Quiet by Susan Cain

Quiet is a book about introverts, by an introvert. But introvert and extrovert alike will gain much-needed insight into this common but misunderstood personality type by reading this book.

The introvert-extrovert spectrum is much like that of gender. Everyone has a different mix of inner-directed and other-directed qualities, just like everyone has traditionally male and female traits in unique proportions. But, broadly speaking, about 30% of us are introverts, with the rest being extroverts or ambiverts (equally introverted and extroverted-- androgynous personalities, if you will). This is a higher percentage than most people think, because many introverts have learned how to come across as extroverts. We have to. We live in the most extroverted culture in history. Indeed, Cain spends the first couple of chapters of the book exploring the transition from a culture that valued more introverted qualities like character and thoughtfulness in the 19th century to the America of self-help and salesmanship that we recognize today. In particular, she hones in on Dale Carnegie-- his career as the original self-help guru as well as his personal transformation as a young man from a shy and awkward boy into a dynamic public speaker. This was an especially riveting section to me since I was really impacted by How to Win Friends and Influence People when I read it a couple years ago.

But the most influential part of the book for me was when she discussed a few illustrative personal experiences. She describes her experience at a Tony Robbins "Release the Power Within" conference in vivid terms, relating how she felt like the only person with a shred of self-awareness in a sea of rowdy extroverts, and how being in such an environment only drove her more inside herself. Those of you who are introverts who have ever been subjected to an ice-breaker (which means all of us) can relate. Similarly, I resonated with her inner turmoil when she described a high-level business negotiation where she was nearly crippled by self-doubt, but overcame it beautifully by letting her thoughtfulness, compassion, and confidence shine through. This discussion of the value of authenticity was a welcome counterweight to the prevailing wisdom that we must adopt a blustery facade to keep from getting steamrolled in life. 

However, Cain also discussed in the context of a popular college professor how useful and important it can be for introverts to adopt an extroverted facade at particular times. Without his engaging demeanor in the lecture hall, the professor could have never made the impact on his students that was so important to his life's work. In another anecdote, she describes how a retreat with a bunch of other introverts started out great with lots of time for silent reflection, but ended up being boring after a while. In contrast to the ills she ascribes to extroverts in other parts of the book, she found herself missing the excitement and fun that extroverts bring to the table, and I think most of us can relate with that. At a recent long weekend with my college friends, I recognized how much more enjoyable it was having a few extroverts and ambiverts in the mix. It just wasn't as fun when they weren't there.

Cain also provides loads of research that paint a complex picture of how introverts and extroverts function in society. For example, she describes how the financial crisis of 2008 can be attributed to extroverts. Extroverts had apparently come to dominate the financial industry in the preceding decade by jumping on hot opportunities and throwing caution to the wind, while introverts who saw the red flags were marginalized because of their lower short-term earnings. We all know how that went. So if you're an extrovert, take note. Make sure to listen to the introverts in your business-- and your life, for that matter.

So I walked away from the book with a more nuanced understanding and heightened awareness of the role that introversion plays in my life and in society. It's practical stuff. For example, it helped me understand why being fully present with other people is so dang hard for me. On average, about 25% of my attention is inner directed, and sometimes it's a whole lot more than that. Conversely, over 90% of extroverts' attention is naturally focused on the here and now. They're more engaged-- and that's why they're more engaging! Sounds obvious, I know, but even knowing those numbers has helped me keep my engagement in check when I feel myself become more inner-directed. It's also tuned me in to the introversion level of the people I interact with. After thinking about this stuff for a couple months now, it's second nature for me to identify in a split second how introverted someone may be, and this has helped me know what I can expect from them. 

As a side note, I listened to this book on audio, and it's amazing how deeply the lessons have sunk in after absorbing it drop by drop over several weeks. It's been a real help in my struggle for better moment-to-moment presence. So if introverson is a topic you'd like to spelunk, don't just give it a read-- give it a listen!

