Hurrah to rest :)

It seems a little bit odd for me to be sitting here at the balcony of our hotel typing on Blogger thru my iPad right on top of and almost beside the blue clear resort pool and the gushing waves of the blue sea. My wife is attending her lecture, the kids are already having their classes so they were left home, and here I am alone in the room just pondering on what to do.

It's a bit odd coz just days or even hours ago, my mind is filled up with so many things to do and self guilt as to why I'm not accomplishing everything as planned out. Is it my old habit of postponing things again at the helm? Hmmm, let me work at why I don't think so...



So far, I was already able to take a step forward as far as medical pursuit is concerned. Had already fulfilled & submitted the requirements to be a member of the prestigious American College of Physicians. And as of last week, I had received an official email from them confirming me now as an official international member. :).

It was not just the title I was after. What lured me was the perk of being able to access all the full text journals of the Annals of Internal Medicine (whether past or present) and their other resources which certainly would help me a lot with my practice and in my teaching. So far the past few days I had been actually been busy downloading some PDFs which some I had come to and were indeed very good material. I hope that as I intend to share them with the medical residents, they would have the enthusiasm to appreciate them and use them in their training.

As for my online marketing ventures,  I was able to get involved with a low entry network marketing company with good products which is also backed up with huge online resources to boost its marketing and pay plan. I felt it was a good fit for my brother in law and my wife's secretary whom my wife and I are trying to help. So we got them in and in the past few days had managed to enroll too my other 2 sis in laws and placed them in my bro in law's downline. I missed attending their online marketing seminar this Saturday and missed clinic too but in exchange was able to attend my niece's daughter's birthday and saw our son dance with her.

Enough mumbling.....it's now time to go back inside, rest so I could clear my mind for the following days and be more in tune with my life purpose (or maybe in tune with the latest hits on Myx or what's up at HBO). I believe I should take heed of what Tim Ferriss says, "Less is not laziness". Doing less meaningless work so you can focus on things of greater personal importance, is NOT laziness. Focus on being productive rather than busy.

I have a full week ahead once we get home but for now it's rest time......... :) Why slave, rest, and retire when you can do the mini retirements and enjoy things at the moment . The next few posts will be about achieving results by not necessarily being busy.

Hurrah to rest!!

"By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may eventually get to be a boss and work twelve hours a day..."   -   Robert Frost          (tsk tsk tsk)

Giving back part 1

Since it's Sunday anyway, I want to share a very nice story I'll always remember, including what Mr Bo Sanchez  has to say about being God's good business partner. :)

The Story Of A Generous Business Partner

One day, a very wealthy man was walking on the road. Along the way, he saw a beggar on the sidewalk.
The rich man looks kindly on the beggar and asked, “How did you become a beggar?”

The beggar said, “Sir, I’ve been applying for a job for a year now but haven’t found any. You look like a rich man. Sir, if you’ll give me a job, I’ll stop begging.” 

The rich man smiled and said, “I want to help you. But I won’t give you a job. I’ll do something better. I want you to be my business partner. Let’s start a business together.”

The beggar blinked hard. He didn’t understand what the older man was saying. “What do you mean, Sir?”

“I own a rice plantation. You could sell my rice in the market. I’ll provide you the sacks of rice. I’ll pay the rent for the market stall. I’ll even give you food allowance every day for the next 30 days. All you’ll have to do is sell my rice. And at the end of the month, as Business Partners, we’ll share in the profits.”

Tears of joy rolled down his cheeks. “Oh Sir,” he said, “you’re a gift from Heaven. You’re the answer to my prayers. Thank you, thank you, thank you!” He then paused and said, “Sir, how will we divide the profits? Do I keep 10% and you get the 90%? Do I keep 5% and you get the 95%? I’ll be happy with any arrangement.”

The rich man shook his head and chuckled. “No, I want you to give me the 10%. And you keep the 90%.”

For a moment, the beggar couldn’t speak. When he tried to speak, it was gibberish. “Uh, gee, uh, wow, I mean, huh?” He couldn’t believe his ears. The deal was too preposterous.

