*Post 9 in the 30 Posts in 30 Days Challenge

Sometimes it feels like we live in such a strange world. We’re expected to know so many things about ourselves, particularly about our futures, before we even know where to begin.

One of those key moments is when we graduate high school. At this stage, we’re often expected to know what kind of job or career we want in the future, and pick a post-secondary education that works toward it. The strange thing is that we’re expected to know these things usually not really knowing what it means to do that kind of job. It’s hard to know if you’ll like something until you actually do it. I mean we can estimate and predict, but the certainty doesn’t come until you actually get the job, and by then, you’re pretty invested and it can be difficult to leave.

In medicine, that situation doesn’t end when you get in medical school. Once you get into medical school, you realize that you have to apply for residency in a few years, and for very competitive specialties (such as dermatology, plastic surgery, etc.) that means knowing early on that you want to pursue those areas so you can build your resume and put together a good application several years down the line.

In going through medical school, it has taken me more than a year to figure out what I want out of medicine, and it certainly isn’t anything close to what I thought going into medical school, and not even close to what I imagined when I first thought about medicine many years ago. It has also taken me a bit of trial and error, and doing some things I in retrospect didn’t want to do, to figure out were I’m supposed to be. But that’s okay, because sometimes trial and error is the only way we figure things out.

And I don’t expect my attitudes or desires to not change and evolve – maybe they won’t, but I need to be willing to adjust my goals and expectations as need be. Things in life don’t stop changing, and often the same applies to our thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs.

*Post 8 in the 30 Posts in 30 Days Challenge

I’ve started a new project recently that requires me to learn how to use a tool I’ve never encountered before. Learning something new is always exciting.

What’s challenging is troubleshooting – trying to solve problems in a world you’ve never been in before. Usually when I’m stuck I end up Googling and Googling until I find an answer. The beauty of the Internet is that someone out there has probably created a webpage about exactly the solution you’re looking for. The problem is that you might have to go through hundreds of webpages to find it.

However, what’s even more useful help is simply someone who already knows how to navigate that environment. Why? Because not only can they solve your problem right away, but they can explain it to you, and answer your questions.

It is almost always much faster to learn from an individual than to learn from a book. Think about the last time you had trouble with math. Was it easier consulting a textbook or asking a friend? Chances are you immediately asked a friend without considering a textbook.

The same goes for so many things outside of school. The fact is that learning from someone who actually knows that field is just way easier and more helpful a lot of the time.

However, the reality then is that your help network is only as big and as diverse as your social network is. The more people you have that you can ask, the more likely you’ll find your answer. And the more diverse your network is, the more likely you’ll be able to find someone who can solve your obscure problem.

*Post 7 in the 30 Posts in 30 Days Challenge

I remember in high school and university hearing about the importance of developing “organizational skills”. To be honest, I don’t think anyone has ever really taught me what that even means.

It’s only been recently when I’ve been in small group situations that I’ve realized how important (and advantageous) it is to be organized. It makes the work you have to do so much easier.

Write stuff down!

One example I’ve come across recently is brainstorming for a project. People get excited, throw around ideas, and discuss them. But far too often it’s purely a discussion and things don’t get jotted down – trust me, jot them down! It’s so easy to forget awesome ideas that it really pays to write everything down.

Sometimes I will be walking down a street just thinking to myself and some great idea will just come to me. In the past I would remind myself to come back to it later, but I’ve come to learn how dangerous relying purely on myself is (haha). Now, I instantly take out my smart phone and send myself an email or something, just so I remember to record the idea later.

Write plans

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*Post 6 in the 30 Posts in 30 Days Challenge

If you’re a business owner, it’s not hard to motivate people to do their work. In fact, they often do it no questions asked. Why? Well, if you’re being paid to do a job, and you need that job, you’re going to get your work done.

It’s different when you’re working with people who are volunteering their time. If you’re reading this blog, chances are you are a student who is involved with student clubs, community work, and non-profit experiences. If you are a student leader, you’re often going to come across the challenge of motivating your volunteers to be active and complete their tasks.

At the end of the day, the leader is going to be the most invested and held accountable for the results – that’s why being a leader is so tough. If you’ve seen Donald Trump’s reality show The Apprentice, you know that the project manager for each week’s competition is always one of the individuals on the chopping block. If anything goes wrong, the leader is always going to be one of the people held accountable.

Of course, the success of any team depends on the cohesiveness of the entire team. As we all know, when you’re a volunteer with nothing really to lose, it’s easy to stray off path and get lazy. So when you are working with volunteers, how do you keep them motivated and on task?

