Category Archives: blogging

sustainability – hiatus

It’s come to that time of the year, with two months on the clock before our first exam, I have to take a hiatus from the blog. I thought I’d be able to maintain my microblogs every day through out the exam period, but this week particularly has just knocked the wind out of me in terms of physical energy.

And as much as we try to separate ourselves into physical, mental and spiritual, a deficit in one will have an overflow effect into the others.

So the new goal is sustainability – living a lifestyle that glorifies God and at the same time honours him completely in the bio-psycho-social model of health. 

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A friend of mine has recently made the same decision, for the same reasons. Medicine is a taxing course, and these are the most important exams in our degree.

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I hope that my consistent blogging has brought some encouragement to you, whoever you are or wherever you’re reading from and I’ll be back at the end of November with a backlog of ideas for blog posts and exciting news about my elective trip and the future of our Church, SMA as an organisation and other things.

Take care, and God bless.

reblog: Seth’s Blog: As if your life depended on it

Seth’s Blog: As if your life depended on it: “Art is best done all in, as if everything is on the line. When the little hairs on the back of your neck stand up, you know you’ve commited to whatever it is you make.

Marketing strategy and communication, on the other hand, is best done with discernment, a strategic game to be understood and tested. The more you need to (must!) succeed at bringing the idea to market, the less success you’ll encounter, because your fear will come through.

Patience, awareness and skill matter, and you are best at this if you are prepared to fail without dying.

So, go do your art and make a difference. But don’t expect to be good at marketing if you have only this one and only moment to do it.”

self-doubt and insecurity = pride

It’s pride because it means you think it’s all about you.

More here.

This, is something that I didn’t realise I still thought. I am still sort of okay with having self-doubts and insecurity, and being comfortable with this. But as stated in the linked article… what we’re all about is the fact that we’re not adequate. But God is.

Our self-doubts are all about self-centredness.

work and buffer

wjko

I saw this on a blog and thought it was worth a reblog.

There’s a lot to be said about using your time and money effectively, and I remember having a conversation with a friend of mine years ago about living with buffer (or margin.. I forget which word we used).

But effectively, living with constraints actually frees you to react. If you can be disciplined enough with your time and money, you actually open up the possibility of previously unseen opportunities.

If you’re 10 minutes early to an appointment, that’s 10 minutes of mental health you’ve gained, and allows you time to prepare for whatever is coming next.

If you PLAN buffer into your timetable, doors will open.

story

Donald Miller is better at writing about this concept, but: what makes a good story also makes a good life.

I think I need to remind myself of this again, but we aren’t called to live lives that are without conflict. Without pain. Without consequence.

Because without conflict there would be no victory.

Without pain there would be no healing.

Without consequence, there would be no motivation.

For me personally, there is a lot of conflict going on right now, and I am doing my best to ask God to help me to see it as an avenue for His victory.

experts

Here’s a quote from the Melbourne Museum:

Are experts born or made?

How do experts in their various fields acquire their extraordinary skills? Is their expertise due to natural talent or intensive training and work?

Experts package large amounts of information into meaningful chunks that they can instantly recall for use when needed. It takes about 10 years of hard practice to become an expert in any field – either sport, music or mathematics.
The most important factor in becoming an expert is motivation.

Experts are made, not born. 

back

it’s good to be back in Perth.

After a week-long break in Melbourne, it’s good to be back and ready to start studying for Medicine again.

This is a poor post, but I actually can’t believe it’s the end of June already…

follow up: composure

As a followup from yesterday’s post, here’s the quote in it’s entirety. Thanks to a friend of mine for posting it.

“I believe a man is a professional when he can do what needs to be done no matter how he feels within. An amateur is an amateur in his attitude emotionally… It has nothing to do with their knowledge. I’ll show you many amateurs with far superior knowledge and ability than top professionals.”
- Cus D’Amato

secret sauce

This is a bit of a re-blog week, but there’s been a lot of good reading that I’ve been doing! Apple’s secret sauce

Think of APPLE as an acronym. Each letter corresponds to a step.

Approach customers with a personalized, warm welcome. Every customer should be greeted by an employee who is friendly, passionate and committed to customer service.  A customer’s perception of their experience begins to be formed in the first ten seconds of an interaction. Make those seconds count.

Probe politely to understand all the customer’s needs. This simply means to ask a series of closed and open-ended question so you can match the customer with the right product, not the most expensive product. In the Apple Store, a closed-ended question elicits a simple yes or no such as, “Will this be your first Mac?” An open-ended question is more general and gives the sales associate (specialist) more information to guide the conversation. For example, “What will you be using the iPad for?”

Present a solution for the customer to take home today. Apple likes to remind its store employees that they are not in the business of selling computers. They are in the business of “enriching lives.” A sale isn’t the only way to enrich the life of a customer and to build loyalty. For example, a customer might be frustrated to walk into an Apple Store expecting to see a technical specialist (a “Genius”) only to be told they need an appointment at the Genius Bar. A trained specialist would offer an alternative solution such as, “We have appointments available tomorrow. May I sign you up or show you how to reserve an appointment on our web site?”

Listen for and resolve any issues or concerns. Customers have what are called “unexpressed” wishes or concerns. Specialists are trained to pick up on these concerns during the ‘probing’ step, which is why it is important to ask good questions. For example, some long-time PC users might be reluctant to learn a new operating system but they don’t necessarily express that concern. A specialist who uncovers this information might spend more time describing One-to-One, a unique program for Mac customers who want to learn more about the computer in one hour face-to-face sessions with a “creative.” The program, which a customer can purchase for $99 upon buying a Mac, is good for one year and includes a transfer of data from a PC to Mac. It was intended to build a customer for life and often does just that. It’s also a good recruiting tool. Many people who work in an Apple Store were One-to-One customers.

End with a fond farewell and an invitation to return. How a person feels when they end a transaction significantly impacts how they perceive the brand and whether they are likely to recommend the brand to others. For example, a creative teaching a workshop might say, “I really like the presentation you’ve started with Apple Keynote. Please drop in again when you’re close to being finished and we’ll give you more tips on how to refine it.” Even after a purchase, it’s not uncommon for a specialist to give a customer a business card should they have more questions. Above all, give your customer a reason to return.

This has some merit somewhere in my life.

this december

On a more personal note, this December I’ve been accepted to spend a one month elective doing Ophthalmology at Cao Thang Eye Hospital in Saigon, Vietnam. There’s been a lot of drama trying to get our medical electives organised because there’s always the risk that all your planning will go to waste if they reject your application, or timetables will clash, and the looming threat of supplementary examinations that mean cancelled elective terms…

Context: as a 5th year medical student in the MBBS course, we are required to do a 6 week placement either locally, rurally or internationally in an area of our choosing at the end of the year, and are expected to write a report detailing our trip and how it broadened our perspective on medicine. Or something to that extent. People usually use the time to pursue and area of their interest, or to do something completely out of their comfort zone, that they’ll probably never be able to do again in their medical careers. I have chosen the former.

It’s a huge blessing to be able to go to Cao Thang because it’s internationally accredited, they’ve taken a medical student from my university before, and also because it’s in Vietnam… and I happen to be Vietnamese.

I’m not sure what shape my blog will be in if I’m going to be overseas, but we’ll see how that goes when we come to it!