First Quarter Report: Personal Finance

I've been preoccupied the last few months. Buying a house-- which Mindy and I did last month-- will do that to you. But before the house, I was obsessed with learning about personal finance. In fact, over the course of a couple months, I ended up reading about a hundred posts by Mr. Money Mustache, dozens of posts by the White Coat Investor, several  books, and listening to a lot of Radical Personal Finance podcasts. I learned a ton. And it changed me. In fact, it led me to radically redefine my long-term personal and professional goals. If I can reach a 50% savings rate, I should only have to work full-time for about 10 years. 10 years! I could then scale back to part-time. When I realized the shockingly simple math behind early retirement (in the words of Mr. Money Mustache), worlds of possibility opened up to me. With the house paid off and investment dividends covering my basic expenses, I'll be able to spend most of my time with my family around the homestead, working on projects, writing, reading, contemplating, and going on an occasional long-term trip. I could be free! (At least with my time. A lot more people in this country are going to have to become libertarian for me to also be able to legally quit paying taxes and submitting to stupid laws.)

Indeed, the realization that I could be financially free at a relatively young age has been akin to my political conversion to libertarianism back in medical school. Now as then, I feel both excitement at my recent enlightenment and chagrin for not seeing it for so long. How could I have been so blind, so careless? I have to believe that the only people who aren't excited by financial independence either haven't thought about it or have believed the self-defeating lie that it's not possible for them. Surely everyone with sound mind and body would be on the FIRE (Financial independence / retire early) train if they realized that with some sacrifices and wise investing early on, they wouldn't have to work by the time their kids are teenagers. Right?

Now, if you just dismissed those words because I get a doctor's salary, allow me to humbly point out that the vast majority of people on the train to early retirement are earning less than six figures-- and some of them are semi-retired even at my age. Recognize that most of your reasons why you can't retire early are rationalizations. However much you make, the key is achieving a high saving rate by ruthlessly eliminating all expenses from which you don't derive a benefit. It also helps to have a side-hustle to make extra cash, but that's secondary. If you stop telling yourself the self-limiting story that early retirement isn't for you because of x, y, and z, and start living well below your means and investing wisely now, you'll wake up one day pretty soon with the freedom to do whatever the heck you want. 

And when that day comes, give me a call. We'll go do something awesome.

I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi

This is the first in my series of book reviews. And it's a quick one!

I’ve read several personal finance books lately. I Will Teach You To Be Rich is a very readable, fun, and practical guide targeted at college-aged readers to get them started off on the right foot financially. I wish I had read it 10 years ago-- I certainly would be farther along the road to financial abundance today if I had. Here are my main take-aways:

1. Set up an online savings account. I took his advice and set up an Ally Savings account online, which gives me 1% interest right now instead of the 0.0000001% I’ve been getting from my Wells Fargo savings account and my Charles Schwab money market account. Over the long term, that will translate into hundreds if not thousands of extra dollars. If you haven’t done it already, just do it today. It’s easy money.
2. When buying a car, get salesmen into a bidding war, without even leaving the comfort of your home. Ramit Sethi did this by faxing 17 different car salesmen at the end of December, when many were desperate to meet their quotas. A little work on the front end will result in a great deal.
3. Target-date (also known as Lifecycle) index funds really are the simplest way to invest well. I’ve been investing in a Vanguard Target 2050 fund in my Roth IRA for the past few years, and am glad I have. It’s hands-off, automatically rebalancing, and stress-free. For now, that’s the only kind of fund I plan to invest in. Down the road, I’ll probably get a little fancier, but it’s the perfect vehicle for investing for someone like me who just wants an automated, super-low-load vehicle for my investments.
4. Right now, paid financial advisors are not worth the cost. In fact, NerdWallet has a free app where you can ask a financial advisor any question, anytime, for free. Which is what I’ve done. I’ve also talked to several other financial advisors over the last few weeks, and they’ve all confirmed that what I’m doing is pretty much optimized.

There are plenty of other topics he covers in the book, like credit cards (good for the rewards if you always pay them off), 401(k)s and IRAs (which I’ve been maxing out the last few years), budgeting tactics (which Mindy and I are developing right now), automating, negotiating a raise, buying a house, and real estate. Though his treatment of these areas is overly superficial, you’ll probably pick up a few pearls-- and it’s a quick read. I’m glad I borrowed it from the library instead of buying it, because I knocked it out in a couple hours and don’t feel the need to ever pick it up again. Plus, most of the information and much more is probably available on Ramit’s website, iwillteachyoutoberich.com.

The book certainly has its limitations and blind spots-- see Mr. Money Mustache's book review at mrmoneymustache.com for more on that. Overall, the book was helpful but not life-changing. If you’re looking for an easy introduction to personal finance or to pick up a few tips that might have escaped you in your financial journey, give it a look!

