3 Common Academic Anxiety Triggers and Strategies for Dealing With Them - Part 2

We said up to almost half of college students report their anxiety , got them in a chokehold . What's up , roseanne ? Oh , it's Rosanna , sorry , rosanna , my student , hello , hey , that anxiety got them in a chokehold . Spencer , what up ? So we're going to talk about some of the anxiety . I got a couple minutes .

I got to start my coaching for my Dominate pre-made accelerator students at five o'clock , so we got a couple minutes . No-transcript , stop whining , stop right , get at it . No excuses , just dominate . All right guys , I am ripping and running today . Literally just walked in the door , turned the computer on and we are here , live action .

I got hung up today at the gosh darn bank and we're going to have a whole talk I guess we need to have on efficiency . The bank is the opposite of efficiency . It's awful . So I was at the bank , but anyway , we're back here and so if you didn't watch part one , I'll link part one in the description below . But this is part two of our .

We're looking at the common triggers of academic anxiety . That way we can head off our anxiety right at the point of attack , right at the source , where anxiety starts . Here we go . Number one , okay , is elevated stakes and belief that failure is final .

As a student , it can be easy to feel like this is the test of my life , this is the class of my life , this is whatever . And we feel like if an opportunity , if an assignment , if it doesn't go well , then we're going to say to ourselves , hey , this career is over , this school is over , my life is over .

We put all these catastrophizing how many of you guys do that ? You add all these things on to some event , some singular event that's going to ruin your life , ruin your career . I don't know if you guys like that . I was like that . I got an F in calculus , I was taking school , I was doing so much better and I got a little full of myself .

I got an F in calculus . Oh my gosh , it's going to be enemies because it's F in calculus . Oh my gosh , I can't come back from this . And I get that question so often from students . And it's because we build up this . Oh , my gosh , this is everything . This is . If I don't get this right , it'll never happen to me .

Oh , I'm applying to medical school this year If I don't get to medical school my first attempt . It came to me because they were told by someone else that , oh , if you apply this year and you don't get in , it's over , don't apply again , medical schools won't want you . And I'm like that is not true . Okay , so it's these elevated stakes , it's perceived .

So we take something that it's a single event or a combo event and we make it huge and we make it a final failure . And that's that second part , which is that failure is final . How many of you guys , when something bad happens , you're like , oh , that's it . Oh , you know what ? I made the wrong impression on this person . It's over .

This experience , over this test , it's over . We feel like failure is so final . And when we build a finality to things , when we say , oh , if this happens and this is over , it makes the pressure enormous Because , truly , then it feels like every single thing is riding on this .

My dream is riding on this , my family's riding on this , everything is riding on this . And I'm here to tell you guys , that's all trash . There is no one single thing that you could do in this world outside of like a felony and even felony I've had felons get into medical school Outside of a crazy , crazy criminal conviction or you harmed other people .

There are very few things in this world that are final , that will end your career . And I tell my students failure is never final . We're never afraid to fail . Because we fail forward , we say to ourselves I'm going to try this , I'm going to give my all , I'm going to go 100 miles per hour at this and if I fail , shoot , I'm going to fail big time .

It's going to be a huge per hour at this . And if I fail , shoot , I'm going to fail big time . It's going to be a huge , massive explosion . But then when I fail , I'm not only going to fail , I'm going to fail fast and I'm going to fail forward , meaning if the failure is going to happen , it happens Now .

We pick ourselves up quickly and we look at it and we say , wait from that failure , how can I grow , how can I get better ? Because failure is never final unless I quit on myself . So we fell forward . We don't fail until we quit , and for many students that's what happens Like it almost happened to me . I had a terrible , awful freshman year of college .

Why ? Because I was a first-generation college student wanting to go to medical school with no doctors in my family , no advice . I didn't do well in high school . I didn't have the study skills , I didn't have the focus , I didn't know what I was doing . And so when I got to college , of course that big jump from high school to college , it's overwhelming .

And I got caught up in what people were telling me about weed out classes . I'm like what weed out classes ? Like yeah , all these freshman classes , the intro bio , the chemistry , all these things are weed out classes . These , that's what they told me . Right , that failure is final .

And then , of course , because I don't know what I'm doing , and now I'm anxious , I'm fired up because I know I don't know what I'm doing and they're telling me everything rides on this . Now the anxiety is stacked on top of my lack of skills . So I was already not functional , but now this anxiety is taking my functionality down even more .

And , of course , that freshman year went terrible . And then we fast forward to the end of that freshman year and my counselor sends me an email like hey , I want to meet with you , andre , I want to help you . I'm like great , this is amazing because I thought my career was over . But here it is . This person is an expert . They're paid to advise students .

