No Excuses

This is Lab Medicine Rounds, a curated podcast for physicians, laboratory professionals and students. I'm your host, Justin Kreuter, the Bow Tie, bandit of Blood a transfusion medicine pathologist at Mayo Clinic. Today we're rounding with Beshoi Nashed, a medical student visiting us from Medical University of the Americas, St. Kitts and Nevis.

I've been really impressed by him, his attention to detail, dependability and I think he's got a really interesting perspective which helps him succeed where many of us are challenged. So today on Lab Medicine Rounds podcast we're gonna be talking about the perspective of no excuses. Thanks for joining us today Nashoi. Thank you for having me on this podcast, Dr. Kreuter. I really appreciate this opportunity and having me here as one of your guests.

Well, I think this is gonna be a fun extension from the conversation that we had earlier in your month maybe for our audience, which is a, a combination of clinicians, laboratory professionals and students. You can kind of kick us off with,

where were you first introduced to this no excuses philosophy perspective, and what is it? Yeah, that's actually a very great question and it's very important to me as it made me who I am part a big part of who I am today. So back when I was studying during my undergrad studies at University of California Riverside, my biology undergrad studies, I I got introduced to working out. I had never worked out being an immigrant coming from the Middle East United Emirates, Abu Dhabi specifically.

It's not really a, it wasn't a common thing at least back in the day to work out or to really take care of your health. So that's something that I really wanted to do during the first semester at UC Riverside. So I joined nearby gym and I began working out and kind of dabbling in different workouts, running and then I heard about this thing called CrossFit. So I decided to join a gym not too far from my campus.

And during the first few weeks that I was working out there on the weekends I noticed these two brothers that would come in to work out with us and have these kind of workout challenges. Back in the day they used to call it kind of the regionals for workouts.

So they had to do these qualifier workouts and I used to just sit around, watch 'em, watch how they train, and it stood out to me that they were very very unique in how they not just trained and worked out but how their mindset came to approaching the workout which really attracted, like, attracted me to to ask her more questions on how they got to that level of training and that mindset of training.

So I asked if I could start training with them, and sure enough they invited me to their gym, which was called N O X. And it sounded a little weird to me. So I was like, N O X, knocks.

So why is your gym called that? And they said that it's called that because it's called no excuses. So that's why they chose N O X and that's kind of how it all started. It's so funny you say N O x I was thinking the gym of hard knocks, but I I see where you get to, to no excuses. It, it's, so what does, I mean, I we know what no excuses mean but really what's that perspective that they had that they really kind of imparted on you? What did, what did that look like?

Right. So I initially joined them because I wanted to take my training to the next level. What I didn't know is I'm also gonna take my mindset and my personality to that next level. And I'm very grateful for that and for, for them for ingraining that in me. So basically my goal was to improve my workouts and get better over time, which did happen. However, what I started noticing is that my mindset approaching these workouts began to change. In the beginning. I used to approach them with fear.

However, one of the things that they would do to not allow to to kind of not instill fear in me is they, for example wouldn't tell me what their workout is for the day until I showed up. And then after showing up, they're like, okay this is what we're gonna do today. So, and that was pretty much the hardest part for me in the beginning is showing up. And soon I learned that showing up was half the battle. The rest was history once you showed up to put in the work.

And over time, I also noticed that that transferred over to my studies in my undergrad. Some days I would tell them, Hey, look I can't come work out. I have this in a few days. Or, Hey, I need to take some time off from working out because I have these other priorities that I need to take care of. And they would always tell me, look up.

And I would look up and what I would see is N O X written on the, on the ceiling, which goes back to the whole no excuses and what, what, what that showed or or that what, what that helped me with is creating a balance in my life and creating priorities. If I can't take care of my health initially and foremost how am I gonna go to my school to take care of my studies? If I can't take care of my health how am I gonna take care of my family? And so on and so forth.

So there's also this very nice quote by the d Dai lama that it, it kind of, in summary it says that what surprised me most about man is that they seek money, they seek quel they seek all these things but they forget about their health. And they end up spending all their money, all their time all their energy to take care of their health at the end of their life.

So that kind of, we, we instilled in in me a new purpose of, in a new mindset when approaching different things in life, whether it's working out work relationships, spiritual relationships, any any anything, whether it's church, school, any of that. I think it's very, very important to have that mindset going in with the no excuses mindset. You know, I, I suspect many of our listers may have similar experiences, perhaps

you know, this time of year, I, I guess we're recording this at the very beginning of February so maybe there's some New Year's resolutions that have kind of fell by the wayside. You know, many of us kind of struggling with time management. You're talking about all these different, you know responsibilities that we're working to, to juggle.

Having gone through this, having kind of struggled through and navigated the, those, those early phases of how do I work with this new kind of perspective what do you think's important for our listeners to understand about what is it that that allows you to be successful with this no excuses approach? I think there's two very important things to realize before even having the no excuses mindset or approach.

First off, we all have 24 hours in a day, just like you have, the 24 hours have the same exact 24 hours. So what we prioritize to do in those 24 hours comes down to a personal choice and a personal decision that sometimes we make that decision subconsciously. And that's something that builds over time. It doesn't just, doesn't happen overnight. So that's the first thing, realizing we all have 24 hours.

