Breaking the Chains of Addiction: Transforming Negative Habits into a Success Story

You guys are pre-meds for the most part over here , or you're students . You come here because you recognize that you need to be more productive , you need more positivity and you need help reaching your goals getting to medical school and higher education and so forth . And so today it's our second lecture in our series .

Kind of that was sparked by Matthew Perry and his untimely death and his lifelong battle with addiction and substances and so forth and so on . Part one last week we talked about manufacturing joy , being happier , being healthier people , and today what we're talking about is taking that next step in creating success .

And so today what I'm gonna get at it's a big thing . We're going to attack something that is holding back so many students from their true potential and from their hopes and dreams .

And if you are a student and you feel stuck in the mud and you're ready to get about the mud and you're ready to start getting to your goals , then today's a great video for you to attend , because we're gonna get right at it , right at the crux of what holds so many students back . So purple down your first one on here . You woulda up what is up .

We're gonna hit the intro , then we're gonna get right to it . But stop making excuses , stop whining , stop right , get at it . No excuses , just dominate . Okay , josh Sean , what up ? Yes , josh Sean , we're gonna get there . We're gonna get there . Right , we're gonna talk about a lot of things .

As I said , I'm Dr Roger Pinesett and this week's our second lecture . We're talking about Matthew Perry . If you guys don't know Matthew Perry , he recently died . Right , he was Chandler from Friends , among other things . He also was in a show I really liked , the Good Wife , and it was good and that .

And the point for you guys is right , you guys come here to learn and the way it was interesting . Right , I am a learning expert , I am a studying expert and so , being a learning expert I am .

I understand that we all learn best , we all understand best , we all comprehend best and we all retain best when materials presented us into a familiar way , right , the abstract science , the abstract math is hard to remember , but if I can present lessons to you guys in common , things that we understand every day , it makes everything that we talk about here that

much more powerful . And so today , right , we're gonna use Matthew Perry . We all know friends , everyone has seen friends , and what we're gonna talk about specifically today is the power of addiction .

Right , he was an addict and being an addict is a lifelong battle , a lifelong pursuit , and what I would put forth to you guys today is is that a lot of times we think about addiction in terms of alcohol , drugs and so forth , but really , addiction is anything in our lives , anything in our lives that affects us , that we become dependent on . Right ?

Because if we look up the definition of addiction , we're alive . I said , you know , let's look up the definition , let's look it up the fact or condition of being addicted to a particular substance , thing or activity , right , dependency , so a craving , a compulsion , something you can't be without .

And so for many of us in our lives , we have addictions that maybe aren't alcohol , that aren't drugs , but that are holding us back , and so we have to understand just how powerful our addictions are , and with that , we all think of addiction as a negative thing , and so , before we even get to a lot of the negative things that you guys are doing , I want to

show you the other side of addiction , and that is that addiction , like I said , is very powerful . It can also be powerful in a positive way . It can be helpful to you in your journey . I am an addict , I say it and I say it proudly . I am an addict . What am I addicted to ?

Well , I used to be addicted to many of the negative things we're gonna talk about here in a second , that many of you guys are , but I flipped it , I switched it and I became addicted to things that helped me , that pushed me forward . One of the big things I'm addicted to is habit . I am a creature .

I crave habit , I crave routine , and so I rootinized , I habitualized my life and it made me a consistent high-level performer , and so I'm addicted to that . So if you guys were to be around me for a week and shout at me for a week , right , so my students come shout at me . You guys know when I do anesthesia , everything will case . It's the same way .

I love routine . I love having that because it allows me to be consistent , high-level anesthesiologist and it's the same way that I live my personal life and it's the way that I was able to turn some of my things around . That's the good sign . I'm getting the more of that later . But the bad side of addiction because that's where many of you guys are .

But we're gonna get to the good stuff . You guys have to get rid of some of your bad addictions . What are some of the addictions you guys know you have in your life that are holding you back ? What are some of the addictions ? We're live , actually , y'all we are live , right . We're talking to you live . This is on the moment .

So I wanna teach you guys who give me your Wednesday evening , come here and hang out , julian , what up Right ? Robert , what up Right ? If you guys are electing to spend time with me , then I wanna make sure I'm teaching and serving right to you . I love that .

