Everyone Wants the Glow Up. Very Few Want the Grind.

When people message me asking how I matched dermatology, or how I built a platform, or how I suddenly seem confident, I smile a little because the truth is so unglamorous that no one really wants to hear it. The secret is consistency. Not talent. Not genius. Not perfect scores. Just showing up again and again, especially on the days when no one is watching.

Medical training teaches you this in the harshest, most honest way. You don’t become good at procedures overnight. You don’t master differential diagnoses in one lecture. You don’t suddenly wake up confident on rounds. You earn every tiny improvement by repeating something until it no longer scares you.

In my first year of med school, I used to envy the students who seemed to “get it” with half the effort. But somewhere around second semester, I realized something: the people who finished strongest were never the ones who started with the biggest splash. They were the ones who just… kept going. The ones who didn’t crumble after one bad exam, or disappear for a week when things felt overwhelming. They didn’t move faster. They just didn’t stop.

Consistency is a superpower because it doesn’t rely on emotion. You don’t have to feel motivated. You just follow through. You make the quizlets. You attend the review sessions. You rewrite the notes. You show up to clinic ready to learn even if you slept five hours and spilled coffee on yourself in the parking lot.

At first, consistency feels boring. But then something wild happens. The boring things become your advantage. While everyone else is burning out from sprinting, you’re still moving. Small steps add up. Before long, you’re ahead without ever trying to “go big.”

The same truth applies outside of school. Want to be confident? Practice being confident every day until it feels normal. Want better scores? Study a little every day instead of panicking once a month. Want connection? Reach out to people consistently instead of only when you need something.

Success belongs to the people who keep nudging the needle forward a little at a time.

You don’t have to be loud, perfect, or brilliant. You just have to be steady. And if no one has told you this yet: steady is more than enough to change your life.

‍