The second most important thing is also not knowing that there's specific things that are gonna be out of your control. So a very nice thing that I always write like to remind myself of, it is control, which you can't and which you can't. You can't. So what that translates into, basically there's always things that are gonna happen, whether for example, as a medical student, I might have a a family emergency or an exam that's coming up.

There's always things that, those things, I if it's an exam, I can prepare for it ahead of time. If it's a family emergency that's outta my control I don't know. I like, I, I can't prepare for that. So the things that I can control, I need to prepare for ahead of time and the things that I cannot control then I can't, I, I can't stress about. So with those two points in mind creating a plan ahead will allow one to not face those those failures, you know, or those struggles.

And then realizing that we all, again, like I said we have 24 hours in the day and prioritizing your time. It doesn't have to be three hours it doesn't have to be like half your day but just making sure you give back to your body because that body of yours you're gonna use it not just to take care of patients. If, if it's people medicine or any other specialty your body's gonna come back one day and tell you, Hey here's your bill, pay pay up.

And this kind of happens only towards the end of life. So maybe we don't see it much in our youth time but as we grow older and realize I I should have taken care of my body when I was younger that it kind of it becomes a little too late and that's when regret happens. So planning ahead, it's kinda important for that. Yeah, I'm really glad that you reminded us where you are on your journey, you know, as as a medical student currently.

Sometimes I think back to, you know my life now as a physician, staff physician, I've I've got a lot more regularity in my schedule

than I did as a student or when I was a resident. And so, you know, we're really hearing this this message and, you know, you're being successful in this way despite the challenges of the chaotic schedule. And it sounds like a a key part of that is having that appreciation for what you can control, what you can't control. And so maybe it's not a three hour workout that you do, but but you show up and do 20 minutes, right? Or something like that.

Yes. And and again, I'm I'm not gonna say I'm in the exact same shape or form that I was during my undergrad studies, however just a little bit every ti every day adds up just to keep you just, just enough in shape, you know so that when you're going up the stairs, for example you're not out of breath when you're talking to your patients.

You're able to they're able to see you as an example, for example You know, and you've been doing this now for a number of years, you know, as you're saying you've been in multiple environments and situations. I, I'm really curious how has your practice changed, if at all, over that time? Actually, that's a, that's a very, very good question. My answer to that would be it has, and it has not changed. Now what does that mean?

It has changed, as in I was able to take that mindset and apply it to different situations. So for example, whe when, back in the day I used to train and have these competitions in weightlifting that allowed me to go on the stand in front of an audience, and I had three shots at one lift. That mindset and that fortitude that I was able to build over time allowed me to be able to kind of present to an audience and be prepared in that mental aspect.

I take that as exact same mindset when I have, for example very important presentations to faculty and staff

kind of like the one I had earlier today. And be confident and plan ahead so that I'm very organized in my thoughts, so that when I speak I can have the same exact confidence level. So the preparedness in both ways they're different and that's how they're both it's different situations, but same. So taking the mindset from working out and applying it to different situations in life.

Phenomenal. And, you know, going back to this mindset I remember a couple of years ago when I was just starting out on staff and I went at a coaching session and talking about this common challenge of, you know, oh I got so many things in the day. And I remember the coach that I was working with was like, okay, if you, if you had if there were 26 hours in the day do you think you would get this done? And I was like, oh, absolutely. They were like, Nope, try try again.

Right. I think, you know, you've kind of shared a lot of key points here about, and, and really looped back boomerang back to this importance in putting the emphasis on mindset for our listeners to reflect and think about. I, I'm curious now if you know, listeners are interested I think sometimes it it might seem intimidating to try to cultivate this mindset and certainly you had great coaches that you were working with in, in the beginning that got you started on this way, on this path.

Where do you recommend our listeners? Where, where should somebody get their own start? I think it depends really on the listener and where they, what stage they are

whether in their training or in their life or what what part of the country as well, or if outside the country. I think it's, it's important for us to start with little steps. So if it, if, if these are changes you wanna make to your workout, for example, life start, don't don't start with like long or very extreme workouts that will quickly drain you and eventually make you dislike working out in the first place.

If this is a change you want to make in your professional life, for example don't automatically go pursuing, for example a PhD and spend like, you know, most of your day in the lab because that might drain you and not allow you to enjoy what you thought you might enjoy at one point. So what I what I recommend is doing everything in moderation everything in balance and over time, building those little little building blocks, that's what would make a difference.

You know, whether it's professionally or if it's in their workout or like healthcare aspect just a little bit at a time over time makes a big difference. Overnight changes are really not like a, a a key for success. So true. And how quickly, I forget that. But truth be told for our listeners, since you came and first spent some time with me earlier this month I've been doing the one mile a day run in the morning just trying to get those small, small wins enjoying my workout. That's awesome.

Especially in the Rochester, you know, Cole. So that's This is, this is inside. I'm treadmill doing it. Oh, great point. So thank you so much. We've been rounding with Basho nad to discuss this no excuses perspective. Thank you for taking the time to talk with us about this Dr. Corter. It's really been a pleasure. Thank you for having me and allowing me the opportunity to share my perspective and hear my story. Absolutely. Our pleasure. To all of our listeners, thank you for joining us today.

We invite you to share your thoughts and suggestions via email. Please direct any suggestions to m mcl education mayo.edu and reference this podcast. If you've enjoyed Lab Medicine Rounds podcast please subscribe and until our next rounds together we encourage you to continue to connect lab medicine and the clinical practice, and in this case your life practice through insightful conversations.