We hear more every day about burnout. I see it in the practice of medicine. One can point out some obvious reasons:
- Loss of esteem by the public, being challenged by patients with Google degrees.
- Loss of control over our practice, our records, and our compensation by unqualified bureaucrats.
- Remaining in the cross hairs of malpractice attorneys and courts that award plaintiffs based on pity rather than actual medical error.
My brother, Lucky, practiced Emergency medicine for nearly a half century. I continue to practice full time, over a half century. His specialty of Emergency medicine tops the burnout rate for doctors; my specialty is not far behind.
The obvious reason we persevered could be that we just didn’t have any better sense.
Or, perhaps there is an antidote. Decades ago, Lucky encouraged me to emulate him. I pass this on to you.
Train yourself to anticipate a blessing when you go to work. Better, anticipate both being a blessing to someone and receiving a blessing from someone. You needn’t be a person of faith to employ this. If you wish, call it ‘good fate’ or ‘good karma.’
Let me give a metaphor: a child goes out every day to play in his back yard. It is a blend of habit and fun. Sometimes, out of boredom, he changes his playing.
Now, that child goes out in that same back yard, knowing that, today, there is an Easter Egg hunt. Same child, same yard, but now there is the happy anticipation of grand discoveries. Somehow, both child and back yard are changed.
Of course, back yards have bugs and dog poop. That is the nature of the back yard. That is also the nature of our work. But now, both our work and that back yard become the repositories of a gift waiting to be found. The inconveniences are overlooked.
Let your day enter your perception like an Easter Egg hunt back yard. To find an Easter Egg, you must be vigilant. Same thing with blessings
– Dennis Garvin