Accidental adversaries

Solidify your dreams or succumb to team work, trade-off between health and wealth, both we cannot achieve without a strong system.

I have always worried, practiced and thought of becoming a better doctor everyday. I have always focused and invested in books and journals yet there are hardships because I tried to make it on my own. Not that I did not learn from others, it was hard because there always is a team to manage. My personal growth mindset condescends the collective achievement. When we consider other people, we are bound to slow down and let others also do the work. It is very hard to allow when you are more talented or more hard working. It seems like we are finishing our purpose and ambitions just to give place to others and act only when we are asked for our help.

For a person like me it is a nightmare. Even then the things are the way they are. And therefore I write, I write to free my internal self doubts, to wane out my insecurities and to get the clutter out of my head and rationalize. This leads me to concentrate on writing a book for medical students or write blogs for those who bother to read. I also think about more research and academic work. This makes me feel that I am a part of the game and not merely a spectator of faults, flaws and laurels earned by others. Writing and reading makes me more resourceful and more busy. Otherwise, I dread thinking that I am here only for the background work. Although I enjoy the background work only, I have never missed opportunities to come to the forefront. What I do is, I fill up the purpose-process gap lately. If my purpose is to write a chapter, I take ample time to make it look close to perfect. I use networking to gain insights about changing the process of my work according to the needs of the team, and not only my own growth. I do not encroach upon other people’s work and concentrate on mine. This conflict shall remain, balancing my and their goals. I care so I do consider others. But this is not the point, it is only to understand that if all of us use 30% of our creative potential, massive progress can happen, and great results achieved. Sometimes if we choose ourselves over others or the other way; the team more than us, accidents can still happen with either choice. My agony reduces when there is equal opportunity for all in the system and not a monopoly. A small department can work without unnecessary burden on one or two people. I think that is the system. The entire team has their part to do instead of haphazard work where all members function sub optimally with confusion and chaos everywhere. A system works for itself, it becomes that solid and strong that it may change only with one or two new discoveries with an add on effect instead of detrimental. Such accidents shall not be considered adverse and minor faults are absorbed by the system, not preventing the extrapolation to a bigger picture. Still it continues unto boredom and talent waste because of non cooperation by the team members to work as a team and not individually.

My mind runs with solutions, but I let go. Something off beat came-up while writing this post. Not common yet in India especially for the doctors and other health cadre involved in a system, the hospital, medical college, clinics, laboratories and other such health facilities. This non conventional solution to improve one’s growth is to exercise.

The hack is to move your body after every hour of work, can climb upstairs or walk in the gallery. It doesn’t make us thinner neither stress free, but it will postpone the development of chronic diseases associated with a sedentary lifestyle. It might be a high profile job requiring academic work, but if we keep stuck on to that chair, we are doomed. Our potential to excel shall cease. We can achieve fat pockets but not health.

This might seem insane in universities and colleges that keep us busy, but nevertheless important. The physical, mental and social misfortune can affect us adversely if we do not move. Let us not make our work plan an accidental adversary. So what can be advised is to take the stairs, 10 minutes of jumps and stretches after an hour long work, strolling around to talk to people placed in other cabins and so on. Just move after every hour. We shall concentrate better after 10 minutes breaks between every hour. Where we stopped can continue with a better zeal and more would be remembered out of incomplete works of the previous hours. This is the Zeigarnik effect. It works for me.

We can start a trim and fit program also instead, we can hit a nearby sports center and get a break of 45 minutes for each faculty after 5 hours of work, compulsory for their physical activity…..just a thought. I said compulsory because people do not like to waste time on exercise during working hours, and may deviate themselves from actual work. This 45 minutes limit compensates as an adequate time for work and play. We can prevent the hemorrhoids, obesity, Musculo-skeletal disorders, hypertension and diabetes and so on with this small half an hour of moderate activity and maximum 15 minutes of commuting that does not have to be around lunch time only….

So these have been my thoughts resonating with me these days, as something can be done to prevent the aftermaths of an unhealthy sedentary lifestyle for most doctors of the world.