Leave A Lasting Effect

“You should celebrate each day that you’re able to leave a lasting effect. It means that even as you get older, the universe will someday be a little bit better because you’ve lived in it.”
- Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and host of TV’s “Cosmos”

 

When my father was in the hospital at New Hanover Regional in Wilmington NC recently, I had the opportunity to walk around the hospital campus and visit two of their specialty hospitals:  The Oaks and The Coastal Rehabilitation Hospital.  My visit to those two facilities was not just idle wandering but personal reflection:  You see, I opened The Oaks psychiatric hospital in 1987 and was their Administrator for 8 years.  I helped design and build The Coastal Rehabilitation Hospital which opened in 1995.  Both hospitals are still going strong, regional referral centers for psychiatry and for physical rehabilitation & stroke care…much has changed, but the foundation we established way back then still thrives.  And the funniest thing was as I walked the halls, everyone said “Hi, Bob!” as if I’d never left…although I hadn’t been on campus since 1998. 

This is the one of the greatest rewards of doing what I do:  To see that, in some small way, I was able to have a lasting effect, that patients in coastal N.C. could enjoy quality behavioral health and physical rehab because of actions we took over 20 years ago.  And YOU have that same opportunity, don’t you?  The opportunity every day, every patient, every encounter, every activity to have a life-changing impact on someone’s life.  Don’t take that opportunity lightly:  “…the universe will someday be a little bit better because you’ve lived in it.”  So ask yourself: 

·         What legacy do you hope to leave behind? Are you doing what it takes today to ensure this is how you will be remembered?

·         Who are some of the individuals that have made a better world for you? How did the way they lived their lives make a difference in your own?

·         How can you personally thank those who have impacted you directly?

Jobs Are Like Girlfriends.

When I got to be dating age, my Dad gave me a great piece of advice:  “You will never have a bad girlfriend.  You want to know why?  Because ‘good’ or ‘bad’, you will learn something of value from every relationship you ever have.”  And it’s true:  Harriett taught me about Judism, Trish turned me on to sailing, I found out I like photography from Susan and Alina taught me about love and the importance of family.

I applied the same logic to the various jobs I’ve had:  I’ve never had a bad job—even the ones I hated—because I learned something of value from every one of them, something that I could use in my next job.  When I was 12, I wanted to buy a guitar.  My dad said, “You want a guitar, go earn the money.”  So I started cutting yards around the neighborhood.  I learned salesmanship by having to talk folks into letting a 12 year old cut their yards;  I learned customer service by finding out if I didn’t do a good job the first time, I didn’t get a second chance;  I learned if you want something, you have to earn it.  And I learned I didn’t want to cut lawns for the rest of my life. :-)  I saved up $40 dollars and bought a guitar, learned to play, eventually joined a band.  The band taught me teamwork and how to stand in front of an audience and not be scared and the importance of professionalism.  I paid for college by bartending and waiting on tables for long hours and little pay, but I learned about how to support co-workers and how to lead a team and how to manage a business that relied on customer support.  And all of those lessons I still use on a daily basis.

 

Scott Griffith, the Chairman and CEO of Zipcar, said:  “You have to think about the kind of person you want to be when you’re done with this experience. Think about coming out of this a different person than you go in.”  So….

What have you learned from your job?  How does that make you a better person, both at work and at home?
 
When you hit a significant roadblock in your personal or professional life, how can your past career experiences help you push through?
 
How does collaborating with others on the job present an opportunity for you to learn new things about yourself as a person?
 
How do you use what you have learned to help your patients?