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)

On leadership and dreams

Now, I would like to share some highlights of Dr Sanjiv Chopra's lecture during our annual PCP convention held May 6-8, 2012. Dr.Sanjiv Chopra is a Professor of Medicine and Faculty Dean for Continuing Medical Education at Harvard Medical School, and Senior Consultant in Hepatology at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts. He has several publications and five books to his credit and we were lucky enough to have him personally speak to us.

Based on a talk that he has given to more than 60,000 people in at least seven countries, Dr. Chopra explains in depth what leadership by example is about.

It is based on this mnemonic:
L - listen well
E - empathy
A - attitude
D - dreams and decisiveness
E - effectiveness
R - resilience
S - a sense of purpose
H - humility and humor
I - integrity and imagination
P - principles, and willingness to pack other people’s parachutes ( willingness to help)

He had spiced up the talk on the lives of the great leaders of history as he goes along each letter. There were short excerpts from Mahatma Gandhi and his salt march, Mother Teresa, and many other personalities. I would strongly recommend his latest book which had just been released for publication this May 2012 and which is where his talk is elaborated on.

But one thing that made its mark was on his story about a boy's dreams and decisiveness (D). There was a classroom teacher who gave out an assignment to his grade school students. They were told to make a short essay on "What I would be doing in 15 years".

There was this boy born from hired laborers in a farm who made his piece, the composition was so illustrated and well thought of.....I would own and be managing a 30 hectare farm, I would fill it with about 100 apple and mango fruit bearing trees, in my farm is a ranch with a huge stable where about 50 horses are taken cared of, in the farm is a huge picnic and playground where kids from nearby schools could visit for a trip and frolic around, there would also be a huge mansion and it went on and on complete with colors and even the scent of the grass etc.

The next day, he submitted it to his teacher. The teacher stared at the home work for about 30 minutes frowned and shook his head. When the paper went back to the student, he saw a glaring red F mark on it. Determined, the kid went back to his teacher and asked why. The teacher reminded him to take his assignment seriously and not "play" with it.

The kid gave the paper back to his teacher and said, "You can keep the F sir, but I will keep my dream..."

Many years had passed and the teacher who was still working in the same school was now handling a group of children excursionists in this famed 50 hectare farm. The day was almost about to end but they still barely reached 1/4 of the lot area in their tour. But they would be lucky enough to get to meet and talk the owner before they leave. The teacher was dumbfounded to discover that it was the boy he mocked 15 years ago. He was now in his early 30s. The boy who immediately recognized his teacher gave him a tight hug and said, "I hope sir you enjoyed your stay here". The teacher was in tears and he just could say, " I am so sorry for what I said to you many years ago, I would never again become a dream stealer"...


Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.   -  Les Brown