Without Resilience, I Might Never Have Made It Through Medical School

In this series, professionals share what they'd do differently — and keep the same. Follow the stories here and write your own (please use #IfIWere22 in your post).

When I was 22, my whole life was planned out. I was succeeding as a student at the All-India Medical Institute, expecting to graduate at the top of my class. Everything was on track, and frankly, if 68-year-old Deepak showed up to give advice, I would have ignored him, assuming as the young and cocky do, that he'd be better off heeding my advice.

What I didn't know at 22 was how soon and how drastically life can go off track. I went into my oral exams with the challenge of diagnosing a patient on the spot being given no advance knowledge. My patient turned out to have quite a rare condition, and I nailed it. Unfortunately, the judge for the exam came from a rival medical school, and he failed me on the grounds that I had cheated — someone on the faculty of our school must have leaked the diagnosis of such a rare disorder to me. It was only by dint of much begging that I was allowed to retake the exam and given a simple "pass."

Graduating from medical school

There were other mishaps. When I showed up for my first surgical rotation, I fainted at the sight of blood. As I collapsed, my foot hit the plug for the surgeon's electric cauterizing instrument, which shorted out. I was banished from ever returning. Then my plans to come to America for post-graduate student were threatened when the Indian government forbade anyone from taking the required test to enter the U.S. as a physician. 

My 22-year-old self needed to hear something important. Being on track is rarely workable. Setbacks, swerves, and curves await everyone. He needed to pay attention to something foreign to his nature: resilience in the face of difficulty. This means the ability to bounce back emotionally, to take no obstacle as a sign of one's inferiority, to establish a strong sense of self that external circumstances and other people cannot undermine.  

Young Deepak managed to lick his wounds and make it through, but he did it, I am sorry to say, because some people have invincible cockiness. The cost was protracted immaturity. It would be 15 years before I actually discovered what emotional resilience and a mature self feel like. It would have been good if someone had tapped me on the shoulder a lot earlier.

Deepak Chopra, MD is the author of more than 80 books with 22 New York Times bestsellers. He serves as the founder of The Chopra Foundation and co-founder of The Chopra Center for Wellbeing. His latest book is The 13th Disciple: A Spiritual Adventure.