond surviving to flourishing." - psychologytoday.com
Benefits of Optimism-Positivity-Happiness: “Happy people live with purpose. They find joy in lasting relationships, working toward their goals, and living according to their values." psychologytoday.com
Read:
Listen: OSA Insider Podcast
Action Items:
- Happiness Quiz: How Happy Are You? | Psych Central
- Strategies to Improve Happiness: 5 Ways to Feel More Positive Emotions | Psychology Today
- Creative Problem Solving Test | Psychology Today
AAMC Spotlight: Attitude of Gratitude: How Just 3 Minutes Per Day Can Increase Joy, Happiness and Resilience | Students & Residents (aamc.org)
Purpose/Vision
Purpose is the reason for which something is done or created. Vision is an imagined mental image of something.
Our personal purpose can serve our personal vision for our future self. Many students (and people) find themselves asking “why am I doing this” or “what do I want.” This is where examining our personal purpose and vision becomes helpful to support not only our professional goals, but our personal ones too.
Read: Start Finding Your Purpose and Unlock Your Best Life (betterup.com)
Listen: OSA Insider Podcast: Your Personal Mission Statement and Brand
Action Items:
- Explore your Purpose: Purpose in Life Quiz
- Write a purpose statement: Purpose Statement Map
- Check out UMB and SOM Opportunities to support your BRAND and MISSION
AAMC Spotlight: Eliana Garcia
Relationships/Peer Support
Relationships matter because they are the foundation of the human experience. They form the context and space for connection. Relationships allow individuals to express themselves and their desires.
Read:
- Personality and Relationships | Psychology Today
- How to Get the Relationships that Matter for Personal Growth | Psychology Today
- “To sum up, the MIDUS study results show that personal relationships do make a difference, and perhaps more so as you get older. Notably, the questions in this study asking about personal relations didn’t inquire as to how many you happen to have in your life, but instead focused on quality. Even if you aren’t that close to a large number of people, by combining generativity (openness to helping others) and the willingness to share your time with the people you do have in your support network, you can achieve the personal growth that will promote your long-term fulfillment.”
- How to Get the Most out of Peer Support Groups | Harvard Business Review
Listen: OSA Insider Podcast
- Episode 88: Mentorship Pearls with a Mentor Mentee Duo
- Episode 51: Advice Column with Dr. Lumpkins - Relationships
- Episode 110: The Peer Support Network
Action Items:
- Self-Assessment | WellMD & Well PhD | Standford Medicine - Impact of Work Life on Relationships
- Empathy Test | Psychology Today
Spotlight:
Resilience
Resilience is the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands. A number of factors contribute to how well people adapt to adversities, including the ways in which individuals view and engage with the world, the availability and quality of social resources, and specific coping strategies.
Read:
Listen: OSA Insider Podcast
- Episode 107: Just Culture with Dr. Nidhi Goel
- Think about the last time you made a mistake. Now, imagine this happened at work, with a patient, and that your clinical setting is a punitive place where people are shamed for their mistakes. Would you want to tell anyone about this error? What if, instead, you worked somewhere that embraced open conversation about errors, and looked without judgement at all the factors that might lead to mistakes? This is at the heart of Just Culture - a philosophy and process that looks at both the individual and the system in a non-punitive way to figure out where something went wrong, and how we can all learn from it and make changes so it doesn't happen again.
Action Items:
Spotlight:
Self-Understanding
Self-understanding allows us to systemically observe our ability to have self-compassion, self-value and understand the personality traits and behaviors that make us who we are. Self-understanding is a process of examining parts of ourselves to help achieve our goals and be content in our lives.
Read:
- Emotional Regulation | Psychology Today
- How Writing Helped Me Love Medicine Again
- How to Manage Your Perfectionism | Harvard Business Review
- What to Do When Your Mind (Always) Dwells on the Worst-Case Scenario | Harvard Business Review
Listen: OSA Insider Podcast
- Episode 98: Perfectionism
- Episode 101: From Adaptive to Maladaptive: When Good Habits Go Bad
- Episode 115: Catastrophic Thinking
Action Items:
- Self Valuation-Self Compassion Assessment | Stanford Medicine
- Perfectionism Test | Psychology Today
- Locus of Control Test | Psychology Today
Spotlight:
Skill Building - Confidence/Imposter Syndrome
Skill Building - Confidence/Imposter Syndrome: even Michelle Obama has imposter syndrome!
Read:
- "What's wrong with me? I don't belong here." | AAMC
- Embrace Lifelong Learning To Thrive In The Future of Work | Forbes
- 7 Ways to Practice Active Allyship | Harvard Business Review
Listen: OSA Insider Podcast
- Episode 16: Failures, Setbacks, and Mistakes - Part 1
- Episode 17: Failures, Setbacks, and Mistakes - Part 2
- Episode 103: Gap Years with MS4 Kimia Abtahi
- Episode 113: Caring for the Formerly Incarcerated Patient
Action Items:
- Michelle Obama Speaks on Imposter Syndrome
- Concentration and Focus Skills Test | Psychology Today
- Listening Skills Test | Psychology Today
Spotlight:
- AAMC Research and Training Opportunities
- Clinical and Research Opportunities Database, Public Health Pathways for Medical Students, NIH Research Scholars Program, NIH Summer Internship Program
- Advocacy Toolkit for Physicians in Training | aamc.org
Time Management
Time Management is the skill of organizing and aligning your tasks and objectives into a schedule.
Benefits of Time Management: Reduces stress, provides a sense of achievement, allows you to meet your GOALS, VISION, and PURPOSE (see October.)
Read: Time Management Tips for Your Personal and Professional Development
Listen: OSA Insider Podcast
- Episode 92: Improving Your Organization and Time Management Skills (libsyn.com)
- Episode 78: Efficiency and Time Management in Clinic (libsyn.com)
Action Items:
- QUIZ: Test Your Time Management Skills
- Print and tag somewhere visible: Time Management Tips
- Smarter, Not Harder
- Check out UMB and SOM Opportunities to support your BRAND and MISSION
AAMC Spotlight: A Medical Student's Reflection on Time, Our Scarcest Resource