It's going to help me reach my goals yes , to save me from this failure . And I get to this woman's office and she has a big stack of files on her desk and pulls my file from it and after this conversation I can only imagine it's the stack of failed dreams , right , that she had . But she goes hey , I'm looking at your record here .

What do you want to be ? I'm like I want to be a doctor . I'm going to medical school , oh my gosh . And she's like oh , I'm sorry to tell you that you'll never get into any medical school ever and I doubt you'll graduate college because you are a bad student . And she goes on . There's some other words that are said there .

But she told me I had to change my major out of the sciences and I had to give up my hopes of medical school . So here I was told up front that these weed out classes , right , were a final failure . Big pressure , I did poorly . I think my career is over . And then here . It is this authority figure confirming my suspicion .

How many of you guys have had advisors , have had mentors , have had people in the know ? Tell you that you can't come back from some mistake , some mishap , some error on your transcript or , in your future , something you've done ? We're live action guys . I can wait .

If you're liking this video right now , like the video while we wait for these answers , let me know how many of you guys have struggled with that right ? So Rosanna says I have major testing anxiety .

I know she does , because she's been circling on this MCAT letting that anxiety get a hold of her , and so one of the things we did , we stripped away everything from her to take everything else off her plate so that way she'd have the least amount of anxiety possible and her MCAT is coming up . So we're gonna do it this summer .

So but for you guys , right , you feel that pressure built up . You've had people tell you that your failure is final , and so it's confirmed . But I'm here to tell you as a true expert , right , working with students for over 20 years or with pre-meds for almost 15 years , I can tell you failure is never final .

I've gotten students into medical school who had sub 2.0 gpas . I've had gotten students into medical school who have felonies on the record , which is said . I've gotten students into medical school with no prior medical experience , pre-med experience nothing you've ever done . You've never messed up so bad that you can't get into medical school .

As long as you don't quit on yourselves , guys , and if you recognize that , that there is no failure that is final . There is no mess up that is so big you can't come back from it . As long as you learn from it , you don't repeat that mistake . And that's the thing there . It gets people caught up .

Failure becomes final when we live in failure , because that is the end . Right , it's all failure , failure , failure , failure , failure .

When you have a failure , you got to learn from it , you got to pivot , but you guys can overcome that failure , and so I want you guys to recognize nothing is at high stakes , it's over , you can wipe it away , you can come back . Okay , that's number one .

The second thing that happens that causes us to trigger our anxiety , right , all these these pressures on us . The second one is the poor self-care . How many of you guys neglect caring for yourself because you tell yourself , oh , I'm going to do this later , I'm going to sleep later , I'm going to get proper nutrition later , I'm going to exercise later .

I'm going to do all these things that I need . I'm going to do them later . I'm going to spend that with my friends later , but first I got to do this work . How many of you guys ? How many of you guys neglect yourself ? And the biggest way people label self-care a lot of ways .

The easiest way to define self-care and understand if you are practicing poor self-care habits is to ask yourself right now , in this moment , when's the last time you checked in with yourself and you actually listened to what yourself told you , meaning you say hey , listen , how are you feeling today , andre ? Ah well , you know I'm kind of worn down .

We haven't been sleeping much and you know I'm really stressed out because of all these things we have coming up . I really wish we were doing less stuff and we were sleeping more . Okay , that's cool , but we're trying to go to medical school , so we have to do everything . We have to do it right now . Well , okay , but I'm telling you I coming out .

Oh , my gosh , shut up and take it , let's work . How many guys have that conversation ? Did you guys see ? I have two different characters there . I don't know if you guys caught that my acting skills . I'm an actor , okay . How many of you guys have that one-sided , dismissive conversation with yourselves where you don't listen to your body ? I'm tired , more down .

How many guys don't listen to your mind ? I'm tired , more down . How many guys don't listen to your mind ? I can't focus right now . I've got too many other things going on . Oh my gosh , I'm distracted .

How many guys don't listen to yourself when you're telling yourself that you're overextended , that you've got too much going on , that you aren't in a position to be successful ? How many of you guys got sore shoulders and backs from being hunched over at your desk doing your work , as opposed to sitting in the proper posture , lifting some weight , stretching out ?

We must practice self-care , self-compassion , caring for ourselves , nurturing ourselves , loving on ourselves . Think of yourself like a houseplant . How many of you guys have ever had a houseplant ? A houseplant is different than a wild plant . A plant outside . It survives . It's got soil , it's got water , happen from somewhere , it's got sunlight a house plant .

