Year of Sagely Living : Business and leadership in Chinese Medicine
Well February has simply FLOWN by. While I haven’t posted much about what I’m learning, it isn’t because I’m not learning. :) It’s because I’m learning so much and enjoying it so thoroughly that I simply don’t have much time to write. I feel that my overall education has accelerated a lot in the last 60 days or so, which is a great feeling. I wanted to start writing about the biggest lessons I’ve learned so far from engaging with the business and leadership material this month. I’ll follow this up with a couple more specific posts and, of course, some lead-up to March’s Year of Sagely Living commitment.
1. Business Seminar at NCNM : As part of our program we take a two part business seminar co-taught by two LAc’s in the Portland area. They both have different approaches to business and the medicine, and complement one another well. Much of the class has been taught through the five element model and through the archetypes associated with the 12 officials. This first part of the series has been focused on general business topics, the second part will present us with more detail. We have been asked to conceptualize what kind of practitioners we would like to be, to start thinking about what our space will look like and what kind of financial structure we expect to have. We’ve been asked to interview current practitioners, write mission statements and to grapple with our own relationship with money. It’s been a good class, overall. I have to admit I’ve been a little impatient with it, as I’ve done most of that work and I’m eager to get on to the nitty gritty details of opening and maintaining a practice. However, with each more general exercise I’ve learned something important about my future medical practice. In a sense, then, the greatest lesson I’ve learned from this class and my focus on it during February’s Year of Sagely Living is: You can never revisit the basics enough.
2. Dave Ramsey - Total Money Makeover : As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’ve been working through Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover. While I can’t say I agree with everything Dave says, I do think that his fundamental philosophy is sound. It works for someone as systems oriented as I am. I also have an appreciation for “tough love” approaches that encourage me to reach for my dreams while keeping me fully grounded in the reality of the situation. If you’re not like that, you won’t like Dave Ramsey. You also have to have a relatively high tolerance for evangelical Christian themes and statements, a sort of traditional American gender bias and lots of colloquial Texan phrases. Still with me? It’s a great program and has whipped my financial life into shape. I feel that I have a greater appreciation for the power and promise of money as well as its downfalls. Greatest lesson: grow up.
3. Tony Robbins - Personal Power II: As you can probably already tell, this month was very prolific for me. I find that while I need to spend a lot of time with material specific to Chinese medicine, my function as a Chinese medicine scholar is greatly enhanced by consuming material on personal productivity. That’s the lesson, really, of the whole month — Chinese medicine must be integrated into one’s life as a totality. Everything that I do to improve my life outside of Chinese medicine enhances my ability to understand Chinese medicine! Wonderfully - the converse is also true. I started listening to this book of Tony’s on my iPod and have really enjoyed what he has to say about the true power of a single human life. He has that classic wood-style “motivational speaker” voice and while that takes a little getting used to, I do find it gets me pretty psyched after a while. :) However, because of an error in loading my iPod, I ended up listening to another audiobook much more and that’s really what I want to talk about…
4. Steve Covey - The 7 Habits, Principle Centered Leadership : I’d like to write a few articles on the 7 Habits and how I see them meshing with the image of the Classical Chinese scholar gentleman. Steve Covey is simply brilliant. If I had more time, I would start a whole blog just to explore his ideas and how they intersect with other world philosophies. I’ve read several of his books, but this is the first time I’ve had an audiobook version. As you know, I’m a huge fan of the “Getting Things Done” system of personal organization as described by David Allen. I absolutely stand by my endorsement of his system, as nothing has enabled me to keep track of my various projects and ensure that I forget nothing like his system has. However, I find that I need something more. I need a way to overtly keep myself balanced amid the many competing interests, a way to take care of my responsibilities while still moving towards fulfillment of my highest purpose. It’s incredible how much listening to this audiobook has enhanced how I understand the basic philosophies Covey espouses. It’s difficult for me to think of just one lesson, but if I had to pick one it would be: You need to spend the most time doing the things that are most in line with your life’s purpose(s).
5. Blogging and my thinking process around future business strategies: I’ve learned so much than I’m revealing above. I think it will take a couple of weeks for me to integrate it all. It definitely has changed my vision for my practice as well as my idea of what kind of professional I want to be. It has made me re-evaluate my blogging as well. I now see that blogging is not just a hobby, it is an integral part of my life’s work. Hopefully this realization will produce results that all of you can enjoy. I realize that I haven’t put out too many blockbuster CM related posts lately and I’ve made a commitment to myself to reverse this trend.
