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Rites of passage (this is where you grow up)

In some cultures, you have to kill a lion in order to graduate into adulthood.

In others you go on a Walkabout, or run with the bulls, or trek across the Amazon with nothing but the clothes on your back.

Today, the rite of passage is making the conscious decision to pursue your potential, despite how much this upsets your parents, elders and guardians.

It means doing the work of figuring out what’s important to you, making a plan to get it, and then going after it with everything you have.

It means standing up to your parents’ challenges, figuring out how to deal with debt/loan/cash flow issues, and refusing to settle for less than what you were created to do.

It means being willing to suffer for a moment or a decade or more…in order to reap the rewards of being true to your True Identity.

And when you do this, your parents et Al. will resist you, shout at you, guilt trip you …and then celebrate you for standing up to them.

Because all they want to know is that you’re really seriously about what you say you want this time.

So this is where you grow up, and decide to go after what’s important to you.

Welcome to your Rite of passage.

This is a taster from Escape Velocity: a personalised email course that guides medics step-by-step in how to successfully make the transition from being stuck in medical school…to living a life of happiness, freedom and fulfilment. Admission is by invitation-only. Click here to apply for your FREE invite.

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled

How To Drop Out Of Medicine

…was convincing the world he didn’t exist.

And when it comes to Medical School, one of the biggest tricks is convincing you that how you feel and what you’re going through is ‘just a normal part of Med school’.

No pain, no gain; right?

We also used to put up with blood letting and treating headaches by drilling into patients skulls…until someone had the courage to do something about it.

No, you’re not the only one going through what you’re going through.

Yes, you have the right to do something about it…even if nobody else is.

This is going to hurt a lot

How To Drop Out Of Medicine

This isn’t going to be a “sharp scratch”.

The moment you tell your parents or guardians or society that you don’t want to follow the plan you’d previously agreed to…the one they’ve helped you pursue your whole life…there’s going to be conflict.

Painful conflict.

And a brutal emotional and psychological battle between their expectations and your exasperations.

This is going to hurt a lot, particularly since it involves people you love.

But as painful as this confrontation might be, it’s a fun day-on-the-beach when compared to what you’re left with if you don’t have this confrontation:

Regret.

If only, what if, woulda, coulda, shoulda.

The sort of regret that will haunt you every step of the way into your 80s and taunt you on your death bed.

And when asked about the things they regret most, virtually every “senior citizen” mentions regret over things they didn’t do rather than things they did do.

Jeff Bezos used this insight as part of his “regret minimization framework”…and was inspired/compelled to quit his job as a successful stock analyst to start a company called Amazon.com

Because the excruciating pain of disappointment and failure hurts way less than the agony of regret.

Either way, there’s pain. But you get to choose:

To disappoint them for a moment (and maybe delight them for a lifetime)…or just keep going through the motions to keep them happy, and live with terrible regret for the rest of your life.

The choice is yours.

The golden rule

How To Drop Out Of Medicine

The Golden Rule: He who has the gold makes the rules. — Anon

You have no money, and therefore you have no say in what you do with your life.

Worse, you are in debt and you are financially dependent on others who want you to become a Doctor and fulfill their dreams…never mind the dreams you have for yourself.

What do you do?

One thing:

You need to make your own money…and a lot of it.

I’ve proven this the hard way over 13 years with a wife, 5 kids, unemployment benefits, odd jobs and jumping through hoops for family just to make ends meet.

Bottom line: you need to make your own money…and a lot of it.

The same brainpower you’ve been using to cram biochemical pathways and learn the branches of the brachial plexus and the components of the coagulation cascade…

That same brain power needs to be deployed on getting some financial literacy really quickly.

Because whoever controls your money, controls you.

And when it comes to your parents/guardians/society etc, if you’re dependent on them for your finances, then you’re going to have to jump through their hoops and put up with their demands…until you change the dynamic by making some money.

This section will give you the condensed version of what is covered in the Escape Velocity module on money.

Punchline #1: you can make a lot of money right now using the time, energy and knowledge that you already have.

Punchline #2: making your own money is an important step in getting your parents et Al to support you emotionally in pursuing your dreams.

Punchline #3: you can make a lot of money right now…and you need to.

The best way to escape a nightmare…

How To Drop Out Of Medicine

…is to wake up.

But you can only make yourself wake up by realising that you are asleep, and that what you are experiencing is only a dream.

A dream…one of many possibilities, and not the only experience available to you.

And this dream — this nightmare — is one that you no longer wish to be part of.

Once you realise that this is just a dream, you are able to increase the frequency and intensity of your brain’s vibrations…disrupting the fabric of the nightmare world.

Reading, listening and absorbing alternate inputs that contradict and invalidate the images, emotions and scenarios of the nightmare you’re in right now.

As you keep turning up the dial on your brain frequencies, you raise your level of consciousness, raise your level of self-awareness…you wake up.

The #2 best way to escape a nightmare, is to dream another dream.

Own where you are

How To Drop Out Of Medicine

Right now you’re caught in a vice between two extremes.

Doing what your parents want…and being true to who you are.

The problem is that who you is currently dependent on your parents for financial support, approval, acceptance and affirmation.

Worse, you love them and don’t want to hurt them.

But at the same time, loving them is killing you, and causing so much pain that even the thought of suicide provides an immediate breath of fresh air…an end to an impossible struggle.

If that’s you, then this section and the Escape Velocity course on Parents is for you.

The good news: there’s a way out that doesn’t involve committing suicide or subscribing to a life of addiction to manage the pain.

The bad news: the way out is messy…like crawling through a sewerage pipe to get to freedom.

And it starts with a particularly stinky word…Honesty.

The fact is, you don’t have the power or resources or mental/emotional fortitude to make the change that you desperately need to make.

You know that and your parents know that.

So rather than fighting this or feeling guilty about this, the first step is to simply acknowledge this.

Accept it and take ownership of this.

“This is where I am right now.”

Once you’re honest about how things actually are, then you can go to work on making them better.

But you need to own where you are, regardless of whose fault it is. This isn’t about condemnation or assigning blame…because none of that empowers you to change your situation.

Instead, you’re going to take back control of the situation by owning where you are, and owning the responsibility to make things better.

It is no longer your parents’ job or anyone else”s responsibility to make you happy or help you fulfill your life’s potential.

It’s your job. Period.

Once you’ve owned this, then we can get to work on making things better.

Ready? Good. Let’s get to work.