If you’re off course by 1 degree, it might not make too much of a difference in five minutes.
It’ll be a little noticeable in a few hours time, and after a few days signs will become apparent that you’re not exactly heading to where you want to be.
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The only way to keep on course is to keep your eyes on the prize, instead of falling asleep at the wheel.
It’s easy to get stuck in the rhythm of doing things because these are the things we do.
YOU SHOULD READ MORE.
I may be a bit biased as I’ve been reading a lot recently…
Actually I’ve been reading a whole lot, for the majority of my life.
In a one child household with no video game consoles, there was a lot of reading to be done.
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The following quote sounds a bit too good to be true, but nevertheless, you should READ
I’ve noticed a unique trend among my friends who’ve thrived in their 20’s and 30’s. These special people have continued to seek out challenging books and ideas, allowing their beliefs and opinions to grow and evolve. They’ve stretched their worldviews by traveling beyond the borders of their hometowns, many of them abroad for substantial periods of time. They took risks, flourished in foreign places, taken jobs outside of their original field of study, and shared late night meals with people different than them.
Click here to read about reading.
If you watched a movie about a guy who wanted a Volvo and worked for years to get it, you wouldn’t cry at the end when he drove off the lot, testing the windshield wipers. You wouldn’t tell your friends you saw a beautiful movie or go home and put a record on to think about the story you’d seen. The truth is, you wouldn’t remember that movie a week later, except you’d feel robbed and want your money back. Nobody cries at the end of a movie about a guy who wants a Volvo.
But we spend years actually living those stories, and expect our lives to be meaningful. The truth is, if what we choose to do with our lives won’t make a story meaningful, it won’t make a life meaningful either
I just finished listening to a sermon series by Steven Furtick called “Living a better story“. <— listen/watch here.
He draws inspiration from a book by Donald Miller called “A million miles in a thousand years”, where Miller outlines the basic concept of story.
You have a character, who wants something, and overcomes conflict to get it.
Sounds like a pretty good template for looking at a life as well.
Straight away from first principles we can isolate things that go wrong with our stories.
We might have the wrong character. Or even the wrong MAIN character.
What we want might not be worth enough.
And we might try and avoid conflict, when it might actually be the conflict in our lives that brings about the ending that we desire.
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Something that has been so helpful to me in the series is part 3, where he shares a message entitled “Cancel the audition”.
So often we live our lives lacking confidence and security, and seeking to impress someone. As a Christian sometimes it can be the same. I get that God is good. I get that I’m not. But it’s so easy for me to try and earn God’s favour. And it always ends up with an overwhelming feeling of inadequacy.
But that’s not it.
We were chosen by God to play our part in History (His story – cheesy I know) before we even did anything. So why do we try so hard?
Knowing we have God’s approval doesn’t mean we don’t have to try anymore, it just means we don’t have to “try out”. We’re free to live the part we’re called to play.
In a recent fit of reading, I’ve been voraciously devouring as many books as I can as a move to be a bit more literary, and as a small escape from busy-ness.
The Hunger Games trilogy, Ready Player One, Sun Stand Still, Quitter, The Name Of The Wind, The Wise Man’s Fear, and most recently Just One Look and the House of God.
The House Of God is a satirical look at the life of interns. It is raw, graphic and grotesque at times and deals with the psychological damage that comes with being an intern and the complex interplay between identity and responsibility. Written from the perspective of Roy Basch, a naive intern, it follows his journey through his intern year, introducing concepts such as gomers and turfing, and introducing the laws of the “House of God”, the hospital where the majority of the book is set.
I can’t say much of what is written reflects my personal experience in the health profession so far, but there are glimmers of truth and honesty in the hyper-saturated picture that he paints of the hospital.
GOMER is short for “Get Out of My Emergency Room” and refers to patients who are bounced back and forth between the hospital and their nursing homes.
It is a harsh description, and reflects a defence mechanism maintained by a lot of medical staff. It is easier to think medically when you’re not emotionally involved with the patients. It’s wrong, and it’s something we see so often, and we are guilty of so often. As medical students it is so easy to get carried away with examining patients as cases instead of people, and we are all guilty of it at one point or another in our careers.
I think back to pre-OSCE time last year, when we headed to the wards hoping to find some hearts to listen to. Not hoping to help in the patient’s care by providing them with human interaction – something that can be very therapeutic in the sterile and clinical hospital.
14. Spend less time looking at other people’s work and more time shooting your own.
Click here for the rest (Eric Kim via Apartment Therapy)
I had another shift at the Emergency Centre on Sunday PM, and for the first time in my career I saw first-hand what a miscarriage really means for the family.
In films it’s overdramatised, and everyone looks glamorous with a single tear rolling down their face.
When taking history from patients, they might mention having a miscarriage a few years ago with nothing more than a slight pause before moving on, time slowly working through the scars.
But during the moment. There is nothing so raw as the woman’s grief. The man who doesn’t quite know what to do with his hands as she cries out from contractile pain. The nursing staff trying to maintain their composure and the doctor- the doctor processing the entirety of the bio-psycho-social model of health and it’s relevance to the patient at hand, running through the procedures and ensuring the patient has adequate analgesia.
Like everything, this place of life and birth and celebration is tinged with the scar of hurt and separation.
‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Revelation 21:4 (NIV)
Today is the 9th day in a row where I have been at the hospital for some reason or another, and in the 24 hour blocks that we call days, I’m going to be there for the next 3 days as well.
It’s been interesting seeing how my perception of time changes depending on where I am, and not having the typical “Rest” I associate with weekends has been challenging, as I’ve been forced to find rest at other times during the week. But again, things are well.
An SMA and CMDFWA meeting last night, and further clarification of events that are coming up, as well as delegation and a balanced workload have allowed me a bit more time for study and organisation. Coming home from IMPACT conference was good, but now it means I’ve got to knuckle down as we finalise our own conference back here in Perth.
Apathy is a good friend when an opportunity stares you in the face and you’re afraid to actually find out what would happen if you tried to follow through with a dream job or a desire.
I’ve been reading Quitter again, I picked it up where I last left off, and it’s been really challenging. As a reminder, or a new introduction for new readers, it’s written by Jon Acuff of stuffchristianslike.com and he writes about the generation that we are, a generation of people who believe that quitting our jobs will lead us to happiness in the next job. And, he proposes that the best place for us to start working towards our dream job, is actually by taking hold of where we are right now.
For me personally, I really enjoy being a Student Doctor, but I don’t enjoy being a Medical Student. It’s hard to find motivation when the study is endless, and the hours are daunting, but I won’t be a good doctor without being a good student first.
My goodness. Jayesslee collaborating with Cathy Nguyen in the offices of Wong Fu. It’s a bit of a YouTube worlds collide.
An oldie, but a goodie. Don’t think it ever got radio-release though.