A Look Ahead to December, and Beyond

         During my six-month hiatus from this blog, I graduated from residency, road-tripped out West, worked in a mission hospital in Togo, and moved from Wichita to Boone, NC. If you followed Mindy and me at theglobalgobles.blogspot.com, you know that we had a great experience in Togo. Click on the link if you haven't read about it. In this post, I'll simply be looking at where I am now and where I see myself going over the next 6-12 months. If that sounds selfish, I'll just point out that I focus on self-improvement with the hope you'll be surprised, gratified, and challenged by my ideas and experiences.

The 5 AM Miracle
        When I was in medical school, I lived with a dude who got up at 4:30 AM every morning. I'd mosey out of my room at 7:15 to find Ben reading or rolling on some little project, and part of me would wish I had the discipline to do the same. Seven years later, I now fully realize his genius. Though I can't speak for him, my experience tells me that getting up early is more a matter of planning and execution than grit. Good mornings start the night before.

        My biggest goal for the next year is to get into a productive and healthy morning routine, starting at 5 AM. On work days, that gives me 100 minutes to toilet, meditate, pray, journal, stretch, work on mobility and pain issues, and read. I'll also try to work in a couple power poses and some personal mantras I've developed if I have time. On off days, I can stretch it out another couple hours with additional reading, writing, and exercise. My goal is to read 4 books a month, with a good mix of self-improvement, spiritual, fictional, biographical, and medical titles. I'm also planning on putting reviews of each book I read on this blog to help me process, encode, and integrate what I learn.

       The main tools I will be utilizing will be focus@will, headspace, and mobilitywod, all of which I have recently bought subscriptions to. Focus@will is music scientifically designed to help you focus. It's what Adderall would be if it were converted to audio. Headspace is a mindfulness meditation app, which I've gotten into over the past few months. Seems like every day, I see another article touting yet another benefit of mindfulness meditation, and I will just add my voice to the choir. If mindfulness meditation could be made into a drug, it would be all most people needed. Everyone should be doing it, period. Mobilitywod is a program designed to "optimize your mobility, prevent injury, train smarter, recover better, treat your own pain and injuries, enjoy performance gains, understand your physiology, and help more people" on just 15 minutes a day of mobility work. So far, it has lived up to the hype. Thanks for the recommendation, Justin. You all should give it a look.

       My books for the next few months will include The Imitation of Christ, White Coat Investor, The Critique of Pure Reason, I Will Teach You to Be Rich, The Power of Habit, Originals, Quiet, The Road, The Mountain of Silence, Prayer (Tim Keller), and Tools of Titans. Hopefully you'll start seeing little reviews of each of these on here before too long. For my commute, my go-to podcasts right now are The 5 AM Miracle, Common Sense with Dan Carlin, Let My People Think by Ravi Zacharias, The New Yorker: Fiction, Homegrown Liberty, Brute Strength, The Tim Ferriss Show, and The Art of Manliness, but I'm always switching up the rotation. If you don't yet listen to podcasts, you are missing out on much. My life is so much better because of what I've learned from listening to a bunch of people smarter than me talk.

     
The Other 22 Hours
        One of the foundational concepts I picked up from my pal Warren Buffet is the "Two-List" strategy. It goes like this: Make a list of your top 25 goals. Then pick out your Top 5. The other 20 goals are not your "work on them when I can" list, they're you're "Avoid at All Costs" list. That list is the good that is the enemy of the best. When I think back over some of my goals over the past few years, I can identify many good goals that never cracked that top 5, and should have never made it onto my goal list. Starting a Youtube channel, building a website, establishing 21 professional contacts, quantifying 21 areas of my life: all good ideas, but with high opportunity cost. Fortunately, I never got around to any of them anyway.

       So instead of making monthly goals of dubious value, I'll be checking in every couple of weeks with book reviews, new ideas, and life updates. Things like archery, firearms, music, smoking meat, jiujitsu, rock climbing, and self-defense will probably take the back burner for now while I focus on my five primary areas of People, Mind, Spirit, Body, and Profession. I'll be going on day- or week-long trips with Mindy, joining communities, reading articles and books, listening to podcasts and audiobooks, worshipping, doing Crossfit workouts, and enjoying the outdoors. I still may occasionally have 21-day projects to do things like count macros, start a new collection, and build garden beds, but my morning routine should keep me moving forward in all the areas I need right now.

