Jul 10, 2021
The beautiful thing about the
journey we will take into looking at our mind with curiosity is
that it mirrors what we already do in research.
We start with the scientific
question.
- Why do we want to answer that
question?
- Why is it important to
us?
It may help
someone
I’m curious
(just because I want to)
It sounds
interesting or exciting to know the answer
It sounds like
fun
- I want you to ask yourself why you
are doing the research you are doing.
Then ask
yourself why you keep doing it.
Is your ‘big
why’ compelling enough to get you through the obstacles that are in
the way?
If your reasons
for doing it are convincing enough to you, that is what is going to
get you through.
It is why we do
the work.
Now, think of a time in your life
that you started something and you stopped before completing the
goal.
I’m not saying that changing our
minds about our path or decisions is a bad thing (more about that
later), but let’s be curious for a moment and think of that
time.
- For me it was most recently bench
research.
- When COVID led to the shut down of
my postdoctoral lab, I went through some soul searching and put my
BIG WHY with respect to the bench research to the test. I asked
myself “WHY” as many times as I needed until I got to the root and
most fundamental reason.
- Why do I want to continue doing
bench research?
Because I want
to know the underlying mechanism to explain my clinical
observation.
Because I
believe it could help people and I’m positioned to answer these
questions.
- Why do you want to help people
through research?
Because I enjoy
the creative process and helping people fulfills my
purpose.
Once I established that the reason I
wanted to continue bench science was to help people through a
creative process, I asked myself how I could still fulfill that
purpose in a different way.
- I decided that I can still
contribute to science through supporting physician-scientists. I
wanted to inspire and continue to be present in this amazing world
in my own unique way.
- I started to get curious and ask
myself if there is another way I can stay aligned with my BIG
WHY.
- Is there another way I could still
be curious and also help basic science move forward.
- If you are listening to this
podcast and have put one and two together, you may recognize that I
decided I could still uphold my values of making a difference in
science by helping other physician scientists and researchers with
their mental resilience. If I could help you all listening, then I
could still be making an impact in science.
- If your WHY is compelling enough,
you can and will find a way to uphold it. It may just not look the
way you anticipated it would.
- I may have convinced myself at
some point that doing bench science was the way I would make that
impact, but learning the tools of mind management allowed for me to
get very curious about my assumptions.
- Other reasons you may be doing
things include: prestige, recognition, what i’ve seen my family do
and I don’t know any differently,
- Ask yourself this “why” question 5
times.
- Each time you answer the WHY, ask
yourself again until you get to the root of your motivation. That
is the one you will want to defend and fight for.