The rich man laughed more loudly. He explained, “I don’t need the money, my friend. I’m already wealthy beyond what you can ever imagine. I want you to give me 10% of your profits so you grow in faithfulness and gratitude.”

The beggar knelt down before his benefactor and said, “Yes Sir, I will do as you say. Even now, I’m so grateful for what you’ve done for me!”

And so that was what happened…


He Forgets Where The Blessings Came From
Each day, the beggar—now dressed a little bit better—operated a store selling rice in the market. He worked very hard. He woke up early in the morning and slept late at night. And sales were brisk, also because the rice was of good quality. And after 30 days, the profits were astounding.

At the end of the month, as the ex-beggar was counting the money, and liking very much the feeling of money in his hands, an idea grew in his mind. He told himself, “Gee, why should I give 10% to my Business Partner? I didn’t see him the whole month! I was the one who was working day and night for this business. I did all this work! I deserve the 100% profits!”

A few minutes later, the rich man was knocking on the door to collect his 10% of the profits. The ex-beggar opened the door and said, “You don’t deserve the 10%. I worked hard for this. I deserve all of it!” And he slammed the door.


If you were his Business Partner, how would you feel?
Friend, this is exactly what happens to us…
God Gave You Everything
I’ve got an announcement to make: God is your Business Partner. And your Business Partner gave you everything.

God gave you your life—every single moment, every single breath, every single second… God gave your talents—your ability to talk, to create, to earn money… God gave you your body—your eyes, your ears, your mouth, your hands, your feet, your heart… God gave you your mind—your imagination, your emotions, your reasoning, your language…

In the Old Testament, your Divine Business Partner only asks that you give 10% of your profits.
But I’ve noticed that many don’t want to tithe. Because they feel they own everything they earn.
Big mistake.

Some Christians believe that they don’t need to tithe because it’s an Old Testament Law. They say that in the New Testament, God tells us to give as the Spirit of God leads us to give.
I totally agree. But does that mean we should give less than the Old Testament?

The story I gave you above is the Old Testament Version.
Let me share with you my second version…

Here’s The New Testament Version

In the New Testament version of my story, it begins in the same way. The rich guy tells the beggar that he wants to do business with him. And after the beggar gets flabbergasted, he asks, “Sir, how will we divide the profits? Do I keep 10% and you get 90%?”

Instead of the rich man saying, “Just give me 10%,” he says, “You decide how much you want to give me. Give according how grateful you are.”

Wow. Tell me. Will that guy just give 10%?

Here’s my interpretation: Giving 10% is the starting point of grateful giving. A lot of people think that 10% is the maximum. I don’t think so.

I believe 10% is kindergarten. 10% is like a kid’s bike with training wheels—it’s for someone who doesn’t know how to be generous yet but would like to learn. And as you learn to give 10%, God will teach you to give more generously.

Do You Want Blessings To Flow?It’s easy to give once in a while.
Even a selfish man can do that.
But for happiness, life, blessings, and abundance to flow into your life, you need to give faithfully.

More to follow on the next charity topic post...

Opportunites to give back:

100% of your support will go to ANAWIM, Mr Bo Sanchez's work for the poorest of the poor, Tahanan ng Pagmamahal Orphanage, Pagasa ng Pamilya Scholarship Fund for Poor Children, Grace To Be Born Half-Way House for Pregnant Women in Crisis, He Cares Streetkids Ministry, Shepherds Voice media evangelization, Light of Jesus Family and Counselling Center, and other KERYGMA FAMILY work.
http://www.kerygmafamily.com/modules/subscriber/donations.php

World Vision invites people to share the same kind of love that can change lives—lives of children in need. With a very small act of kindness these children will be able to look ahead to better lives with better opportunities, all because you willingly opened your heart and share love! Start saving someone for as little as P20 a day.
http://worldvision.org.ph/


UNICEF Champions for Children is a community of individuals whose regular contributions enable a growing number of Filipino children to enjoy the right to education, healthcare and nutrition as well as protection from neglect, abuse and exploitation. 
http://www.unicef.org/philippines/supportunicef.html

The awakening

After I had finished my residency training in Internal Medicine year 2000, my blueprint for success was to start a good practice in a place where I grew up (so that people already knew me), accumulate patients with time ( yes, when people like you they refer others to you), and in a decade or two, enjoy the good life. It's that simple...Besides, it's what I see with my colleague mentors in their 50s while I was training. They are literally flocked with so many patients, they drive with flashy cars, and their kids are mostly also taking up medicine. Yes, that should be a doctor's status quo.