       Other strategies I'm implementing are personal retreat days every month, scheduled date nights every 1-2 weeks, and scheduled 24-hour fasts every 1-2 weeks. Today was actually my first personal retreat, and it was great. The personal retreat is a concept I got from Richard J. Foster's book The Celebration of Discipline which involves removing yourself from your normal environment and spending the day in contemplation. I stayed focused all morning, lost some steam in the afternoon, but brought it back to write this blog post and do some reading. I modified it to involve quite a bit of physical activity and get a few things accomplished, but it was still emotionally and intellectually refreshing. Mindy was super supportive, which made the process even more pleasant than it would have been. I hope this practice continues indefinitely.

      I'm especially thankful for the opportunity to get perspective today because tomorrow is my first day as a hospitalist at Appalachian Regional Healthcare System. For the next few days, my focus will be almost exclusively on learning how to do my new job. As I step into my new role in our new home, I hope to continue to grow in presence, power, warmth, perspective, godliness, wisdom, humility, gratitude, and grace. As it happens, that's also my hope for you. Until next time, be wise, warm, and well.






         

Springtime Pangs

Over two months of passed since my last post, so I have lots of updates to share with you. The most pressing thing in my life right now is my imminent graduation from residency and subsequent travels. My formal medical training is almost complete: I am about to meet my magic number of 1650 clinic patients, I only have 1 procedure requirement yet to log, and I took my board exam last month. The only thing that remains is my sixth and final obstetrics rotation next month, which will tune me up nicely for all the obstetrics I'll be doing in Togo from August to November. Though I've not been taking advantage of as many teaching opportunities as I was a couple months ago, I continue to learn something every day.

I'm still pursuing jiujitsu and weightlifting. Justin Grant and I have almost completed all 36 Gracie Jiujitsu blue belt lessons, and will be reviewing over the following month in preparation for recording my blue belt qualification video. I've also found myself getting more interested in workout programming (ie creating a long-term goal-oriented workout plan). I've realized how imperative it is for me to gain more shoulder and back mobility, and have started to gear some of my workouts towards that end. I've also decided to build my own home gym next year, including a squat rack, a prowler, a plyometric box, and a couple other odds and ends. That will also be a nice way to learn some carpentry while saving some cash. Finally, I have started to dabble in Krav Maga and the SPEAR self-defense system lately, and hope to learn more in those areas in coming years.

Also paramount have been travel and relationships. Easter weekend afforded Mindy and me the opportunity to explore beautiful northern Arkansas, which was an inspirational blast. We also hosted lots of her family last weekend for her brother's wedding, and it was nice to reconnect with many of them seven months after our own wedding. This month holds fourth the promise of two four-day getaways, first a solo trip to North Carolina to reconnect with my college pals, then off to Colorado Springs with Mindy to explore the area and hang out with her aunt and uncle. I have high hopes for both trips.

                                   Mindy and me on the scenic Kings River in Arkansas

I have also made a few strides in time management. I now listen to podcasts while taking showers, which has been really rewarding. The ones I like the most are The Art of Manliness podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, This American Life, and The Memory Palace. I also continue to read several articles a day that I come across via the Pocket app (which gives you way better articles than Facebook, without all the clickbait), and have started skimming issues of JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) and AFP (American Family Physician) the day they arrive instead of letting them stack up. Finally, my Facebook hiatus continues, which has allowed me more time to do, well, life.

On a grander scale, I continue to believe wholeheartedly in the goal-oriented process I've been pursuing on this blog for the last 1.5 years. It produces results, and the scientist respects empirical evidence as the ultimate authority. Yet I've also learned that our purpose as humans-- to understand the human condition-- is one that will never fully be realized, and which can't be monitored with the kind of metrics I apply to the other areas of my life. Wisdom grows by fits and starts and in unexpected ways as we flourish as human beings. Because we don't know what we don't know philosophically, we can't strategize or plan our path forward. Yet we can trust that if we continue to challenge ourselves, new windows of insight will keep flying open.

That's my word of wisdom for now. June will be busy with delivering babies, packing, graduating, and saying goodbye. I plan to give you all an update once this bittersweet period is over and my life has transitioned to its next stage. I'm taking advantage of each moment with my amazing friends and acquaintances here in Kansas, hopefully many of whom I will stay connected with the rest of my life. But the pangs of impending separation sharpen by the day... if I may be so dramatic.

