Seth Godin recently posted a 45 minute master class session on his blog that is well worth the 45 minute investment! He discusses the barriers that keep us from taking risks and being successful. He is primarily talking about "business" but many of the concepts that he presents apply equally as well to overcoming the difficulties that you are facing in your personal life. If you want to leave a legacy despite the challenges that you are facing, grab a cup of coffee, pull up a chair and listen to this:

After listening...

Melanie Thomas put this show together. She has some tremendous photos that I just saw for the first time today. Mel was a wonderful member of the Medical Teams International team that was on the ground in the early response to the earthquake. She spent a bunch of time at King's Hospital sorting out the supplies and organizing the supplies that came in. She is one of the type of people that doesn't scramble to get in the limelight. She just gets busy doing the tasks at hand. Wow, did she work hard! She was such a blessing to the team! The show that she put together will move you and bless you. After watching it, please consider the questions that I've posted for you by clicking "read more" below.

Here are a couple of questions to get the discussion going:

A couple of months ago I received a call from the folks at Apple because they wanted to do a profile vignette about how I use the iPhone in my practice. I had a great day with their team. They met me at my house at 6:30 AM and followed me at my practice all day long. My patients and staff were gracious and willing to pitch in. We finished the day at about 10:30 PM. I'm impressed with Apple's commitment to excellence and willingness to go the extra mile.  If you would like to meet some of my patients and see our clinic, CLICK HERE.

Just wait 'till you've watched the video embedded in this blog entry. I've watched it a couple of times now and the more I ponder it, the more significant I think it is. At first, it made me laugh. I had to. I couldn't help it. But, carry it around in your noggin for a couple of days and you might start to think differently about the impact you could have at work if you were fully engaged.

(Thanks to Futurilla for the photo.)

Peter Bregman, on his blog at Harvard Publishing, wrote an interesting article entitled "Why You Need to Fail".  I encourage you to read it. He quotes Dr. Carol Dweck, professor at Stanford University, on her research into why people give up VS why some folks press on and overcome.

"If you believe that your talents are inborn or fixed, then you will try to avoid failure at all costs because failure is proof of your limitation. People with a fixed mindset like to solve the same problems over and over again. It reinforces their sense of competence."

In 1933, during his inaugural address, Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

He went on to say, "Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men."

Believe me, she can teach us a lot....She is a destitute girl from the village of Don Bosco near Barahonna in the Dominican Republic. She doesn't have many things but she does have joy. Go ahead and stare at her long and hard but have the guts to ask yourself why she has joy. We tend to think that we would be happy if things were just a little bit better. I remember when I was "15 and 1/2" and I could hardly wait until I had my license. In the midst of our jobs we often think, "Everything would be just great and I would feel joy and fulfillment when _____ happens."

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The British Medical Journal just published an article entitled "Dynamic spread of happiness in a large social network: longitudinal analysis over 20 years in the Framingham Heart Study". Author James Fowler and his associates found that happiness is contageous... very contageous. In fact, happiness is contageous up to three degrees away from a happy person! In other words, when you are happy you will have an impact on the friends of your friends’ friends!
We saw a similar, albiet more acute, impact of happiness following Hurricane Katrina when we were working at the Medical Triage Unit located in the parking lot outside of the New Orleans Convention Center. I've previously described Augie's story (read more and see his picture) and the impact that that he had on all of us. He was the type of person that smiled with his entire body. When he smiled, everyone within a 10 foot radius smiled with him. In these days of both economic and healthcare challenge it will do us well to remember that we, as individuals, have the possibility to impact the system at large. What type of a legacy will you leave?

If you are feeling burned out and unappreciated, this story might just change your perspective and give you hope. You know, sometimes the strangest things can happen when you are not expecting them. Call it just serendipity, but when people are living their lives in such a way that they put others first, "things" just seem to "happen". Take this interview with Danny Vaughn for example. He was on a trip to Malawi, Africa to work with some orphans and destitute kids with a non-profit organization called Children of the Nations. Take a look then read on.