Stability.  We all want it.  We want our days to be predictable and even a bit mundane. "Wait a second," you may be thinking, "I want excitement in my life.  I don't want it to be boring." Unless you're name is Evel Knievel, I doubt that very much.  Don't get me wrong, we love the illusion of danger and excitement - that's why roller coasters are so popular.  But we don't really want true danger.  If we did, why can't we walk outside without SPF 50 sunscreen?  Why are we worried about eating non-organic food? We want excitement as long ...

When I was in graduate school my roommate and I spent a lot of time eating at fast food restaurants.  This was natural since neither of us could cook.  One thing we noticed in all of our trips was that the vast majority of employees clearly hated their jobs.  Everything from their posture to their facial expressions told us they didn't want to help us.  And so, we would joke about the "job satisfaction levels" of a clearly unhappy employee.  And yes, this is what you do when you're in graduate school. But those jokes always stuck with me.  Even to ...

Focus.  Learning.  Behavior change.  Those are three things that don't happen until something becomes relevant. One of the biggest challenges facing healthcare is getting people to change their lifestyles.  We all know that we shouldn't smoke or overeat.  That we should stay away from salty foods and avoid high-cholesterol products.  But how many of us do that?  For that matter, how many of us go to the gym regularly? We know what we are supposed to do, we just don't do it.  Why? I believe it's for the simple reason that it is hard to change behaviors until they become meaningful.  Which is ...

Every so often I love to randomly surf YouTube.  It's such an interesting collection of people, ideas, talents.  A lot of it is worthless, but every so often you find something truly amazing. Yet for every amazing talent you find, you see dozens, if not hundreds (or thousands) trying to tear that person down.  In the example above we see an 8 year old playing guitar.  Being a tad older than 8 myself I am in awe.  My musical talent ...

There is a reason books like the Purpose Driven Life and 7 Habits of Highly Effective People sell in huge numbers.  People want to understand why they are here.  They want to know what their purpose is.  They want to make a difference. No one grows up thinking, “if only I could be a failure.  Then my life would be complete.” Meaning is a life-long journey that we all strive for.  Some of us find it.  Some of us look for it our entire lives.  And some of us have given up a long, long time ago. So what does this mean for ...