I love that Robert Habit can be the best of slaves and the worst of master , and that's really what it is right . A lot of us have addictions , have pet elections , have things that we do all the time that we don't think about consciously , and so we allow negative habits and negative addictions to form in our lives and we don't cultivate the positive ones .

And for me , one of the biggest addictions that students have and it truly is a killer of pre-med dreams and of student dreams is social media . It's interesting because I got a new phone . I steadily crack phones all the time and it falls out of the top of my scrub pocket and breaks , and so I cracked my phone again .

I've been going for months and months and months and now it's been glitching out too much that I replaced my phone . I go to the phone store and it's incredible , in the era we live in , it is cheaper to buy a laptop than it is to buy a phone . These phones are for $1,500 . It's crazy , right ? An iPad is like three nickels , like 200 bucks . It's crazy .

But the reason is is because we all become so dependent on our phones . We live in an era where the phone is everything it's in it . We live in a social media world , right , and so for so many students we're addicted to the phone . You guys may know I have a video on here where I'm talking about different study strategies for ADHD .

On my YouTube channel I go all fuck 45 minutes talking about ADHD . From that 45 minutes , I made one short and I was like , hey , let's point out one tip for this 45 minute video and share with students . It's like , hey , listen , if you have ADHD , here's one thing you do .

And my one tip that I gave in that short video was hey , if you have ADHD , put your phone away that video , guys , every single day I receive some negative comment from someone about that video . Oh , this is neurotypical talk . Oh , I have ADHD , I don't even need my phone to be distracted .

Oh , and everyone hates that video , right , it's like , oh my gosh , it's so , it's so , ah , but the reality is , guys , is one thing is not gonna cure everything , but what we have to do if we wanna be high level , right , anyone who's great at anything understands that not one thing makes you great , but cultivating and putting together a lot of positive things

around you makes you great . It's a lot of stepping stones to get the greatness , and so what I'm pointing out is hey , one aspect that might be holding you back from greatness is your phone , and in this case , how many of you guys feel like you're addicted to your phone ?

You're constantly checking your social media , you're constantly checking your email , you're constantly texting , you're constantly scrolling through the images , scrolling through the videos , watching stuff that isn't moving you forward , right , as we talked about a couple weeks ago .

Right , about escapism , and we're escaping in that social media , that phone , instead of working on our lives . How many of you guys are distracted by your phone ? You start to get bored with your material . You're studying and then you turn to that phone . How many of you guys do that ? Right ?

The reality is , guys , the phone is hyper addictive and all of these apps are designed to addict you . Right , with intermittent reinforcement , and all these different the psychology behind app creation is amazing . Gain amplification and all these things is amazing . And what we have to recognize is that these phones and these apps are designed to pull us in .

We must be very cautious not to get sucked in . And I'm not saying it's easy to stay away from your phone , but it is easy .

And for me , I recognize that I was a person I love procrastinating , I love doing anything but studying , I love doing anything but the work I had to do , and one of the distractions and one of the addictions that I noticed I had was my , even at that time , was my phone , and , more so at that time , my computer , because the computer was really back in my

day , it was the computer to really access social media and stuff . But Facebook was brand new when I was in college . And so , oh my gosh , you're gonna be on Facebook see what's going on , see what people in my space is doing all kind of stuff . And so I recognized that it was sucking me in the wrong direction . And so what I did ?

Super , super simple , I deleted all my social media accounts . Not I signed out , not whatever . I literally deleted all my social media accounts . So I had no social media accounts . I had no social media apps on my phone , all my computer .

I didn't allow myself to go over to social media , even try to restart my account , because I knew that if I got on there I was weak . I was too weak to say no to it , and so I got rid of all my social media . So if you back in college , I had no social media , it can be done , and if you do it , what you find is right with addictions .

These things take up our time or energy or space or thought process . They take up all these things in our lives . We can't create space and opportunity for the things that are fruitful to us , and we have a lot of things that are poisonous to us in our lives , and that first thing , guys , is that phone . So we have to take the reins of our phone .