If you neglect that house plant for just a couple days , that thing will start turning brown . Give it a couple more days and that thing is . You know it's brown things starting to fall off of it and then you give it a week and that thing is dead and it will never come back . And I want you guys to look at yourselves as delicate house plants .

You're not a succulent , you're a delicate houseplant and you need constant and continuous nurturing and care . You need that water . Give me water , water . You need that sunlight . You need to get outside , see your friends enjoy the process . You need rest and sleep right . It can't be agitated People moving you soil to soil . You need that . You're a houseplant .

I need you guys to treat yourselves as such . You are delicate beings and I think that's one of the things that happens , especially with pre-meds , right , or any career where you're really striving for a really competitive field . Is that you're made to feel like you should be a machine ? How many of you guys feel like that when you should be a machine ?

How many of you guys feel like that when you feel like I can't have weakness , I can't . Everything has to be perfect , I can't feel bad , I'm not allowed to be sick , I'm not allowed to do all these things ? I can't tell you as a doctor . I think it's ridiculous that doctors come to work sick . Is that crazy ? Doctors come to work sick .

I've been kind of sick Like I don't really get sick that often . I called in sick , lastly , for the first time in like fricking four years maybe , um , cause I was so sick . But it's astonishing to me that people who are health professionals , who understand the science of all this stuff , will come to sit to work , not just a little sick , a lot of sick .

During COVID they used to tell us hey , you got COVID . Hmm , everybody else got to be home for two weeks , but we need you , so come on in anyway , put on a bandana and come in here and get the job done . It's like dang , but it's bred into you in certain industries that you have to be a workhorse , you have to be the machine .

You can't care about you , it's always about everybody else . And I'm here to tell you , guys , if you want to survive , and if you want to more than survive , if you want to thrive , then it's so important that you care for yourself .

And one of the analogies I like to use with students when I talk about self-care , when I give little lectures on self-care , is I say hey , how many of you guys have flown on an airplane . And then , of course , like most of the hands go up . I said okay , you've flown on an airplane . I said do you guys still pay attention to that intro spiel ?

They're telling you about the plane . Or you guys , people with the headphones on noise cancellation , not paying attention . And then I got how they start laughing . I said no , but for real , like during that spiel , do you know what they tell you about the mask that comes down in case of emergency , a mask will come down from the ceiling .

Okay , place the mask over your face . The bag will not inflate even though it's delivering air , right , they tell all that stuff . And then the second part of that , if you guys remember what . What do they say ? They say if you are traveling with a person who needs your help , a dependent , a kid , an old person , put your mask on first and then help them .

And the reason they say that is because if you're so busy giving everything you got to help them get that mask on , you're going to mess around , have no oxygen and pass the freak out , right . Then you're both in trouble . And that's the way it works with you guys .

We're so busy serving the club's needs , we're so busy catering to our PI making sure that their research needs are met . We're so busy catering to what our family wants for us and what their needs are and at the end of the day , we're sitting here with no oxygen , dying on the airplane . That's what's happening .

So you have to make sure that you are caring for yourself . That way , you have enough juice , you have enough energy to be able to help the club , the blah , blah , blah , blah , blah , blah and sustain that to really make the impact . Because that's really what it's all about , guys . I am so happy with my life every single day .

And I'm so happy with my life every single day because I'm so excited for it . I'm not anxious for it . I'm excited for it because every single day I see as an opportunity to make a huge impact . And I see every day that way because I've built a career on making a huge impact every single day . And that sounds kind of whatever .

But what's interesting is , if you guys ever talk to me and we talk about self-care , I say the key to self-care , the key to being a great caregiver , is being a great self-carer . You have to be selfish to be selfless , and that I am a very selfish person . It's me , me , me , me , me me . First , what do I need to thrive ?

Because if I do that , that it puts me in a position to be a superhuman . I'm so energetic , I have so much brain power , I have so much desire to do the work that I'm able to make a huge impact when I attack things . That's the best . So I'm giving my best to the activities . Today I was doing anesthesia and I had this kid .

Can we devolve for a second ? Do we have a second ? Can I go off track here ? So today I'm talking about putting your best foot forward . So I do anesthesia and I do a lot of pediatric anesthesia and I do a lot of places contract me to do particularly . They say I have a way I'm a whisperer with special needs kids .

So I do a lot of special needs anesthesia and I do a lot of big kids special needs anesthesia . So today I had a teenager who's severely intellectually disabled , nonverbal , and is self-injurious and is injurious to other people . So when he shows up he has the helmet on , got all the scars everywhere and all stuff going on , and so he's all over the place .