If you like what you read here, you may want to keep updated by using my RSS feed. Want to know more about RSS/feeds? - read more here. Thanks for visiting!
Tags: Blogging, commitment, Dave Ramsey, David Allen, habits, Learning, organization, Personal Development, productivity, Steve Covey, Year of Sagely LivingRelated posts
5 Computer based tools no Chinese medicine student should be without
While I’ve been working on my January Year of Sagely Living goal, I’ve really had to increase my efficiency in a number of respects. I’m doing a fairly good job keeping to my basic commitment, but I’ve had to spend an unusual amount of time finding the holes in my various systems. It’s an interesting by-product of the whole thing, that while the focus of this month is scholarship, it has changed me in ways that will ultimately be beneficial for more than just my study of Chinese medicine. I think, in a way, that’s the point of the whole Year of Sagely Living. To show that the principles of Chinese medicine, when instantiated in daily life, have benefits far beyond what would initially seem likely.
I thought I’d just mention some of the tools that have come out on top as I’ve refined my system. I’ve mentioned a couple of these before, but it might be nice to have them all in one place. All of these tools are worth the time it takes to learn them.
1. Rootdown.us and TCM Assistant : When it comes to quickly accessing basic Chinese medicine information, no sites are easier to use and easier to trust than these. Rootdown includes the “community editing” features that make sites like Wikipedia so popular. TCM Assistant has the edge of something a bit neglected, but has a wider database of formulas, so I turn to it when I can’t find something on Rootdown. There are other Chinese medicine websites, but they are mostly badly designed and/or too infrequently updated to be of any real use.
2. Google Book search and Google Blog search : With these two tools, you can find pretty obscure information that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to find. The book search does full text searching of a number of books, with some having many pages available online. Even if you can’t read all of the information you desire, you have at least a better idea of where to look for the info you’re after. Blog search is an easy way to look across the blogosphere quickly and efficiently to see what “real people” are saying about a given topic.
3. PubMed, Blue Poppy’s article search, your school library’s databases : I like to cover all my bases. In finding information on Chinese medicine, you have a lot of resources at your disposal. Your books, lecture notes, professors and peers, nature herself, patients, the websites I listed above… it’s incredible, really. Here are three more tools to help round out your personal Chinese medicine info warehouse.
PubMed is a huge clearinghouse for information in nearly all of the major journals of all kinds of medicine, including Chinese medicine. Some of the journals even have full text available for free. If you’re looking for any published research studies on Chinese medicine topics, this is probably the first place to start. Blue Poppy recently opened their article database for free use - an event I enthusiastically blogged about a while ago. It’s a great resource of first-rate information on a variety of Chinese medicine topics. Finally, don’t neglect the databases your library provides as well as - of course - the library itself! I’m always shocked to find how few folks actually use their libraries as they are intended to be used - freely!
4. Omnifocus or kGTD w/Omnioutliner : To use these tools effectively, you need to have read David Allen’s Getting Things Done
These electronic tools are elegant and powerful ways to implement the core processes of GTD, but they would probably also be useful for anyone trying to get a better handle on the projects they are working on. Total, it has probably taken me about 48 hours to fully understand and implement GTD and Omnifocus. 48 hours well spent. I’ve probably saved that much time and frustration since getting to full implementation. Now that it’s set up, it only requires about two hours a week to keep in perfect working condition. I rarely forget an appointment or deadline, I’m often prepared well in advance of exams and I find myself with plenty of time and energy to work on “side projects” like this website.
5. Bookburro, a Firefox extension : Now, obviously, this requires that you’re using Firefox. I can’t imagine a single reason NOT to use Firefox. Please, just go get it. You can import all of your bookmarks from IE or whatever other web browser you’re using. It won’t hurt, really. Then go look at all the awesome add-ons you can hook on to expand Firefox’s functionality. I only use a few, but my beloved is Book Burro. In short, this extension helps you to find the book you want at the cheapest price possible. With just a few clicks, you can configure it to search all of the book selling websites, PLUS all the public and big college libraries in your area. It will give you a list of all the book websites and their best price for the book, as well any relatively nearby libraries that carry the book and their distance from your location. I’ve saved around $500 over my Chinese medicine school career because of this little program. It’s incredible, seriously.
