www.emergencyone.com.au
Last night I did something a little kookie and new ageish. I wrote down a list of the things that I wanted to achieve for 2012. Not surprisingly I came up with wealth and success....but here's the kicker; when I stopped to define what wealth and success meant to me I got the following.
Wealth: family, love, excitement, fun and learning. If I can have all of these things in abundance I will be the wealthiest man I know.
Success: achievment of my ambition and fulfilment of my potential. If I can do these two things with dignity and humility, then I will be the most successful man I know.
As for money, well that just frees up time for me to pursue the true definition of wealth and success....
When I was discussing my ambitions with my wife the other day (many of which have nearly nothing to do with being a doctor), she asked me if I hated medicine. Frankly the answer is no. I love medicine. I love being a doctor.
But I define being a doctor as helping people, healing the sick, teaching others, leading my community and improving the experience of human kind. Then I ask myself how much of that I do in my daily work.....
Don't get me wrong, I like my job and I feel a sense of moral obligation to serve my lot in my local community; but I fear that our society has created a system which devalues the doctors role down to administrative pen pushers and walking script pads (in fact a nurse told me that to my face today). Vital tasks indeed, but certainly not the altruistic goal that plays on the mind of every first year medical student.
I realise that much of this is in no small part the result of being an intern and the bottom of the pecking order, but I sometimes question if it actually gets better as one rises through the ranks. It would appear 'zum augenblick' that there's just a lot more meetings, more report cards, more budgets, more administration.
As an aside, I have a mentor at the moment who's kind of my hero. I won't mention his name for fear that I will inflate his ego....but he lets us take care of his patients as equals, then he double checks our work to make sure there's no mistakes, then he sees the patient himself as a doctor. Not in a fashion that's condescending or distrusting, but in a fashion which shows that despite his rank, his primary aim in life is to be an excellent clinician. If I can be half of that person when I reach his rank, then I will be successful.
At any rate, I've decided to start my own business in order to become a better doctor. In order to interact with my customers in a meaningful way that leaves them feeling that their money was well spent and their trust was justified. I've started my own business to free up my time in order to build the wealth and success that I've defined earlier. Next year I will serve 3 months as a doctor in Nhulunbuy in Arnhem Land where I hope I can begin to fulfil my potential as a doctor. Then 2013 or so, I think I will spend some time with Medecins doing something that helps improve the human experience. It's terrifying. But it's worth it. And its possible because of business.
PS: Hi Jussie and Carmel's mum, I hear you've been reading this, thanks for the support!!
www.emergencyone.com.au
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