If that means leading some apps , whatever , do it , guys , because it's worth it . I swear on everything , guys . I didn't miss anything crazy by not having social media in college . In fact , I didn't miss anything . I gained my MD , I gained my doctor future . Okay , so that's number one .

Number two is how many you guys I won't ask you to tell yourselves , but how many of you guys know people who are addicted to being the victim ? How many are addicted to being a victim , a victim of life ? Oh , I can't do this , oh , I can't be that . I just I don't have it in me . I'm the victim .

And to me , this one really hits home because I was and I am right , I'm a minority , right , I'm a black male , and so when I went to college , this was one of my big addictions was being the victim . I looked at everyone else and said , listen , they all have it easy . They have it so much better .

They don't know what it is to be me and what I'm going through my poor finances and so forth . They didn't know what it was and I would play the victim , and so when I would come up short , I'd be , oh , it's because of this , and I would blame and I'm the victim . I , oh gosh , what was me ?

Everyone had like , everyone right , feel bad for me , but the reality is , guys , is that we can't let ourselves . It's easy to be the victim . It feels good to be the victim because then you have a reason to explain your shortcomings .

But what I want to encourage all you guys to do , when I've worked with so many minority students , is one of the things we have to really work on is that we have a system that intentionally traumatizes us and then we call it . There's a term for it . This is okay . Social media psychology Okay . So doom scrolling who's ever heard this term ? Doom scrolling ?

We're live action . We can wait . What up , y'all ? If you guys are enjoying this video , like the video right now , comment , answer my questions . This is not rhetorical . Who's ever heard the term doom scrolling ? Everyone's like what Doom scrolling ? What Doom scrolling is what we do on social media .

We are looking for things right and the other word that people use , right . That's not in this context of the scrolling is trauma porn . So , essentially , when we are searching the internet right and we like to be the victim , we are looking for other people to highlight that they are also that same victim , to reinforce our feelings of victimhood .

So if we scroll and we're looking for negative things out in this world , we can say the world is negative , the world is bad and the world is holding me back and that's why things suck , everybody sucks and we live in our misery . So it's doom scrolling . We're looking for confirmation .

We have a bias and we're looking for confirmation of our bias that everything is bad . And the same thing happens for a lot of minority students is that they look to the internet for people who say they are struggling , like they're struggling , or the system is rigged .

They look for all these things because then it feeds into that mentality oh yeah , you're right , because of my skin I can't rise up . Because of my disadvantaged background , I can't be better , I can't go here . And we look at it that way and we like that right .

It confirms what we have , and so what I would encourage all of you guys to recognize is that victimhood . There's no reward for being the biggest victim . People will , yeah , they'll clap for you . Oh my gosh , that's amazing . Yes , yes , it's amazing . Oh my gosh , you've been through so much . Oh my gosh , yeah , you just do what you can do .

No , at the end of the day , medical schools will not pat you on the back for that . They want to see distance travel . They want to see you made up ground . They want to see you overachieved . They don't want to see that you've lived in your victimhood . It's not going to work right , and we see it on personal statements .

I read personal statements all the time . Students will see personal statements , right . People sign up for my medical application bootcamp , people in my medical application course , and they don't watch the course . Instead , they put together the personal statement they think they need to put together and it's a bunch of victim , victim , victim , victim , victim .

I'm like when are you not the victim ? Your whole personal statement is how you're the victim , how about be the victor ? How about you go from being the victim to be the victor ? Because that's what medical schools want to see . Medical schools want pre-meds who could have been the victim , but instead chose to be the victor . That's what I did .

I could have been the victim . I could have blamed any number of factors for why I couldn't succeed . Instead , we came up with the catchphrase know what ? You should just dominate . We said all this stuff as excuses . Instead , I'm not going to be the victim , I'm going to be the victor . I'm going to be so great they can't deny me .

I'm going to be a winner . I'm going to get into medical school . So we've got to move past our victimization . The third thing right , we're going to talk about how being a victim is easy . The other part of being easy is the status quo . How many of you guys ? I experience this all the time because I'm non-conventional .

Right , I'm unconventional , I am different . I'm different on purpose , right , because what I've found is much of what people teach is what is easy , what is low-hanging fruit . Right . My big example I use is learning styles . Oh , what's your learning style ? Thought this form give you a much better learner .

