When a Doctor chooses to share or use what she knows when caring for her patients, we call her “clinically competent”, a good Doctor, and give her a round of applause.
But when that same Doctor dares to use what she knows to care for herself…patient #1…we call her selfish, “weak” and give her heaps of guilt and condemnation.
And the excuse for this behaviour is: well, that’s the life you signed up for in Medicine. That’s life as a Doctor.
This isn’t what you signed up for. And even if we’re in a bad place right now, that doesn’t mean we have to stay there.
We can choose to make things better.
We can choose to “show them our secret.”
We can choose to get more sleep.
We can choose to love ourselves.
We can choose to respect ourselves
We can choose to leave toxic work environments and corrosive relationships.
We can choose to seek out positive work environments and up building relationships.
We can choose to spend more time with our family and loved ones.
We can choose to back away from the ledge and reject the shame that scares us from seeking help.
We can choose to get more sleep.
We can choose to make more money.
We can choose to have money work for us.
We can choose to reinvent ourselves.
We can choose to figure out who we really are and “do that on purpose”.
We can choose to be defined by more than our job title or the sacrifices our parents made to put us through medical school.
We can choose to ignore sunk costs.
We can choose to avoid death bed regrets by “choosing to avoid daily bedtime regrets.”
We can choose to eat healthily.
We can choose to travel the world.
We can choose to make a dent in the Universe.
We can choose to spend our 120,000 hours differently.
We can choose to practice our chosen profession differently.
We can choose to practice a different profession differently.
We can choose to be joyful.
We can choose to be silly.
We can choose to be powerful.
We can choose to be intentional.
We can choose to change our minds.
We can choose to think like an entrepreneur.
We can choose to try something different.
We can choose to be in the spotlight.
We can choose to step away from the spotlight.
We can choose to level up.
We can choose to start over.
We can choose to dance with the things we’re afraid of.
We can choose to pursue a life of meaning rather than be chained by the trappings of “success”.
We can choose…to share the intimidating brilliance of the spark we each carry.
We can choose to share our spark, and let the world deal with the consequences of our unique brilliance.
After all, that’s what we desperately want for our patients.
But no matter how much we tell them what they should do, they’re only going to get it when they see us lead by example.
Patient: Where’s Doctor Susan?
Hospital: She quit last month to go start a vegan restaurant downtown.
The greatest act of service that you can do for your patients…and the world at large…is to dare to share your spark in all its fullness.
And even though your status quo doesn’t want you to, you still need to share it.
That’s what you were born to do.
Image: Gapingvoid