I was talking about this very idea with Shelly the other day and she told me about a friend of hers who coordinates a large student program. One of the things he did was spend some of the budget on getting all of the executive member volunteers “business cards”. I thought this was a fantastic idea because it 1.) makes the positions seem very legitimate/professional to the executives, and more importantly, 2.) it makes the executive feel like a real part of the program, and most importantly, 3.) it makes the executive member feel invested in the program. I mean you have a business card for gosh sake, are you really going to slack off and do nothing?

We see similar concepts in business. One question often asked when starting a company and looking to build the team is, should I offer someone a salary or should I offer them equity in the company (i.e. a share of ownership in the business)? The advantage of offering someone equity is that it makes them invested in the company – their individual success (i.e. the value of their equity in th business) is dependent on the success of the business. If the business grows, so does the value of their equity in the business. This means that they have an incentive to work harder and be committed. On the contrary, someone who is paid a salary has less incentive to work harder and be invested in the company.

So the next time you are having trouble motivating people, ask yourself, can I make them invested in any way?

*Post 5 in the 30 Posts in 30 Days Challenge

Last night I was at a workshop delivered by two family physicians who both have long and distinguished careers as leaders in healthcare, from having executive positions in the college of physicians to running hospitals. One key piece of advice they provided was to be an expert in follow up.

What is follow up? I’m not completely sure, but I think it has to do with checking in with people (both yourself and others) and see how progress is going. It means seeing if people are on pace and holding them accountable for their goals. Follow up with others is by no means an easy subject – sometimes it means getting on someone’s back for not getting the job done. That’s never fun, and not particularly easy, as you can imagine. Follow up also means re-evaluating your own progress and making sure you are on pace so you get a good example.

What do you think the phrase means? What does it mean to you?

*Post 4 in the 30 Posts in 30 Days Challenge

A friend and classmate of mine asked me the other day how to know if it’s okay to joke around with a supervising physician. I think it’s both an interesting and important question because it begs an even larger, more universal question when it comes to dealing with authority. How do you know what’s okay to do around a boss or a person of authority in your life? Of course, no one wants to irritate someone in charge. So how do you know what’s okay and what’s not?

A brief story

One day I was with a physician for the day just observing and learning. Like any other medical student, I want to be professional and respectful. What that means is my smart phone almost never leaves my pocket until the day is over.

About half an hour into the day, we were just sitting around in his office. I could tell quite quickly that he was a nice, chill, and laid back guy. At one point, he took out his smart phone and started texting with his wife. I then took out my smart phone and started texting myself. The rest of the day went fantastic and I think we got along very well.

If it’s okay with them, it’s probably okay with you

Your first reaction might be that I took a pretty big risk, perhaps even foolish and could possibly have been interpreted as unprofessional. Rest assured I don’t do things like this likely. It was a decision I felt reasonable comfortable with based on everything I knew. I had built a pretty good rapport with the guy so far, I could tell he was very laid back and chill, and I’m finally getting to my main point of this post: since texting was okay with him, I felt comfortable assuming he’d feel it okay with me.

Of course there are exceptions (this is not a perfect rule, don’t go out abusing it!), but in many circumstances, the best way to know whether certain actions are okay with your boss is simply to observe your boss first. If your boss makes a certain kind of joke, chances are he would be okay with you making that kind of joke. Would she be okay if you ate food with your hands? Probably, if she was doing it already.

There are also some advantages to doing this. One is that sharing something in common builds rapport. Secondly, performing a similar action provides validation to the your boss that his actions are acceptable and reasonable – that it’s okay for them to do what they’re doing.

If I sat stone faced, twiddling my thumbs, while my supervising physician was taking a bit of a break to text, it’s conceivable that he might have felt embarrassed and began to question the appropriateness of himself texting in the situation. But if I do the same, then he’s not leaving me hanging. In his mind, it validates that what he’s doing is okay.

Again, you need to look at this on a case by case basis, but I think it’s an interesting concept to keep in mind and apply if the situation is right.

I stared at my screen for a long time tonight trying to figure out what angle I wanted to pursue for my keynote at the upcoming Science Expo conference.

Eventually, I came to a revelation about myself. A eureka moment. A concept that will be the basis of my talk. A random spark of creativity that I sat here all night waiting for.

And it’s wonderful that it happened, but I can’t help but ask myself – how did it happen? Where did this idea that I never considered before suddenly come from?

I’m trying to recall what I was thinking at the time that led to it. Why? Because I want to recreate that moment again – I want more sparks of creativity!

But how I got there has eluded me. And maybe it’s supposed to. It’s called sparks of creativity for a reason, right?

Epilogue

Oh right, you probably want to know what suddenly came to me. Crap, I can’t say. Saving it for the talk! See you there? =)