Acceptance? Pragmatism? . . . or Resignation?
How do we tell the difference?
We can tell the difference by how we feel and how free we are to explore alternatives. Why are there so many obstacles that stop us from seeking richer, deeper, more fulfilling ways of being a physician? These blocks—like the Doctor OS—have inner and outer contributions. Can you hear yourself in any of these things I've heard from other doctors (and sometimes said myself) over the years?
What's the point? There's no hope of changing the healthcare industry, so why bother? Better just to fly low, and curb expectations.
Doctors are marginalized for calling out the contradictions between healthcare's priorities and medicine's or describing how the contradictions cause mortal distress. Speaking out or trying to change things can be a career-ending move. Better to stay under the radar, try to ignore this.
I knew this path would be hard, and I took an oath to put patients' needs above my own. Better to suck it up and just stop whining.
Yes, I was so hopeful as a premed about what I'd be able to accomplish as a doctor, but by the end of residency, I saw how naive my ideas were. Better to just grow up and forget about all that.
If there's no data to support an idea, it's probably not trustworthy. I don't have time to waste on that. Better to just pass.
I should be able to figure this stuff out myself—that's what doctors do, right? Make decisions. Better to not waste my time or money.
Everyone else seems to be getting along and accepting reality; this is a personal problem. Better to not tell anyone else about it and risk looking like a fool.
The problem is that there's just enough truth in them to obscure what's not. To see the holes in these arguments and truths hidden in plain sight, I found I had to step completely outside my habitual (OS) thoughts and assumptions, and get off my known map. Only from this place could I have a dialogue with these daunting ideas, these edifices.
Imagine Metamorphosis Medicine as a toolkit, an ever-expanding collection of strategies, practices, tools, experiences, and content, some original and some curated, to help doctors make a new, distinctive map, break out of self-imposed limitations, and reveal how to navigate the outer ones in ways that clarify and express your unique vision and desire for this work. Begin harnessing the remarkable, proven power of incremental change (think of water dripping on rock) to create individual and collective shifts. Align with the authority of your amazing through line, which is like an evolving personal myth: it's a source of fire. Address your well-being in ways that help you stand more clearly in humble and wise partnership with your patients as they endeavor to do the same. The healing begins here, with each of us.
For 2024, I'm working on four amazing, small group, weeklong Intensives to take a component of the Doctor OS and rework it. We'll delve into topics like
Intimacy in medical encounters to discover alternative ways of negotiating this to increase the potency and reward of our healing presence.
Finding our guides to support us when we address the epic questions we have as doctors and stay true to our path, way beyond mentoring,
Finding calm in the storm, accessing tools beyond objectivity and emotional distance to manage chaos and critical situations, and
Initiation—recognizing our place as heirs of the lineage of medicine which is as old as humankind and the responsibility our acceptance of the call confers on us to create the contemporary expression of it.
If these ideas stir something in you, raise questions, or refresh a sense of possibility, let's talk and explore the details of embarking on this journey. Dare to imagine. Dare to ask for more from this calling.