My first few months in my practice was spent more on reading pocketbooks and playing cellphone games. I would arrive early and sit down in my cubicle, wait for patients to come. I thought it's as simple as placing a signboard infront. Anyway my veteran partners in the clinic (who happen to be an OB-Gyne and Pediatrician) are being swamped with so many patients, maybe 3 or 4 might get "lost" and knock on my door. It was hard, it was depressing counting the nailheads on my ceiling while waiting for my lunch hour and "go home" time while my partners are counting their patients (and their pesos at home). It's a good thing I was single then and got to keep some savings while I was a resident MD with a fixed stipend. Literally I was a bum and I still depended on Dad.

To cut a long story short, I accepted a teaching job in the college while sitting in my clinics on the side. In 2-3 years, my practice began to build up, I was able to build up my savings, got married & got kids. And the patients began to come by.. Yes, two important virtues came in...patience (for me) and the patients' trust on me.  My income stream was becoming more steady and we were being more comfortable...at least that's what we thought..

It was my 4th year of private practice as an IM then, I was relatively doing well. Yep, I had some money in my savings account in the bank and my wife who’s a newly graduated pediatrician was just starting out her practice, when it suddenly hit me early dawn of December 16, 2004. I had atrial fibrillation with rapid ventricular rate, was confined in a local hospital (AUFMC), stayed there for a week, had CT angiogram and other expensive tests in Manila, and was placed on “house arrest” by my cardiologist for roughly more than a month. There were frequent withdrawals from the bank account then and by the time, I was able to resume my practice, there were many backlogs with our credit card payments and we were below the minimum balance.

 Though some may not relate to my experience, the fundamental truth remains….if practicing as a medical doctor/ specialist is your only bread and butter, you’ll eventually realize the pitfall of this glamorous (yet noble) profession especially when you get sick…….. NO WORK, NO PAY. 

 My wife and I were blessed to discover thru my brother an eye opener book “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki 2 months after that awful experience and indeed, our perception of wealth changed and suddenly after all these years of “work hard, earn, save, and spend to look rich” would definitely be a thing of the past for us.

 Since that time, I had been reading lots of books and articles on building true financial and personal wealth and had been setting and tweaking goals with my wife. Our objective is to have multiple sources of income from other avenues not only to secure ourselves’ and our kids’ future but more so, to pay back to GOD and forward to fellows in need. Eventually, our practice in the future as doctors would then be mainly for what it is intended to be as a noble profession, as charity work for the sick. Being “ma kwenta on your PF” should be something we should leave behind.

So with respect to this, I learned from Mr Kiyosaki from his book "Cashflow Quadrant" that there are basically four different methods by which income or money is generated.

As quoted in his book" Different methods of income generation require different frames of mind, different technical skills, different educational paths, and different types of people. DIfferent people are attracted to different quadrants. While money is all the same, the way it is earned can be vastly different. If you begin to look at the four different labels for each quadrant, you might want to ask yourself, "Which quadrant do you generate the majority of your income from?" 

I'll be going into this further on the next post.

"Watch, listen, and learn. You can't know it all yourself...Anyone who thinks they do is destined for mediocrity."  -  Donald Trump

The day after I arrived back

One thing I do not like with being away from your normal work routine ( in our case, out from the clinics and hospital) even if to take a short vacation (as side trip with your out of town seminars) would be the accumulated load you are facing head on once you've arrived back.

I had actually requested a colleague with the same specialty I have to relieve me in my clinic to make it easy for my patients to cope in my absence (especially to aide them with their medical needs while I was away). I arrived late Sunday.

