T is for Take Time  Because we are all busy people we sometimes forget that it’s important to take time  to just be. Take time to relax or catch up with friends or connect with family  again.As important is to take time to connect with yourself too. To do some hings for yourself. It’s so easy to be on a sort of treadmill isn’t it? You may reflect and realise you are nearly always caring for others and forgetting that your own needs are. They are important too.   

Take time too to do some clearing out of your physical surroundings and well as the mental clutter which can accumulate too.  Spring cleaning is a useful habit to introduce into your life whether or not you do it in the Spring! It’s vital from time to time to metaphorically step back and reassess what you need and what you can dispose of.  This also has the beneficial effect of clearing space for new ideas to flow and can result in things which you have resisted or procrastinated about for ages getting done again. If you have an hour to spare  at 7.00pm UK time on Tuesday 25th March 2008 please register to come along to a free teleclass. It is an introduction to eight of the most powerful things you must do to find the prescription for your change. It is a preview call to my new series of teleclasses starting in  April which will cover in detail all of the 16 strategies you need to find the prescrition  for your change.

If you want more information about the 16 strategies and download a free report then please go to www.prescriptionforchange.co.uk

There is no charge for this call.  I’ve posted details and how to register HERE

Some things in life seem to be immoveable, like the car in the video, and stop you doing what you want to do. However you can make shifts, perhaps with the help and support of others. When you all pull together to shift something it’s possible to continue on your journey through life.

What is in the way of your life running smoothly on the track of your life? What obstacles do you need to shift?

When you move things out of your way you may need others to help you (perhaps a coach or a mentor, friends, family or partner?)

Alarms may sound too. Keep your vision in your mind’s eyes and keep going…… You can do it!!

You know what you want. You know what you have to do and
yet nothing happens!
You are still going from day to day getting more and more
frustrated with your ’stuck-ness’ and apparent inability to
get moving on the things which are important to you.

Because you are a doctor, a professional who is successful
and in control, to a lesser or greater extent, of your life,
this inability to get projects finished can be unbelievably
frustrating, can’t it?

Why don’t you do what you want to do?

Many doctors like you are perfectionists so there is a
huge subconscious fear that you may not get it right,
and the task you’ve set yourself might fail. Your colleagues
might laugh at your failure and you would feel awful
if that happened, wouldn’t you?

Instead you could try to de-construct what you actually do
when you plan to do something. Look at each part of the process
and then change something. Change the order or the place
and see what happens. Because you will find that when you
change something other things will change too.

Maybe you relate to the character in the short video:

Do you get frustrated when you can’t get someone to understand your point of view? Or if they insist on getting you to go through a routine which you know you’ve already completed?

Using the ’stuck record technique’ is useful. Be clear about what you want and keep on repeating it. Don’t get drawn into answering other questions just keep on saying ‘what I want is…….’

Visit www.thedoctorscoach.co.uk

Of course it’s also possible to have a ‘win -win’ situation for both of you so much the better, but they win you lose is not the way to proceed if you want to be happy rather than frustrated!

“The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.” Anna Quindlen quotes (American bestselling Author and Journalist, b.1953)

“They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they’d make up their minds.” Winston Churchill quotes (British Orator, Author and Prime Minister during World War II. 1874-1965)

Is it too difficult to strive to be ‘good enough’ rather than ‘perfect’?

Notice how you procrastinate when you say to yourself that something needs some more work on it. Loosen up, just go for it and see what happens even if it (whatever ‘it’ might be) isn’t quite a perfect as you might have wished.

It (not perfect) could be better than not having it at all!

If you tell me you have a goal which you want to achieve in a few years time because of considerations in relation to others (eg when the children are older) then I will challenge you! Do you know what the result of my challenging will be? You will realise that you are putting obstacles in your way and these can be removed quite easily!It is like magic. The things which stop you are your thoughts and these can be changed.

Is there a conflict between the you who wants to be perfect and the ‘real you’?

How difficult is it for you to realise that life is not like a mechanical machine. However carefully you plan things something may get in the way. People don’t necessarily react in the way you might expect. Patients don’t always react to a certain treatment in the way another patient did in the past. How do you react to these unexpected events?

Have you ever considered how your desire or overwhelming need to be perfect as a doctor may be affecting the rest of your life? Does your concern about being perfect make you into a person who tends to procrastinate? Because instead of just getting on with what needs to be done you wait until that imagined time when you could do the task perfectly

Integrity: have you got it? What do you do to be true to your own values? Suppose something happens which you feel is quite wrong and no-one believes what you tell them? You have to do what you believe is the right thing. However you also must realise that others may have a different view of the world than you do. They may see the situation differently. They may truly believe that it’s best not to say anything for fear of any repercussion.

I want you to know that it’s possible to be a doctor and have a life! What do I mean by ‘having a life’? I mean finding the time and energy to do more than your professional work. Finding the time and energy to have time to be with your friends and family; to enjoy the company of your partner; to have the time to do things that you love to do yourself and that includes looking after your body, mind and spirit, and being part of a community, whatever any or all of these words mean to you