After you take this quiz , I'm going to tell you how you should learn best . But the reality and all the research behind learning styles shows that learning styles are not real . They're mythical . And identifying your current learning style does not help you become a better student .

It does not , because all it is is a preference , it doesn't have anything to do with your skill set . And so what we have to understand , guys , is much of what is brought to us in the popular culture , much of what is taught to us , is what is easy , what makes you feel good , because what is hard doesn't feel so good .

And so , for me , when I'm bringing students and I'm telling them hey , listen , everything you've thought you knew about studying is wrong . Hey , when I look at what you've been doing as a pre-med , that is wrong . It can hurt sometimes to hear those words , because you want confirmation . We all want to feel like we're doing the right thing .

But the problem with that , guys , is if you're doing the wrong thing and people continue to confirm and patch you on the back and tell you , hey , it's all right , you will never get on the right track . You'll never recognize how wrong you are . And so what I do is I bring that rightness . And so I'm not the easy path .

What I am is the hard path , because I'm asking you to change , I'm asking you to be different , I'm asking you to challenge yourself , I'm asking you to step up and be your greatness . I'm telling you that , whatever you're doing right now , you could be doing better , even if you're a straight , a student .

Could you get those as more efficiently , with less stress , with less effort , with less wasted time ? Could you have more time for friends and family ? Hey , listen , you know what You're getting the as you're hanging out with friends and family . Well , hey , could you make those friends and family connections stronger ? What could you do to be there ?

Does that make sense to everybody ? So we could always improve , and that's what my job is is to push you guys Past easy , past a status quo , as you guys are going to be . If you wanna be hugely successful , you wanna get into medical school . It requires greatness , and greatness requires growth , right , the seeds of greatness are sown in that growth .

If you aren't willing to step out of your comfort zone , if you aren't willing to truly push yourself and see just how strong you could be and to build up those mental muscles , you will never be the student you could be .

And so I encourage all of you guys be comfortable in the uncomfortable , step outside your circle , outside your box , and that is where your greatness lies . Stop being addicted to easy , to comfortable , because feeling good is not the same as being good , right ? So if the study strategy feels good doesn't mean it's gonna make you a good student .

Just because what you're doing as a pre-med feels good doesn't mean it's going to get you into medical school . We have to focus in and see the difference . We have to love the growth and the challenge of it . The fourth thing is something that Josh Sean brought up early . Right , misery loves company . This is actually added .

I was only gonna do a couple of these , but I added this one . I bumped into another one because my daughter taught me this yesterday . My daughter came home from school yesterday my daughter's six and in school they have a social-emotional curriculum , right ?

So they teach my kid not only academic stuff , but they teach my kid how to be socially , how to have a high emotional quotient , right , or EQ , and so forth . And so she came home and she's like hey , dad , did you know ? Negativity is like a cold . I'm like , wait what ? And she goes . Yeah , she goes .

We read a book today and it talked about how negativity is like a cold . It's contagious . So when you're being negative , it makes more other people around you negative and it brings all this negative cloud around you .

So if you don't wanna be negative , if you wanna be happy , you wanna be positive , you gotta think positive , you gotta talk positive and then more positive will come . I was like , oh my gosh , my six-year-old just brought something brilliant to me . How many of you guys are addicted to negativity , are addicted to pessimism ?

How many of you guys are addicted to Debbie Downers ? It makes you feel good that people tell you , hey , you're not gonna succeed , I don't worry about it . That was hey , hey , hey , hey , hey , hey , you were never gonna get in the medical school , don't worry . Oh , you know what a C is . Totally fine , right ?

How many of you guys are addicted to people who don't believe in your greatness ? How many of you guys are addicted , right ? You always talk negative about yourself . You always find , right , it's always glass half empty . How many of you guys are always speaking that ? How many of you guys when someone says something negative , right ?

There was a TikTok or something going around recently and I only ever see TikToks .

When I'm uploaded to TikTok , I'm at pre-med productivity , by the way , across all my social media , but this TikTok was like it was this guy drinking his coffee and it was like how I look when someone's talking negative about their wife and they expect me to join in , and that's how I am . You won't ever see anything about Shannon . She's the greatest right .