Taken together, these five tools probably compose only 40% of my on-computer time, but probably account for 75% of the eventual results! I hope you will find similar successes using them.
Eric
Tags: Blogging, books, getting things done, habits, internet, productivity, students, study, Technology, websites, Year of Sagely LivingRelated posts
Five simple ways I get more than 24 hours in a day
My Year of Sagely Living began in earnest with the start of classes yesterday at 8:30am. This week is going to be a little different than future weeks because I haven’t yet started ALL of my classes, thus have less to study. This is balanced by the fact that I have a lot of little things to do (cashing refund checks, buying books, etc) - so my time commitment is pretty average. Because of the fact that the real test of my YSL commitment for January will only last two weeks (first week of January I wasn’t in class, and now this odd week) I plan to continue it through February along with my February commitments. Additionally, I resolved this year to reinvigorate my “Getting Things Done” (GTD) system and keep on top of my organizational efforts.
You might be thinking, “Are you insane?” You might also be thinking I’m a bit of a braggart. Neither are true. Why am I attempting to do all of this? Because I see my four years in medical school as a golden opportunity to grow as much as I can. I will never have this kind of access to these professors again. I may continue mentoring relationships with some of them outside of the class context - but I will be a practicing physician by that time and will not have the same kind of sheltered opportunity to study. So, I’m going to make the best of it. Regarding the braggart comment - I simply hope that by chronicling my efforts I can help other people to get through intellectually rigorous times in their lives. By serving as an example of both what to do and what not to do, maybe other people can succeed in their striving for excellence. I think a society of people doing that sounds like a pretty cool thing to be a part of - don’t you?
But, really, how do I find the time to do all of this? A few things are key:
1. I don’t watch television or spend significant time playing video games, randomly surfing the Internet or generally interacting with pop culture. If you’re in school for something you really care about, and yet you spend significant amounts of times on these activities, I feel that you need to re-evaluate what you’re doing. I don’t mean to sound harsh, and it’s perfectly possible that I’m dead wrong on this one. But when I hear that a fellow student has spent the entire evening watching television, and does so regularly, I find myself somewhat less compassionate when they fail exams. If you’re in school to learn something, dedicate yourself to learning it. It’s only four (or however many) years. You’ll live. Personally, I watch movies or television shows on DVD on Saturday nights with my family. This allows me to experience that kind of recreation without allowing it to infringe on my true desire - to learn this medicine. It also serves as a “double duty” activity - explained below.
2. I compartmentalize my time in such a way that I spend time with the people I love, and doing the things that I love to do, but only at times that will not interfere with studying, going to class, or blogging. I think that scheduling and making very “hard edges” around your scheduled times is vital to accomplishing goals. This is certainly the case when your life is very busy - if you are going to school AND working AND having a family, for instance. All this means is that you create “boxes” of time for the places, people and things that you love. Sundays are for family in my house. I don’t work, I play. I also spend time with my family around the dinner table each evening. We also watch movies together, as discussed before, on Saturdays. There are a few other short bursts of scheduled family time. Nothing changes this. Yet it is also understood that non-family time is for work, and that’s that. If this sounds restrictive to you, try it. For me, it enables a kind of giddy freedom. I never have to worry, when I’m working, that I’m not making time for my family. Because I have! When I’m hanging out with family, I never have to worry that I’m not getting my work done. It’s simple, really.
3. I’m constantly striving for higher and higher levels of organization and productivity, without fetishizing the tools and systems that allow me to achieve this. The most ironic thing in the personal productivity world is how much time people waste working, re-working, researching, discussing and generally fetishizing the systems that are supposed to make them more productive. This seems particularly the case when high technology becomes involved. Some systems are worth some work - GTD often takes a couple of days of pretty concentrated work to get figured out, for instance. But once I have my system set up, I stick to the system and leave it at that. As improvements become available, I hear about them soon enough. If something seems attractive, I’ll try it at some point. But, I don’t spend all of my time reading blogs and books about productivity, messing around with my system to make it pretty or more efficient or talking in forums to other folks about my system. It is these systems that enable me to do what I do - I don’t lose track of things (often), I always know where I’m supposed to be and when, and I do things before they’re supposed to be done. All of this saves me a lot of mental energy that I would otherwise waste running myself in mental circles. I’m not perfect in my adherence to my systems, but I’m consistently getting better.
