“If a person is breathing, they need encouragement.” ~T.C.
Over the next few months my hope is that as Physicians reading this book, regardless of specialty and busy schedules will take a moment each week and handwrite a personal note to a colleague, coworker or a Patient.
This small, random act of kindness may take the form of a blank card, a piece of stationary, a thank you card or a greeting card.
It can be something simple. There's not a template here. As long as what you write uplifts and encourages someone.
Every hardworking healthcare worker could use a little encouragement or a note from an old friend or a fellow colleague.
Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fil-a once said “If a person is breathing, they need encouragement.”
Chances are pretty good that if you’re reading this, you’ve not written a handwritten note to a friend, your spouse, a patient or a coworker in quite a while, if ever.
I'm here to tell you that the evidence is in your favor here.
According to the New York Times, June 2023 in an article entitled Gratitude Really Is Good for You. Here’s What the Science Shows by Christina Caron. In the article she writes “Two decades ago, a landmark study led by the psychologist Robert A. Emmons sought to understand how people benefit from gratitude, a question that scientists had rarely explored until then.”
Meaning, 'gratitude is good for the giver.'
Author and communicator, Jeff Henderson in his book What To Do Next: Taking Your Best Step When Life Is Uncertain, said it best when he writes “The best form of momentum is a more emotionally healthy you. In fact, the more emotionally healthy you are, the better investigator you will become because you can spot the momentum in your life easier.”
I know this idea may appear soft and vulnerable to some of you. I know most of people working in healthcare will dismiss this as a good idea but you just don’t have time to for it.
As Henderson writes “The scariest place to be is the same place as last year. No growth, no challenges. Just the same.”
Don't Do Nothing.
Every day we get private messages, texts and phone calls from Doctors all over the country (e.g. United States mainly, but on occasion, a few other countries too!) telling us that they are just plain burnt.
“If a person is breathing, they need encouragement.”
That's a terrible place to be. They've often lit the candle at both ends and not only are they frustrated but they're relieved that maybe, just maybe, they've found a potential business model or a lifeline [in Concierge Medicine; VPN; DPC; etc.] that could have a significant impact on the rest of their career and future in medicine.
In a profession that’s tough, albeit impossible, let’s provide a little encouragement to those around us. Let’s not let another day pass without dropping a note in the mail to a colleague [or Patient].
Steve Green in 2014 said something really great. He said ... “Encouragement is never small when you’re on the receiving end.”
What are you waiting for? Grab an envelope, a card or a piece of stationary and a pen and get started.