That's how you gotta be . It's easy when someone's being negative , when someone's complaining , when someone's saying whatever oh , this teacher's so hard . Oh my God , she's so difficult . This is so unfair . It's easy to be sucked into that and then you start complaining , you start being negative , you start being a pessimist .

Oh , this is Sula right , and it's one of the reasons . When my students start medical school , I always tell them rule number one of medical school don't hang out with the medical students . Run far , far away from the medical students . For me , I hang out with the business school kids , I hang out with the law school kids .

I hang out with the medical school kids . Why ? Because medical students are negative , because medical school is ridiculous Way . Medical school setup is not conducive to being healthy , to learning a lot . It's awful , it's independent study disguised and it's terrible .

And so it leads to a lot of frustration for medical students who wanna complain about the classes , about the teachers , about so and so . But I recognize that their negativity is contagious , like my daughter said , and so I said I'm gonna separate myself from that . How many of you guys are trapped in a negative bubble . Separate yourself , guys .

Find better people to be around . And if you can't find better people , go about your path by yourself for a while . There's nothing wrong with that . Sometimes you gotta walk alone before you find your pack right . You gotta be the lone wolf until you find your true wolf pack , a wolf pack of greatness .

We have the pre-med productivity posse , triple P , because we rise , we are productive , we are greatness . Together , we hold each other accountable , we lift each other up , we're there for each other , supportive , but we're like nah , nah , nah , we can't let that slide . You're better than that . Let's go step it up and that's what you guys want for your life .

So I encourage you guys . It's so important . Don't Let right and this is a purple line you said and people should never gossip about their own spouse shows life care , right , this gossiping . I don't watch housewife shows , why ? Because it's a bunch of women being negative to other women and what's really sad about society .

I'm gonna say something kind of crazy right now . You ready for this ? I Was just having this conversation earlier today with my medical assistant my anesthesia system and I was like he was asking me if I saw the marvels this weekend , I didn't see it . And then another system was like who's a woman ?

Was like , oh yeah , like I heard it bottom of the box office and I actually , right gives you all , I would like to read about stuff , right ? So I went and read the psychology behind this marvel thing and there was a great article and I should be able to share it . Put it below this video .

But there was a great article and it was breaking down the psychology of our society and what we see as macho , and so it was talking about how the marvels was already doomed to fail and how Wonder Woman failed and how Captain Marvel failed and how blue beetle failed .

And what it talked about was is that in our society , we have a perception of what machismo is right and what a superhero looks like , and when certain people who are certain colors , like in blue beetle right , we had a Latino superhero , right or when you look at marvels and we have women superheroes , people don't readily identify with , that it comes off as

unrealistic , and so , because of that , these movies perform Orer than the other movies . Right , black widow , all these movies , I'm talking about all these movies and the off track and what's crazy this is . This is I'm gonna bring this back around the housewives .

What's crazy about it was they showed this graph that broke down how women disproportionately , essentially have a bias against these female superheroes , and how the women write the turnout for moviegoers . Of course , you see men drop off , but you see women drop off at an even higher proportion when there's a female lead superhero movie , and I was like oh my gosh .

And I was like this is exactly what I've been saying for forever about the WNBA . I'm gonna say something else controversial I don't like the WNBA . I don't like it . I'm sorry , not for me . I love the NBA , but my whole thing is is Women need to support women and really lift each other up , and so one of the ways they could do that is supporting WNBA .

Why , right , why aren't there more attendees at these WNBA games we're all the women at , and it's the same with these superheroes . And this is what I think happens in these housewife shows is these shows promote women being negative to other women and it's a big gossip , big negative , big cat fight for 60 minutes and that's entertainment .

I think it's a really sad state , but it's what you know . It is what it is . But this is the kind of world that we live in and If you're not paying attention , these are the kind of habit loops and addictions we fall into . Is being that negative ? We see caddy as cool , right , we see all these things Don't ? It's not right , it's not cool .

I remember when I was younger and this still happens to have students tell me about it , but I remember people used to call me an Oreo Because I'm black on the outside , wet on the inside . I'm like , oh , why will you talk so white ? When I talk white , oh , you're a college boy . I don't know . This college only for white people .

