Beginning with the End in Mind

On Saturday, September 17^th my wife and I hosted somewhere in the range of 70 medical center colleagues, staff and their families at our place for a catered barbecue supper.  It reminded me of our wedding reception, as I did not have enough time to talk to everyone as much as I wanted to, and I almost forgot to eat.  Preparing for this event certainly filled the couple of days leading up to the party, as well as the day after, which included Sunday service and choir rehearsal. The Sunday congregation had a surprise lunch at coffee hour consisting of excellent ribs, chicken, mac & cheese, and salad.  As my wife said during the service, “you don’t know what will happen at church unless you show up”.

Despite instructions not to, my former pulmonary colleagues did present me with two very nice gifts, and others brought a number of fun and/or useful items.  A close friend, who also hired me 18 years ago, and the current chief of pulmonary each made very kind and thoughtful remarks such that I thought I was attending my own funeral.  Which was interesting as this is a thought experiment in some books that discuss life planning.  Thinking about what you would want people to say about you at your funeral identifies what you value most, and separates these from the urgent issues that often occupy our days. Once identified, it is these values that should inform how we plan and conduct our lives.

Remembering this advice has given me a lot more peace of mind the past week.  In an earlier post, I complained of the problem of not being busy or structured enough now that I didn’t have a beeper, clinic schedule, etc.  But I could be busy, and be neither effective nor productive, filling my time with the unimportant or inconsequential. I now realize that I have the gift of time to reflect, to give thought about how I would want to be remembered so that I can revisit my values and determine what is the right thing for me to do in this next stage of my life.  This takes time, but often is neglected because it is not urgent.  It is what Steven Covey in 7 Habits of Highly Effective People calls “Quadrant II activity” – planning, prevention, learning, and relationship building.  I probably should add that book to my references as it helped me 12 years ago when I redirected my pulmonary career from critical care to more public health activities in response to some burn-out I was experiencing.  Re-reading it now has been quite helpful.

Next week, I will be doing my backpacking Wilderness Medicine expedition for 7 days in the Galiuros mountains near Tucson AR to learn again how to do some basic medical assessment and care in a low resource environment – another Quadrant II activity.  While laying on the hard ground in my sleeping bag unable to sleep, I can reflect on my principles and values so that I can begin again with the end in mind.