Memento

Well, the year is 17.5% over. For some of us, it may be more than that, if we happen to die before next January rolls around. How have you been doing? Can you quantify any progress you've made? Don't forget Peter Drucker's adage that "if you can't measure it, you can't manage it." People don't improve themselves like they could because they aren't intentionally strategizing their life, nor intensively measuring their progress over time. Heed the words of Gandhi, "Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." Spend 5 minutes each morning and 50 minutes every month reviewing and strategizing your life moves, and watch how your life transforms.

The counter-question to the above is, have you been enjoying the ride? I'm happiest whenever I'm throwing myself into a new project and climbing a nice, steep learning curve. What makes you happy? Whatever it is, make that a bigger part of your life, and make sure to be thankful for it. I've been remiss on being thankful for the blessings I've been given, and am trying to make gratitude my newest habit. What three things are you thankful for right now? I'm thankful for an afternoon off, nice weather, and a sweet wife.

My initial impression of the year is that I'm taking really good advantage of my opportunities to learn medicine, primarily via the avenue of "Image Review" mini-lectures at the beginning of noon conferences. I've been doing one 10-15 minute lecture per week for the last five weeks, focusing on various ultrasound topics in my attempt to take Tai Lopez's advice to "Spend 10 minutes every day giving a lecture to 10 people, and your brainpower will skyrocket." Though I'm only doing it every week, my brainpower has still gotten a nice little boost. 

I'm also enjoying doing the Crossfit Open, which started last week, and continuing to learn Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Another thing I'm getting into is meditation, which was not on my list of original goals for the year but which I added because I kept hearing about all its benefits. I'm six into ten free sessions on the app Headspace, and have gotten into a schedule of 2-3 10 minute sessions per week. Check it out-- you won't regret the small time investment. I also haven't checked Facebook for the past two weeks. Coincidence?

Below is a color-coded list of how I've been doing on my goals for 2016. I plan to keep updating it as the year goes on.

Legend:

new goals I've made since December

goals I've worked on since December

goals I'm starting to work on in March

goals I'm no longer pursuing this year

-Relational: Continue to make monthly goals with Mindy, make it a habit to ask better questions of friends and acquaintances, visit far-off friends, talk to strangers at every opportunity, monthly microadventures, date night every other week, road trip out West in July

-Public speaking: Record myself speaking 21 times, take advantage of opportunities to speak

-Musical: Start playing guitar again, learn 21 new songs

-Spiritual: Do yoga, fasting, Bible meditation, and family prayer on a weekly basis; meditation

-Intellectual: Read 21 works of mythology, classical literature, philosophy, poetry, or biography on a weekly basis, continue to blog at least monthly

-Medicine: Go through study folder on a weekly basis, keep trying to read the equivalent of 21 journals per month, answer practice questions on a weekly basis; teach myself ultrasound, do lots of certain procedures

-Medical missions: Go on a 3-4 month medical mission trip to a hospital in a Spanish French speaking country (Togo), do lots of OB, and build relationships with the staff there

-Spanish Linguistic: Go back over Spanish grammar before my trip, start using two more verb tenses, expand my vocabulary every day while in Latin America, learn French

-Psychological: Start logging my dreams in an Evernote document, play the Situational Awareness Game on a weekly basis, list three things I'm thankful for each day

-Culinary: Learn new cooking skills by going to classes at Williams-Sonoma, smoke meat every month (started in November), improve my table manners

-Physical: Log all my workouts, go for walks on off-days, do the Crossfit Open, get my jiujitsu blue belt, do a set of 20 squats at least once per day

-Efficiency: Time-track 21 times this year, consistently get up before 7:30 AM on weekends, delete facebook app and check it at most weekly, make a time budget

The areas I haven't made any major progress in are Musical, Intellectual, Linguistic, or Psychological. These are particularly areas in which I haven't yet had a clear, concrete goal to pursue. For instance, I'm not signed up to play music for a talent show, I'm not involved in any book clubs and am busy learning medical stuff, I'm five months away from having to speak French, and logging my dreams first thing in the morning is not as motivating to me at 6AM as hitting the snooze button for another 10 minutes in my warm bed. This goes to show that the kind of people I surround myself with have a profound impact on my self-improvement. For example, if I was to find someone who was really interested in time-tracking and situational awareness, we could make some joint goals in those areas, and those areas would dramatically improve for both of us. Always be on the lookout for people with whom you share an abundance, growth mindset.