4. I try to make as many things do double duty as possible. As I mentioned above, I like to make different activities multi-purpose. For instance, I love to play games. I’m especially fond of strategy games, but love classics, card games… pretty much anything. Fortunately, my family likes to play games, too. So we spend time together doing this once a week and as much as we can on vacations. It’s wonderful bonding time and satisfies my need to play around. Blogging is another example. By writing on this blog I’m doing a number of important and fun things. I’m sharing what I’m learning with others, I’m meeting new friends and building community, I’m creating a web presence for myself upon which I will build my eventual clinic website, I’m making a small amount of money with the potential for more and I’m often also studying (by writing articles on school related topics). It’s a high return activity!
5. I have an awesome family and tremendously understanding friends. I couldn’t do this without my family. We really help one another in a variety of concrete and intangible ways. My friends, also, are great for putting up with my frequent lapses of attention. In return, I try to be a supportive and caring person myself. I also try to practice giving 100% attention to them when they are in front of me. Funnily enough, this probably also does double duty in teaching me the skills necessary to be a good doctor, but I don’t focus on that.
Hopefully, all of this will help me to learn a lot from the Year of Sagely Living. In the next couple of days, I’ll report on what it was like to study 1/2 an hour in every subject every day. So far, so good.
Eric
Tags: balance, Blogging, getting things done, habits, Learning, productivity, study, studying, Year of Sagely LivingRelated posts
In personal development - one size does not fit all
As I complete a double write-up of Fall term 2007 classes (part of my Year of Sagely Living commitment), I thought of a few items I would like to add to my description of the project. Many of you are very busy, like me. You may find it hard to believe that someone as busy as you are could participate in such a huge program of self development. More than one person has contacted me saying that they would like to participate but are concerned that it would interfere with their family/work/health.
I’m here to say that if I can do it, you can do it. In fact, the edge of overwhelm that I detect in the words of those who have contacted me indicates that they could benefit MOST from this concept and the actions it spawns. One of the reasons I’m so relentless in my pursuit of personal excellence and productivity is that I find the more I work at it, the easier it becomes. The easier it becomes, the smoother my life runs. The smoother my life runs, the happier I am. Sometimes it’s hard - particularly at first. Sometimes I want to throw my hands up with despair. Sometimes I do. But at the end of the day, I pick myself up and keep going. I keep looking for ways to become well organized with minimal effort. I keep looking for ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of my study time. I keep looking for ways to become more emotionally and spiritually at ease. I keep looking for ways to maintain and improve my physical well-being. You can too.
The Year of Sagely Living isn’t about driving yourself insane. It’s not about becoming some Hercules of personal development. It’s not about doing more than the next person. It’s about saying to yourself, “Hey, I’d like to see how these principles actually work in real life.” It’s about communicating with others who are saying the same thing, and supporting each other through the changes and challenges.
Your commitment can be as small or as large as you like. Simple or complex. For instance, in January when we are focusing on scholarship - you can set a small benchmark that simply exceeds what you are currently doing. Maybe you would like to simply make every attempt to get all of your homework in on time when you haven’t previously been doing so. Perhaps there is a book important in your field that you have been meaning to read? You could simply commit to daily reading of that book. Maybe you would like to try memorizing all of the Chinese herbs? Start with one a day! The options are endless, and there are no hard and fast “rules” set out by me or anyone else.
So join us!
Eric
Tags: chinese-herb, chinese-herbs, Personal Development, productivity, Year of Sagely LivingRelated posts
My commitment to excellence in scholarship
Well, it’s almost time for the Year of Sagely Living to begin. 2008 should shape up to be quite an experience. We’ve already got some great folks involved. Three bloggers other than myself have publicly committed: (1) Abdallah Stickley at Even Unto China, (2) Brandon Brown over at his blog, and (3) Michael at The Life Giving Sword. There’s already considerable “buzz” across the internet being generated concerning the project. I hope this continues, as a concerted effort at self improvement on the part of many people can only be a good thing. It’s also going to be more fun as a community effort. There’s always time to get involved, just reply to any of the Year of Sagely Living posts to let us know where/how you’ll be sharing your experiences with the rest of us. I should also note that several people without blogs have indicated their willingness to participate in the project, and if they create online spaces for sharing their experiences I will certainly share them here.
