Let’s Connect
From the
President
JAMES Patrick Murphy, MD, MMM
GLMS President
[email protected]
Snap on the gloves
I
’ve never been accused of having an idle
mind. In fact, I usually have several projects
going on at the same time. In this sense, my
brain is like my computer. Even though there
may be only one image on the screen, there are
always programs running in the background.
These days multitasking is not only common,
it’s frequently a source of pride. “I can’t be happy
unless I’m doing a dozen things all at once,” confessed my friend and colleague, Steve Passik - a
prolific expert on chronic pain. Done well, multitasking can enhance productivity.
However, done poorly, multitasking can lead
to disaster. The most flagrant example of this is
smartphoning and driving. Notice I did not single out texting. There are many other seductive
activities made possible by your little touchscreen
soulmate (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest,
Instagram, and Spotify - to name a few). Add to
this recipe the incessant radio, roadside advertisements, conversations with passengers, and
the actual driving part - at high speeds among
hundreds of fellow multitasking motorists - and
it’s amazing we ever survive the morning commute. We could all have more focus.
As I write these words, I’m sitting alone at a
desk in my house. It’s after 2:30 a.m. on Sunday
morning. My family is asleep. Distractions are
minimal. I’m tired but making progress. And I’d
make even more progress if fatigue would stop
occasionally blurring my vision. Good thing I’m
not driving, or performing surgery, or flying an
airplane…or conversing with loved ones.
Author Mitch Albom concluded Tuesdays with
Morrie with advice about focus for his younger
self:
I want to tell him to be more open,
to ignore the lure of advertised values,
to pay attention when your loved ones are
speaking,
as if it were the last time you might hear
them.
And Victorian-era philosopher Thomas Carlyle said it this way:
Our main business is not to see what lies
dimly at a distance,
but to do what lies clearly at hand.
Inspired by Carlyle’s words, the revered physician Sir William Osler advised Yale’s 1913 medical school graduates to:
Shut off the future as tightly as the past…
Cultivate the habit of a life of day-tight compartments.
Dr. Osler’s message to these fledgling doctors
was that success comes from focusing on the task
at hand. We could all have more focus.
Last year, Hall of Fame basketball coach Rick
Pitino wrote a book titled The One-Day Contract. In it he opined that you get the most out
of your abilities when approaching each day as
though the next day’s employment hangs in the
balance. The coach attributed his recent surge in
accomplishments to this way of thinking: “Over
the past three years a switch has flipped on for
me. I have become more focused on making the
most of the present than I have ever been and
more determined not to get caught up in all the
superficial distractions.”
More than superficial were the distractions
plaguing Derek Anderson’s young life; yet somehow he kept his focus. I met Derek two days ago
at the Celebrate Freedom Dinner benefitting
Louisville’s Healing Place addiction recovery
center. To a riveted crowd, Derek recounted his
struggle to overcome: abandonment by his father,
neglect from his addict mother, the challenge
of being a teenage single parent, the burden of
poverty, and “the shocking memory of my sister
dying in agony, reaching up to grab her daughter’s hand, as my father’s best friend stabbed her
seventeen times.”
Derek’s determination, positive attitude,
and focus enabled him to achieve success as an
NCAA, Olympic, and NBA champion; and now
as an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and author.
Email me at [email protected].
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jamespmurphymd.
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Or just give me a call. My number
is in the GLMS “mug book” and
the mobile app.
However, his most cherished successes stem from
his roles as a father and as a son who eventually
was able to reconnect with his estranged parents.
Focus, as Coach Pitino says, is a discipline:
“From the time you wake up, it must be a conscious effort.” And like any discipline, there are
tactics that, when they become habit, will optimize the likelihood of success. Living healthy,
avoiding procrastination, prioritizing, planning,
and setting goals are among the best of these
strategies. We could all have more focus.
As a physician, I will vouch for that.
Entering the room where I perform therapeutic procedures, first you will notice - on the
wall beyond the x-ray machine - a whiteboard
bearing your name and important facts about
you. I will greet you, go over your health history, review yo