As only four months now remain in my residency, I plan to continue to prioritize medicine in the above lists. In addition, I'll continue to make my relational, physical, and psychological goals major priorities. Not all life goals are equal. Proper prioritization is the key element of any good strategy.

If you are reading this as a fresh post and have been following my blog, you are now three months closer to death than when you read my last post. Memento mori. Memento vivere.

December Reflection

      December is hands-down the best month for reflection. The cold drives you into the warmth of your home, and sooner or later on your Christmas break you pick up a journal or a laptop and start to chew on some undigested mental cud. I feel myself starting that distantly familiar process as I stand here at my make-shift stand-up workstation, sipping on lemon zinger tea and peering out over adjacent backyards, brown with a backdrop of grey.

       It's amazing how life never happens how you think it will. As my year progressed and I grew in new ways, I gradually became unmoored from the monthly goals I had established a year ago. The payoffs of some of my goals, like building my own website or starting my own Youtube channel, were too remote to motivate me to pursue them over other things I was doing. What were those other things? Well, getting married, obviously. Learning how to be a good husband has taken a lot of time and mental space I would have otherwise dedicated to other interests. But we're making progress. I've also increased my workouts with my friend and fellow-resident Justin Grant to three times a week, and we are planning on competing in the Crossfit Open in April. In addition, we recently started the Gracie Combatives Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu course, with an eye to earning my Blue Belt by July (Justin already has his from several years ago).

       Why these new goals in particular? I can trace much of it to the influence of The Art of Manliness in my life. As Brett McKay has said on many occasions, a man should be strong and able to defend his family. His journey of fitness over the past couple of years has inspired me to take my own to new heights. I realized that I wasn't gaining any strength by my free-spirited exercise sessions of various kinds, and that goals and structure are key to making gains. In particular, Brett has pursued Olympic-style weightlifting, and both he and Tai Lopez (another important influence on my life over the past year) have been learning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Providentially, Justin Grant moved to Wichita just as these interests were starting to coalesce, and he shares my passion for constant self-improvement, physical fitness, and manly skills. He has also been extremely generous with his time and his home gym, and I have learned much more with him as my tutor than I would have otherwise.

      I have also made great strides in my career. As most of you know, I signed a three-year hospitalist contract with Appalachian Regional Healthcare System in Boone, NC, starting next December. Though my long-term goal remains starting my own Direct Primary Care practice, I'm excited to get really good at hospital medicine, and also for the seven days on / seven days off schedule that will allow us to travel and cultivate new interests and skills. We've also been accepted by Samaritan's Purse at a hospital in the Peruvian Andes mountains for July - November, although we are not sure that's where we're going. In the meantime, I'll be moonlighting more in rural Kansas hospitals to gain more experience and make some money for a down-payment on a house.
 
      Over the course of the year, I've jotted down self-improvement goals for 2016 and 2017 as they've come to me. As I've noted above, the Crossfit Open and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu will be a big focus for the first half of the year. Other areas I want to develop include:

2016
-Relational: Continue to make monthly goals with Mindy, make it a habit to ask better questions of friends and acquaintances, visit far-off friends
-Public speaking: Record myself speaking 21 times, take advantage of opportunities to speak
-Music: Start playing guitar again, learn 21 new songs
-Spiritual: Do yoga, fasting, Bible meditation, and family prayer on a weekly basis
-Intellectual: Read 21 works of mythology, classical literature, philosophy, poetry, or biography on a weekly basis, continue to blog at least monthly
-Medicine: Go through study folder on a weekly basis, keep trying to read the equivalent of 21 journals per month, answer practice questions on a weekly basis
-Medical missions: Go on a 3-4 month medical mission trip to a hospital in a Spanish speaking country, do lots of OB, and build relationships with the staff there
-Spanish: Go back over grammar before my trip, start using two more verb tenses, expand my vocabulary every day while in Latin America
-Psychological: Start logging my dreams in an Evernote document, play the Situational Awareness Game on a weekly basis
-Gustatory: Learn new cooking skills by going to classes at Williams-Sonoma, smoke meat every month (started in November)
-Physical: Log all my workouts, go for walks on off-days
-Efficiency: Time-track 21 times this year, consistently get up before 7:30 AM on weekends.