Now, I’d like to publicly commit to my Scholarship practices for January 2008. Drumroll, anyone? I should note that because school doesn’t start until January 7, I will do something slightly different until then. I will be reviewing each of last term’s classes once per day and producing a blog article about each. I will move to the following practices on Monday the 7th.
Practice/habit #1: Daily study
- I described this practice a bit already in my post about this category of habits. It has been my experience that the extent to which I work with a subject frequently defines my success in comprehending the material therein. However, I’ve rarely been diligent enough to work with each subject every day. I think this is a logical test of the method. I may find that it’s overkill, I may find that it actually interferes with my comprehension. But, I won’t know until I try. For anyone that thinks this doesn’t seem like a difficult practice, it definitely represents a shift in strategy for me.
- I will study each of my major subjects daily for at least half an hour per day. This includes: Advanced Cosmology and Symbolism (Heiner Fruehauf), Business Seminar (David Berkshire), Clinic Shift (David Berkshire), Formulas (Arnaud Versluys), Pharmacology of Natural Substances (Paul Kalnins - ND and anthroposophical medical genius), Points and Points lab (Dr. Xiaoli Chen) and Internal Medicine (Dr. Rihui Long). That’s three and a half hours total per day.
- To make this maximally manageable, I will be utilizing “down time” to the best of my ability. This includes flashcards on the bus, when walking, when standing in line and being very conscious about my use of time in general. Because I’ve recently tightened up my time management system, I should be able to make it happen.
- During exam weeks, I may shift my strategy slightly. I will reduce non-testing study time to only 15 minutes a day, increasing the testing subjects to necessary levels. This feature will only come into play if I decide to extend this habit out past January, as our first exams are unlikely to come in January. I hope.
- I will not study on Sundays. I may read Chinese medicine related materials for pleasure on Sundays. I will not study on any special family days (birthdays, weddings, other celebrations or very difficult times).
- I will not study for a class on the day that I have that class, though I will take 10-15 minutes at the end of the day to review my notes.
- I will report as frequently as makes sense. I will try daily updates at first, but may decide to do batch posts every week or twice a week.
Practice/Habit #2: No distractions
- This is a little simpler, as I’ve already moved strongly in this direction over the last year. I find that I study best when I’m distracted least. I know some folks seem to thrive in busy, crazy atmospheres - I’m just not one of them. I have had great study sessions in coffee shops, but those times are balanced by the number of times that I’ve ended up just watching folks walk by. I’m a Fire Dragon, what do you want from me?
- I will always seek out solitude when studying - when at school, the back of the library with headphones on. When at home, the meditation room upstairs where I already have a beautiful study space created. Additionally, at home, I will make sure to let everyone know not to disturb me and for how long. I find that if my family knows when they CAN disturb me, they tend not to disturb me until then.
- If I do not need my computer to study, I will not have it near me. If I do need my computer to study, but not the Internet, I will disconnect the Internet. If I need the Internet to study, I will not check email, blog statistics, Google Reader or anything else. Whatever I am working on, I will work only on that without any other programs open. I have already disabled all “automatic notifiers.”
- If I decide to listen to music while studying, I will listen to only music without words.
- I will turn off my cell phone during all study times.
- If I must be disturbed while studying, I will deal with the disturbance in as little time as possible - marking my place or writing down a quick note to remind myself where I am in the study process. Then I will return directly to that task without even thinking about it.
- These distraction reduction measures will be used regardless of if I’m studying for half an hour or five hours.
- The only exceptions to this rule will be (a) when studying with others - a rare occurrence, (b) in long study breaks, I will break every 45-50 minutes for about 10 for some physical movement.
As an additional push, though extending beyond the month of January - I will attempt to get honors in three courses this term. No small feat given the courses I’m up against.
I want to point out that this is just two habits, one more difficult than the other. For those of you who don’t geek out on personal productivity literature or for whom this is going to be your first concerted habit change - one changed habit per period is usually preferred. This may be especially the case for this project, given that most of us will probably want to maintain some of our habits throughout the twelve months.
To keep updated with the latest about the Year of Sagely Living, including my own experiences in establishing and maintaining these crucial habits, be sure to subscribe to this blog via RSS feed or via email.
Eric
Tags: classical-chinese-medicine, habits, productivity, scholar, study, studying, Year of Sagely Living
Related posts
-
-
What am I up to?
-
Subscribe to Deepest Health
