Wise Wednesdays

It’s Wise Wednesdays! It was a month away from the end of my twelve year career in the National Health System. I hadn’t applied for a job and wasn’t planning to…A colleague looked at me and said: “How can you stay so calm?” Well, I had the benefit of 20 years of training in containing a fiery Algerian temperament within cool British social norms… Although, granted, the younger me wouldn't have smiled back so easily. Several acute medical jobs, a humanitarian mission, a Master’s, a PhD, several public health policy positions and a lot of meditation and coaching hours later, I had a strong sense that everything was going to be OK. I didn’t have to jump through the hoops of a job or climb the ladder of a career that didn't work for me, anymore. You could say it was irresponsible of me; or from another perspective, that I didn’t really have any big responsibilities, so no one would be affected if it all went wrong. But I had put a lot of thought into it. After a visit to Alask...

80,000 hours in a career... How do you make difficult choices about how to spend your 80,000? How do you make difficult choices? Do you list the pros and cons and choose through logic? Do you launch into research mode and consult? Or do you bury your head in the sand waiting for something to happen on its own? Last week I gave a lecture to a group of bright, young dentists at Health Education England (the organisation responsible for the continuing education and training of doctors and medical professionals), working part-time in clinical practice and part-time in management and leadership roles on public health and service delivery projects. I shared insights from navigating my own medical career going from hopeful medical student to stressed out hospital doctor to finally working on global health programmes. Inevitably, the question of choice came up…When you have so many options with no certain outcome and a lot of discomfort along the way, how do you even begin? ...

Most of us have trauma around wanting things. As life goes on, we accumulate experiences of frustration and “failure” that can replace youthful enthusiasm with cautious cynicism. Along my journey, I’ve noticed that my persistent, frustrated desires have been my greatest teachers. Today, I have the honour and privilege of working with service-driven, high performing professionals who, after much conventional achievement, start to feel that something more is possible. Like I did. Like Dr S, one of my current clients, who shifted her trajectory from a purely medical career to building her dream travel, photography and coaching business. She inspires a rapidly growing audience of over 18,000 on social media to reach for their own dreams - something that was but a frustrated desire a few months ago. Which brings us to the distinction between: “Wanting more” versus “wanting more”. “Wanting more” is when our desire for something intensifies so much that it turns into an ...