“Discomfort is the currency of your dreams.”

--Brooke Castillo

According to Google, comfort is a state of physical ease and freedom from pain or constraint.  Just reading that makes me feel more relaxed.  Comfort is quiet, warm, and cozy.  It is security and the sense that everything ...

“When I argue with reality, I lose—but only 100% of the time.” 

—Byron Katie

Control is an illusion. We all know that to be true. We can be diligent about planning, coordinating, and scheduling and even leave a margin for error. And sometimes, despite our best efforts, things don’t...

“Life does not change if you only modify the content,

your life will change if you will dare to alter the context.”

–Santosh Kalwar

Have you heard the commencement speech given by David Foster Wallace, called This Is Water? I hadn’t. It isn’t your typical commencement speech filled w...

“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”

   Ralph Waldo Emerson

What is a story?  When I think of a story, I think of a fairy tale.  An imaginary account that has been concocted for entertainment.  It may also serve to teach a lesson or prevent ha...

“Once you accept your flaws, no one can use them against you.”

   Tyrion Lannister, Game of Thrones

I like to tell the story about the evening I met my wife.  We were out to dinner with a group of people, and she was sitting across the table from me.  After a friend made an annoying com...

What is this self inside us, this silent observer,

Severe and speechless critic , who can terrorize us

And urge us on to futile activity

And in the end, judge us still more severely

For the errors into which his own reproaches drove us?

   T. S. Eliot, The Elder Statesman

In...

“Alone, we can do little; together, we can do so much.”
―Helen Keller 

For all its traumas, one of the most incredible gifts bestowed upon doctors is the community created during medical training.  When I think back to my Internal Medicine internship, I don’t think about the grueling,...

“Sometimes you are in the middle of your destiny before you even know it has begun.”
―Sarah Holman 

As a native New Yorker, I always assumed Chicago was called the “Second City” because, well, it was second to New York.  It turns out that’s a pretty common misconception about how my h...

“When you squeeze an orange, you'll always get orange juice to come out. What comes out is what's inside. The same logic applies to you: when someone squeezes you, puts pressure on you, or says something unflattering or critical, and out of you comes anger, hatred, bitterness, tension, depress...

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

We are taught from an early age to avoid comparing ourselves to others.  Then, we are sent off to school, where we are ranked, compared, and pitted a...

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
–George Bernard Shaw

Who Needs A Reinvention?

Everyone.

Reinvention gets a bad rap. People hear the word and think it sounds woo. Or, they believe it means scrapping everything and starting over, like tor...

“The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.”
–Sydney J. Harris 

During a recent conversation with my physician coach, I found myself reflecting on my favorite part of our family vacation to the Caribbean. We snorkeled, swam with turtles, rented jet skis, held starfish, and...