Jessie A. Leak, M.D.
Committee on Communications

Marsupial: a mammal having no placenta and bearing immature young that are developed in a pouch on the mother’s abdomen.

— Encarta Dictionary

There is no failure except no longer trying. There is no defeat except from within, no really insurmountable barrier save our own inherent weakness of purpose.

— Ken Hubbard

ow many of us walk out to our nice vehicles at the end of a long work day and can honestly say in the moment, “This has been a great day”? The reality is that we generally walk or drift through the day on autopilot, doing our jobs (to the best of our ability), often daydreaming during a long case or a meeting about our next day off. The days run together, and in the totality, we know that time seems to be going faster; we feel recurrent panic because the years seem to be getting shorter and shorter. We know that we need to explore why we periodically feel a deep hole in our lives. Nothing seems particularly wrong. If we are religious or spiritual, we may step back, count our blessings and expeditiously relegate the emptiness out of our minds. Nonetheless we sometimes wonder to ourselves: “Is this all there is?”

But every now and then, we have a glimpse that we could be more active participants in our lives and that every day could be great. This concern may contribute to our long-term, low-level stress. The problem is that we have not let ourselves peek out of our “pouch,” our comfort zone. Yet we know that we can be more, feel more, at work, at home, with our families and, most importantly, deep in our core.

In previous articles (April 1998, August 1999, October 2000, November 2000, November 2001, November 2002, December 2003), I have emphasized that stress does not occur in a vacuum. Work stress melds in with stressors concerning our personal lives — toxic persons and anger issues, physical environment clutter or chaos, financial disarray and, most importantly, the stress of losing ourselves to health concerns, lack of time set aside to explore our religious or spiritual lives and a loss of self. I also have written of the importance of thinking about your life purpose. Yet even with attention to these areas, we may often still feel that hole, an incompleteness in our lives. How many of us have done anything about these issues or sought to find our life purpose? Perhaps this could be the impetus we might need to “take a peek.” Even if we have done the work to find our life purpose, have we done anything about pursuing our dreams?

What Really Makes the Difference Between an Average Life and a Life With a Feeling of Wholeness?
John Maxwell, a well-known expert on leadership, states that the qualities that most of us attribute to successful individuals (or at least those who experience the sensation of success) are not their family background or socioeconomic beginning, opportunities thrown or not thrown their way, their morals or even hardships that they may or may not have suffered. Rather he explains: “The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure.”¹


To achieve your dreams, you must embrace adversity and make failure a regular part of your life. If you’re not failing, you’re probably not really moving forward.

— John Maxwell

Most of us physicians have led a reasonably linear professional career: college, medical school, residency, (graduate school, fellowships) and practice. What we do in our professional lives after this linear progression can take many forms. With some focused vision and honest self-assessment, we can be or do anything that we wish.

It is never too late to pursue your dreams. As some of the most successful people in the world will attest, they have, in many cases, spent years doing one thing. After much thought and while living their proscribed lives, they finally “take a peek out of the pouch.” They deliberately take a risk to reach for their dreams, the aspirations that will make them feel alive, the road that will allow them to have that “great day.”

If I Have Finally Decided That I Have a Specific “Life Purpose,” What Happens if I Feel That I Am Failing in My Efforts to Get There?
Probably the greatest champions in this world also have experienced more failures than most of us encounter in a lifetime. Their perspective on failure is the lightning rod for their success.


Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

— Thomas Edison

Maxwell believes that failures are the emotional outlay that we pay for progress and achievement. They are simply acts that providentially keep us from straying from our path. He believes that adversity enhances our chances of success; it builds resilience and maturity, expands the envelope of creativity, innovation and motivation or may create more or unexpected opportunities or benefits.¹

Failure in this paradigm is simply the impetus for alternate plans and growth rather than a sign to quit. With clear focus on our dreams, these detours only make us feel more alive. Living each day versus drifting through life is what gives us memories and wholeness.

Because we are physicians accustomed to our linear lives, these concepts are an anathema. Yet your life is waiting to get started; do not waste any more time thinking. Just do it!


Reference:

1. Maxwell JC. Failing Forward. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers; 2004:115-119.

Jessie A. Leak, M.D., is Clinical Professor, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas.