Chapter 4 Achievement psychology
Self-motivation
Candidates who do not persist with their desire to succeed do so out of choice! They have chosen not to exercise self-discipline and persistence to work diligently towards their goal. You can choose to be a success or failure: ‘Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right’. Realise that nothing is final until you accept it as such. We all make mistakes, we all fall down and we have all at some time given up under adversity. However, to stay down once you’ve fallen is a matter of choice.
Commitment
Remember the words of the Jedi Master Yoda in Star Wars: ‘Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try’.
Why do you do the things you do?
Create a priority purpose—a mission for yourself. Ask yourself:
1. Why do I do the things I do?
2. What is most important to me?
3. What am I willing to invest?
4. How much am I willing to endure?
5. What am I willing to give up?
6. How much responsibility am I willing to take?
7. Am I willing to begin where I am?
8. Am I willing to settle for anything less than my full potential?
To further your efforts to fulfil your mission, ask yourself:
1. Do I understand the aims and requirements of the examination?
2. Do I have the determination to study seriously? Do I give top priority to study at the expense of time with family and friends?
3. Does my employment provide adequate experience? Do I use my employment to gain experience?
4. Have I discussed my plans with a supervisor or sympathetic consultant paediatrician? Do others feel I have the aptitude for paediatrics?
5. Can I accept constructive criticism from those who want to help me?
You must understand that in any endeavour, obstacles and conflict are inevitable. In your efforts to overcome these factors, at some stage you will experience the pain of present limitation. The only way to overcome the limitation is to push through the limitation towards your objective.
Goal-setting
Here are some guidelines for setting goals:
1. Set specific goals. Specific goals are much more productive than general goals that merely stress ‘doing your best’.
2. State goals positively. For example, set aside 2 hours every evening to study Nelson’s textbook. Effective goals need a positive mental image of yourself achieving what you want or being what you want to become. You cannot picture a negative goal.
3. Set challenging goals. Psychologist Edwin Locke found that ‘the higher the level of intended achievement [that is, the higher the goal], the higher the level of performance’.
4. Set measurable goals. Goals need to be measurable in terms of what is achieved and when it is achieved. A goal of ‘increasing performance in the long case’ is not measurable. Rather, a goal of ‘completing 20 long cases within 3 months’ is measurable.
5. Set realistic and achievable goals. A goal must not be too difficult, otherwise you will not want to try. But it must not be too easy—there is no challenge. State what results can be realistically achieved, given your resources. For a medical student to say ‘My goal is to be professor of paediatrics within 12 months’ is unrealistic. ‘My goal is to be professor of paediatrics in 20 years’ is a more realistic goal, especially if the student sets down the intermediate goals.