I was however still deluged yesterday (Monday) with patients in my OPD consults that I finished quite late (past 9 pm). I asked my secretary why this is so, "Didn't the patients who came in during the days I was gone consult my reliever?" Her answer was a "no", they said they would just come back when I arrive.

I felt quite flattered with this due to their overwhelming trust but then again I began to sigh, "What would I do, it'll be our annual convention in Manila next week (for 4 days)? We are also like students, we are having our attendance checked for our CME units, and being delinquent will deter our chances to secure that certificate of good standing which we need badly as a requirement for accreditation as a Philhealth medical provider (Philhealth happens to be the National Health Insurance Program here in the Philippines). So being absent there and staying in our clinic to see patients ( yep  our patients would prefer this) and earning too ( yep I would like this :) ) is really not an option.

That's what makes us doctors (some employed, especially the government workers and most the self-employed specialist) different from the enlightened entrepreneurs and the investors when it comes to providing services and building wealth. We may have comparatively greater income/ professional fees than a laborer and maybe some professionals but we do have to be always physically present to earn our daily bread. And the image patients have of their doctors are that they should be and look well-to-do.

Many patients would even equate the doctor's clinical competence with how he/she dresses, the car he uses when he comes to the clinic/ hospital, and even where they live. It would be rare for a class A or B patient to entrust their medical condition to a dude who rents and lives in a socialized housing community and who commutes to his clinic with a plain T shirt and jean type trousers to boot. Nope, that's why physicians also invest in their appearance and over all appeal so they make good impressions too to everyone. And yes, that involves spending for it. 

In my next post, I would like to share something I read a few years back with regards to the four different groups of people with regards to wealth generation. Why did I bring this up when we are talking about the noble profession of medicine? That would also be answered in my next post...

" A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone."--  Henry David Thoreau, naturalist

Eliminating a bad habit

Speaking of diet, I had read of an article in Medscape stating that red meat intake increases mortality risk. From the study, it was estimated that 9.3% of deaths in men and 7.6% of deaths in women could have been prevented if all participants consumed fewer than 0.5 servings of total red meat daily. Estimates were 8.6% in men and 12.2% in women for deaths from cardiovascular disease (CVD). You may read the article here...http://bit.ly/IkxYaB.

Tsk tsk tsk, it gets harder and harder everyday. Sooner or later with the researches they keep on bringing up, all the good and savory foodstuff that makes you pig out with the gang will soon be prohibited.

Joking aside, there are so many supposedly bad habits we have to get rid of or correct and we do know that if we succeed in eliminating them, we could have reached our goals earlier. Let's take smoking as an example, whenever I talk with my patients and discourage them from smoking again, they would automatically tell me it would be very hard to impossible coz they had been smoking for decades and they would end up crazy if they did this.

But when my chain smoker patients end up in the ICU for an acute MI or an attack of COPD ( chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), it's so clear that they could not touch even a single stick of cigarette for the next few days/weeks while in the hospital and...they will still keep their sanity. No wonder those discharged from medical confinement are more likely to succeed in quitting smoking than the outpatients. My observation is that it takes a strong situation or an intense emotion to make a radical change in one's habits.

A technique I learned in eliminating a bad habit is not by focusing and thinking about it. Even if you say "I will not eat carelessly red meat in large amounts" a hundred times and concentrate on avoiding it, at the end of the day, these two words will still stick with you.....RED MEAT.

Rather, we should affirm something positive (when out of the way from indulging in red meat). Something like "I enjoy eating green leafy vegetables and fresh fish and salmon", " I eat wheat bread and lots of fiber", "I grow leaner and leaner everyday", "I begin to look fit and attractive", "I have good endurance and health because of the food I eat". Creatively visualize each scene...savor the taste of the veggies, salmon, and the freshly baked wheat bread...run a kilometer in your mind without catching your bread...make the opposite sex look and admire you when you walk amongst them.  This affirmation technique should be done 5-10 minutes 3x a day and live by them. Focus on the good benefits of the alternative route.

A bad habit is the by product of loneliness & lack of trust in God's love and is really a poor exchange for something bigger, better, and right for you.    - Bo Sanchez

So put your habits in alignment with your goals and dream it.

Happy dreaming!