What's inside:

• 👣The Next Step - Navigating your way through life
• 🩺Med-Diaries: #6
• ✏️Insights - This week's podcasts, movies, books and other cool things

The Next Step

Shot yesterday morning at sunrise

I heard this story earlier in the week and it really stuck with me.

The horse replies 'Can you see your next step?' The boy says yes.

'Then take just that' the horse replies.

I like to somewhat plan my life out from time to time, but one block I often face is the worry of what to do next. How do I go from where I am now, to where I want to be in the next 5-10 years?

I like to dream big, which serves me well in ambition and confidence, but not so much in taking action, because taking action is all about the next step and very little about the end goal. Just as the boy hesitated and couldn't see a way through, sometimes when we have big ambitions, it's difficult to see a way through to achieve that thing.

When you strive to pursue a dream in life, it's like walking through a forest with no sight of the end, because no one knows what the future holds, but we all know what the next step should be.

Whatever you're striving for right now, keep it in the back of your mind, but when taking action direct your attention to the here and now, the next step.

I'm in the pursuit of content creation and my end goal is, in all honesty, to give a TEDTalk, to be a global motivational speaker with a background in my medical field. I told you I dream big.

That's not happening any time soon though. So instead of looking ahead, I'm focusing on the next step, which is to start working on something now, and that's what today's blog post is. It's the next step in my lifelong journey to accomplish my biggest dreams. I think that's the beauty of ambition, each little step seems insignificant on its own, but in the grand scheme of things every little step matters.

I will spend the next few months trying to remind myself of this. I really want to put more energy, time and effort into my creative work and I think this is the mindset that will help me achieve that.

I hope and pray this motivates you to take the next step in your own ambition.

Med-Diaries #6

I stopped doing this section of the blog throughout summer because I wasn't in university, but as I'm back it's making a return 😄

I'm on my first block of the year - the Gastrointestinal (GI) System. Here we learn about everything from the mouth all the way through the alimentary canal. The anatomy, physiology, pathology and clinical examination. It's pretty chill since I've got my study techniques down from last year, although I'm tactically behind because I've been living my best life since freshers.

In my undergrad degree, I didn't really get too social, I just enjoyed my little circle of friends and stuck to my own routine, spending a lot of time alone. This time I've made sure I make the most of being surrounded by other students my age, so these last few weeks have been probably the most social in my whole university experience. Of course, when you spend more time chilling with friends - hence why I'm slightly behind, but I have 0 regrets, I'll have my work done by the time exams come round and I'm thoroughly enjoying life right now.

Part of the reason I do this blog is to look back on in the future so I'm going to ask myself the same few questions in this section every week.

What are you enjoying right now?

Spending time with friends, doing spontaneous things and not taking medicine too seriously. It really makes the whole studying experience more enjoyable which is nice. Never underestimate the power of a social gathering to uplift your mood - I think I might be in one of the happiest states ever, Alhamdulillah.

What are you looking forward to?

Head and neck!! My next block (head and neck) is meant to be the toughest anatomy component of medicine, but I love anatomy so I'm looking forward to the challenge. I'm also excited to get back into my nerdy routine, just focusing on work, creativity, gym and overall health. For these first few weeks I've been enjoying life to the max because the year hasn't fully kicked in, but give me a week or two and I'll brush up on the academic side of things too.

What is your biggest worry?

I'm not really worried about much right now, but the thought of the December exams is looming in the back of my mind. I'm slightly (like 2%) worried that I'm going to make life hard by falling behind a little, but I'm sure I'll be okay, insha'Allah.

✏️Insights

🎙️ Podcast: Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal​

If you're a medic you already know about this guy. I listened to the first 2 episodes with Ben Francis and Unjaded Jade - both are equally as good for different reasons. I'm completely biased because Ali is a big inspiration to me but this podcast is genuinely such a good listen. Plenty of learning points from both episodes so far!

📚 Book: The 4 Agreements​

I read this book 2 years ago and at the time I said it was my favourite book of all time. I thought I'd revisit it since I'm struggling to get my reading habit back to light. I heard that when you re-read a book at a different time of life, you're basically a different person so you perceive the book differently - I can definitely feel that this time around.

😯 Thoughts - Spontaneity

This morning I went to the beach with my friends after a sleepless night, watched possibly the most beautiful sunrise of my life and had a paddle in sub-zero waters. I learnt 2 things:

1. The best memories come from unplanned, spontaneous events.
2. Cliches are cliche because they're so true, like the one above.