Personal Perspective: We train ourselves to ignore pleasant interactions and promising outcomes and focus on anticipating worst-case scenarios—much to our detriment.
Relentless disaster anticipation can sap our ability to recognize and enjoy uplifts.I was watching an English Premiere League game the other day . Tottenham Hotspur had secured a comfortable lead in the first half over Brighton and Hove Albion. They were cruising. Their play was infused with. They were enjoying themselves. In the second half, though, all hell let loose. Brighton scored an unexpected goal. Then, Tottenham started messing up all over the field.
And well we should, right? That was our job, correct? All that pre-med rat race, the four years of medical school, the seven years of residency, perhaps a fellowship or two, licensure, board certification, and continuing medical, was to raise above just being technicians to being disaster clairvoyants. Survey the field night and day and suss out the indicators of impending doom. Train our brains to see the bad stuff. No matter how subtle.
But, at the same time, we strip our success sensors. We fail to notice uplifts, to recognize joyful occasions, to anticipate happy outcomes. We become numb to everything positive. We force ourselves into anstate. And it carries over to all our interactions, all our activities in and out of work. A surefire pathway toSo, what can we do? We certainly don’t want to lose our sixth sense for impending disasters, but it would sure be nice not to cancel our ability to derive pleasure from our days.
In a medical setting, positive things are happening around us all the time. Patients get better. New technologies and medications are brought into play. Patients and their families are thanking us. Teams congeal and function like well-oiled machines. But we all too often sail by it all. Always on the prowl for the bad stuff. I’m sure something similar happens in all industries.So try this exercise that I have advocated before.
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