“Perfection is the enemy of good.”
–Voltaire
Regarding the invention of the electric light bulb, Thomas Edison famously said: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Can you imagine a world where Thomas Edison looked at his pile of failures and decided to give u...
“The Hospital Will Not Love You Back.”
–Vagabond MD
During a physician meeting, one of my partners began talking about physician satisfaction. He said it in a very matter-of-fact way. He spoke about how our current way of doing things affected physician satisfaction. As he spoke, I beg...
“We’re afraid that the feeling of joy won’t last, or that the other shoe is going to drop. We think, ‘I’m feeling good, this can’t be right; something bad is going to happen.’”
—Brené Brown
Foreboding Joy. I didn’t make it up. I had never even heard of foreboding joy until I read Dar...
“Discomfort is the currency of your dreams.”
--Brooke Castillo
According to Google, comfort is a state of physical ease and freedom from pain or constraint. Just reading that makes me feel more relaxed. Comfort is quiet, warm, and cozy. It is security and the sense that everything ...
“When I argue with reality, I lose—but only 100% of the time.”
—Byron Katie
Control is an illusion. We all know that to be true. We can be diligent about planning, coordinating, and scheduling and even leave a margin for error. And sometimes, despite our best efforts, things don’t...
What is this self inside us, this silent observer,
Severe and speechless critic , who can terrorize us
And urge us on to futile activity
And in the end, judge us still more severely
For the errors into which his own reproaches drove us?
T. S. Eliot, The Elder Statesman
In...
“There is a lie that acts like a virus within the mind of humanity. And that lie is, ‘There’s not enough good to go around. There’s lack and there’s limitation and there’s just not enough.’
The truth is that there’s more than enough good to go around. There is more than enough creative idea...
“Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so love the people who treat you right, forget about the ones who don’t, and believe that everything happens for a reason. If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said life would be easy, they just prom...
“Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose.”
—Eckhart Tolle
I have always been a worrier. When I was eight years old, I received a set of Guatemalan worry dolls. They were tiny woven figures that fit in a small, wooden decorative box. Before going to bed, yo...