Your Vision is the Key to Reclaiming Joy in Medicine

My heart is filled with gratitude returning from the Vision Retreat organized by Dr. Una. Although it is designed as a business retreat for physicians, I always take away something that applies to my life in general.

Having a vision of what you want is important. Put your worries aside. Put your belief of “I don’t think I can” aside. If you had your way, what would be the dream business and dream life to have? If you choose to stay employed, there is nothing wrong with it. The important thing is to ask yourself what you truly want – not what others think you should have. Do not be limited by what you think you can achieve. Imagine if no one visualized an airplane to be another vehicle to travel – we would still be traveling by car or by boat if we wanted to go halfway around the world.

Visualization relies a lot on your imagination. Your mind can come up with the most creative things – if you let it. You have probably heard, and I will say it again – there is no imagination police. Dream big. If you are a physician seeing patients eight hours a day and using three extra hours to finish the patient charts and phone calls, imagine that you get to leave work by 5 pm with everything done. Not bringing any charts home. Not logging in at night. Not answering patient phone calls after hours. Imagine that new you. Is that what you want?

Our mind is interesting. While your imagined vision is what you really want, the intellectual part of your brain is coming up with all the reasons why you cannot have what you want. What you want is impossible – look at what you are doing now. How is it possible to reclaim 2-3 hours of your time? Your brain is trying to resist the vision that is “too good to be true”. It is trying to protect you from disappointment of not achieving what you want. Instead of encouraging you to figure out how to get to your vision, it is stopping you from thinking further by bringing up the “how” aspect of things. Yes, you want this and that – how are you going to get it done? If you knew exactly how, you would have reached your goal or your vision already. Your mind sometimes goes even further by using your past as the “proof” that it is not possible to get to your vision. It tries to convince you that you have tried “everything” and nothing seemed to have worked.

How do you align your desired vision with your mind so that they can work together to get to where you want to be? First, having a clear vision is important. A vision that is not tainted by thinking about the “how”. A vision that is in tune with your values. Sometimes, we have lived in an environment that is restricted by ideas or people around us for so long that we do not remember how to think for ourselves. What do you really want? If you do not have a crystal clear vision of what you want (yet), it is alright. It is helpful to think about what you do not want.

Once you have that vision, as clear of a picture as possible, think of a time frame to get there. Once again, your brain may encourage you to think about the future as something that is far away. If you are not fully convinced that you will achieve your vision, you will probably set the time to be five or even ten years from now. What if you can achieve it in three years? Depending on what vision you have, set a time frame that is even shorter. For example, if you are planning on losing fifty pounds, setting a goal of three years to achieve it is not very helpful. How about in six months?

Who do you have to be to achieve your goal or to live the vision you desire? One of the take-home messages I received in this retreat is that we have to be the kind of person to do what needs to be done to have what I want to have. What characteristics would that person have? Probably someone who is focused, determined, who is curious and willing to try new things, who is courageous and is willing to get back up when something is not working, who is persistent and willing to do uncomfortable things. Who do you have to be to get closer to your vision?

Lastly, take action. What is the next move to get you closer to your vision? This is the “how” part. Now that you have identified what you want, believe that you can get what you want, and become the person that will get you to your vision, what are the actions to take to get there? For a physician who wants to reclaim two to three hours of their after-hours work time, it may be working on minimizing distractions or asking for help from a coach. For someone who wants to lose weight, it may be examining what they are eating and what to cut down in their diet.

A clear vision directs you to take actions to achieve that vision. It is important to have a pretty clear vision of what you want and what you do not want (and not what you think you can have). Dream big. Believe you can achieve that vision. Ask yourself who you need to be to do it. Then ask yourself what is the next step to take to get you closer to your goal. There may be some trials and errors. There may be some setbacks – those are times you need to believe in achieving your vision. You do not have to do this alone – you can ask for help.