So when he shows up he has the helmet on , got all the scars everywhere and all stuff going on , and so he's all over the place . And so when he came in the room , he was all upset and then he got on the floor . He sat down in the waiting room because he knew like we were trying to take him back there .

He sits down in the waiting room so I come out there instead of trying to talk at him or wrestle him , whatever . I'm giving my best self to my job , and so I literally sit down on the floor with him and we're down on the floor and then we're literally playing .

You know , we're just giggling , you know doing this and I'm tickling him and this is like a grown teenager . I'm tickling him , we're laughing . I said , hey , I have candy back here . Do you want some candy ? And he's like , he's like making noises , right , I'm like , hey , listen , the candy's coming out of here and I'm playing with the mask .

And then I slam the mask on him . I'm like , hey , look , do you smell that candy ? And the kid's like , oh , I'm looking around . I'm like , oh , yeah , breathe it . And I'm like I'm making all these noises and whatever . And I'm giving him everything I got and this kid went , went to sleep , no problems . We didn't have to hold the kid down .

We didn't have to tie the kid down . He didn't hurt himself , he didn't hurt other people . It was wonderfully smooth and at the end of the case he woke up nicely . We took him out , went to the car . It was so smooth like butter . And it's not to toot my own horn , but I'm an outstanding anesthesiologist .

But one of the reasons I'm an outstanding anesthesiologist , just like I'm an outstanding mentor for my students , is that I'm able to give everything I have because I've given myself everything I need . Did you hear what I just said right there ? I'm able to give everything I have to others because I've given myself everything I need .

And that's what I want for you guys . That's what I want your understanding of self-care to be . It doesn's what I want your understanding of self-care to be . It doesn't have to be exercise .

Whatever self-care is to you , if you want to be able to get everything you have to others and to your activities and to your studies , to your grades , you got to give everything to yourself that you need first . And I do that so I can serve . And that's what I encourage for you guys as students .

The reason you're so anxious , the reason you're so worn down . You're in the site . The cycle of stress and burnout and so forth as students with your grades is because you aren't listening to yourself and giving yourself everything you need and therefore you can't give everything that the exam and your assignments they require of you . You can't give your all .

You don't have that opportunity . Do you guys get what I'm saying ? Like , we have to recognize that . That's the difference and that's the separator , and so that's what self-care really is . Oh , I have one more , but we're gonna do it another day . I gotta get . It's five o'clock . I get to coaching . You guys enjoyed this session so far .

I have one more really big cause of anxiety and trigger for anxiety . We'll get to it next time because it's a long topic and I really want to get into some good strategies about this , and so I don't want to shortcut us right here . But if you've enjoyed this session , take a second like this video . Subscribe to the channel if you haven't already .

I'm here Mondays , wednesdays , live at at 4.30 . If you want to get into my really exclusive high-end training , check out my website pre-reportingcvcom . Get into a coaching program . We got coaching every single week . It's awesome . The other thing is you can check the description box below this . I have a brand new course , all about overcoming academic anxiety .

All about overcoming academic anxiety . When I scripted this whole course out , this whole course was about 40 something pages of like writing through what we've covered in both these two sessions . These two sessions have been . This is about 20 minutes , the other one was about 35 minutes .

It's half a page of the whole script of 40 something pages of script of this course . This course is detailed , it's thorough , it's impactful , it's action oriented to help you be successful . Help you be successful . Help you overcome that anxiety . Get that anxiety monkey off your back so you can stand up straight , put your shoulders back and be your best self .

Put your best foot forward in your academics so you can reach your goals . Guys , I thank you so much for being with me today , as always . Right , I'm Dr Pineson , I'm the pre-med pro-expert . I'm here to make you a more positive student , a more productive student , so you can live your dreams .

Guys , that's what it's all about , and we always end no excuses , just dominate . No excuses , just dominate . There's no excuse for you today to tell someone oh , everything's riding on this because I just told you it's not . There's no excuse for you not to care for yourself . I told you you have to make the time , not can you make the time .

You must make the time to care for yourself , and there's no excuses for you not to be here next Monday at 4.30 . Okay , I'll see you . Guys , then have a wonderful evening . See you next time . That's it for another episode . Show your love by smashing the like button and commenting in the box below . Today is the day , guys .

No more excuses , no more complaining . You're going to take your future into your own hands . You're going to dominate . You're going to be successful . I challenge you . What are you going to do today to make your life better ?

Get to my website , premedproductivitycom , grab a free ebook , sign up for a free webinar and , if you're really ready to transform , enroll in one of my life-changing courses or coaching programs . You have greatness inside you . Let me show you how to unlock it so you can dominate and make your dreams a reality . No excuses , just dominate .