Is Talking with the proper English vernacular ? Is that only for white people ? Is that they take the language ? But I thought was America that was also speaking English ? What's going on ? Right ? And so this is a problem . This is something , this negativity , this it's easy for people to try to be that to you .

So if you have people who want you to be less than , who want you to be Average or below average , or they talk about you in a negative way because you're trying to be your best self and you got to tell those people loose and don't even allow their comments to even get at you in that moment , you nip them up on the butt .

So whenever you say , oh , you're an Oreo , I say why ? And I walk them down . I chop them down on that Oreo comment because If I even allow that comment to persist , it goes into my headspace and I can't let that negativity around me . Yes , yes , y'all .

Yes , yes , I don't want to belive it this point anymore and I have 26 minutes on this dot right here . But it's so important , as all of you guys , as students , your assignment this week , before next week , is to sit down and make a list and say , hey , listen , what am I addicted to in my life , positive or negative ?

What you're going to find is most of your addicted to is actually negative , because those are the easy right . Most of the negative , all the bad decisions , feel the best right . Look at your addictions , look at how you spend your time and ask yourself how can I reverse this , how can I do something different ?

And I'll give you the example , for me right , of addiction to social media . I deleted that . I was addicted to being the victim . So then I stopped being bashful about myself . I stopped every time I have a negative thought about myself . I didn't really stop and I'd say no Positive , name a time where you weren't that negative thing .

When I'm like , oh , you know I could , I'm just not smart enough . Wait a minute , stop , let's go positive . What was the time that I was smart enough to get the A ? Oh , yeah , that time . Okay , well , if I was smart enough that time , why couldn't I do it again ? Okay , what happened when I got that A ? Oh , I worked hard , I read the material .

I actually studied . Okay , well , I'm going to do that and I'm going to get the A . And so every time I had a negative thought , I would cut it off and I would go positive For status quo . That's some of you guys right . I was a person who was like I'm setting my ways , I am what I am . Right .

I realized I had to grow if I was going to get to medical school , because I was down on track , I was failing . And so I said , wait a minute , this sort of study strategy , this new implementation , this , whatever this is hard , this is challenging , doesn't feel good .

But then I recognized and I juxtaposed and I said , listen , the way I've been studying , it feels good , but I'm not getting the grades . So does that really feel good ? Or how miserable do I feel when I get that F ?

And so I started reframing how I looked at the status quo as being easy , when actually I had that status quo as hard as a mother , because it was putting me behind , failing classes , having to repeat , getting me further away from my goal to medical school and getting closer to it .

And so it turns out , changing my study habits , changing my study strategies and doing what was uncomfortable and fumbly at first was actually the right thing Because , even though it wasn't the easiest , it actually was putting me on a path to make my life easier .

And all that right , fumbly , mumbly , with new study strategies paid off , because now I'm a doctor and my life's amazing . So I encourage all of you guys look at your life , look at your addictions and look at what you can break them , flip them , change the script on things . If you're struggling , if you're like man , what do I start ?

A phenomenal place to start , guys , is on my website the successful student mindset makeover . It's a three day course . It's super short , super quick , but super powerful . It's going to walk you through three things you can do this week to transform your mindset , to open up your eyes to your potential and the greatness you could have , and it's super affordable .

Guys , the link is right now , below in the description . Start there . Start there , transform your mindset and then from there we can transform everything about your life . Guys , are we good ? Do we have fun tonight ? I gotta go to study coaching right now . My study life . Get a better grades , coaching with my students right now .

But I appreciate you guys for hanging out . We are live every Wednesday at 4.30 . Tell a friend , tag a friend , share with a friend , have them , get here .

And if you guys have particular videos you're like a topic you want me to talk about , there's an issue you're facing , send me a comment on this video , send me a message , do something , get at me so I know what you want to talk about and we'll do a video on that Coming up next week .

We're going to talk about MD versus DO , because one of you guys said hey , listen , what about MDDO ? So I'm going to update that and give you guys the latest situation with MDDO and give you the facts of it and then help you navigate that decision making process . Everybody , everybody , have a wonderful evening . How do we always end ?

It's right on the screen now . No excuses , just dominate guys . Have a wonderful evening . I'll see you guys next time .