What happens when the way you’ve learned to succeed is no longer a way you’re willing to live?
After a life-threatening illness, Dr Patterson Stark didn’t simply recover and return to his old working life. He stayed away from clinical practice for 16 years.
He was afraid that going back would mean returning to the same patterns: working too much, struggling to say no, and recreating the life he had before.
When Patterson eventually returned, he worked differently.
Edited Transcript
Geoff McDonald: How much of your experience from your own life-threatening illness has made it easy for you to actually take this route compared to a doctor who hasn’t been unwell yet?
Dr Patterson Stark: Initially, it was a big deal. Initially, like I said, I didn’t practice for sixteen years. I was scared to death that I couldn’t say no to patients, and I was going to overwork and get back in the same issue that I had before.
But, now as a more mature practitioner, not a lot. The underlying, historical thing is something is there in the distant past, and I’m really focusing on doing everything I can in the moment to stay as balanced as possible and to share that balance with my other practitioners, and say, “It is possible. You can do this too.”
I know, when I help people trying to make a living and say, “Look doc, you know how much happiness you want by how many hours it takes to work to get that happiness to happen.” Know, you don’t have to work five days a week.
The last twenty years, I’ve only worked three to three and a half days a week, and I’ve taken sixteen weeks a year off. That was to go to conferences and stuff, but I had a blast. And I didn’t overwork and I stayed rested and stayed in shape, and all those other things that has to happen on a daily basis.
The short answer is you just have to be present on a daily basis and know what you really need to keep your machine running optimally.
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