2017
-Consistency: Continue to build on the habits and skills above
-Residential: Buy a house that will facilitate my long-term goals, place solar panels on roof
-Environmental: Make collections and learn identification of trees, birds, flowers, insects, mushrooms, rocks, and grasses of WNC, hike somewhere new and camp every month
-Home economical: Start raising chickens and goats, raise a big garden, start canning, plant fruit trees, start making goat cheeses and fermented foods, reduce waste, compost
-French: Spend time preparing for and traveling to a French-speaking country
-Music: Learn to play the banjo
-Craft: Start learning carpentry, build a chickenhouse, root cellar, man hutch
-Psychological: Take a tech sabbath every other Sunday
-Physical: Get back into rock climbing
-Career: Find new mentors for different areas of my life, join 2 hospital committees
-Travel: Visit 3 far-off friends and 2 new countries
-Intellectual: Conduct 7 home science experiments

       Technology can be the greatest asset or the greatest hindrance to the accomplishment of these goals. I will continue to utilize Evernote, this blog, the "Reminders" app, and the "Hours" time-tracking app to help me stay motivated to change, and plan to try out the "wodlist" workout tracking app and other project-specific apps to help me along the way. 

      As you may have noticed, there are 12 areas of focus for each year instead of one focus for each month. I plan to use the "Reminders" app to keep track of these different areas, and each month's post will probably hone in on a few of the most actively pursued areas that month. As the next two years unfold, I'm sure some of these goals will recede in importance while others will increase, much like this year. I will periodically post revisions or new goals as they come up.

      The people I surround myself with will be another major determining factor in my success, and unfortunately that is something I can only partly control. Nevertheless, I'm on the lookout wherever I go for like-minded people whose passion is self-improvement.

      As I finish this discussion, I'd like to share a word on one of the foundations my self-improvement philosophy, which is service. Much like in business, in which the best service you can be to the world is to offer a great product, your personal life is the most inspiring and helpful to others when you are yourself a role model of virtue. In addition to pursuing the good life in the form of health, wealth, love, and happiness, everyone should also seek to live out the higher purpose of service to others and to God (if you are religious). The beautiful thing is that this aspect mostly falls into place if you are pursuing the other areas of the good life in their correct proportions. That being said, over the coming weeks and months I will be searching for more ways I can serve the world, starting with my wife, family, God, patients, friends, and acquaintances.

      As you enter another new year in a few weeks, chew on the following words, taken from an ancient Roman tradition via The Art of Manliness, written on a picture frame in my room and on my heart. 

      Remember that you will die. Remember to live.

More Goals

     I just completed my OB rotation, and as expected, it was quite busy. Fortunately, I worked with some wonderful people this month. I feel more comfortable teaching on a few topics, performing Cesarian deliveries, and dealing with postpartum hemorrhage. I did not write out any "cheat sheets" like I planned, simply because I didn't feel like it was a high-yield use of my time. Maybe I was wrong, but that's just what happened. Overall, it was a good month, though I was definitely sleep-deprived for most of it.

      My original goal for next month was to establish a long-term financial plan. Though I still want to make progress on this front, it is also important for me to prepare myself for getting married, focus on finding a future practice location, and be more intentional about the small bits of free time I find during the day. I hope to carve out larger chunks of time to journal, write my vows, read, meditate, and pray, while using smaller chunks of time to work on financial stuff, future practice stuff, and medical study. Let me make my goals for September more concrete:

1. Write my wedding vows

2. Carve out 2 half-days for reflection

3. Contact two hospitals in addition to the hospital I'll be interviewing at this week

4. Read or skim 21 journals

5. Write out a rough budget for next year

6. Get my investments more on autopilot

7. Notify important parties of my upcoming change of address

8. Keep a very detailed time log of at least 7 days this month

         I have copied and pasted and these goals into my Reminders app and put a few sticky notes around my house as well. I will give you a report at the end of the month. Though I probably won't fulfill all of these, I'm shooting for at least 80%. My challenge to you all this month is to also bite off a little more than you can chew. Push your self to accomplish things you may not quite have enough time for. 

        Writing a post on this blog every month brings me back to the kind of goal-setting I really need in order to be effective. As I have been doing every month this year, you should regularly be asking yourself a form of the question: How can I make the things I want to accomplish in my life more concrete, more short-term, and more public? Asking this question every month has transformed how I think about attaining my life goals. I hope it does this for you as well.