Secrets to Greeting the New Year

For most of us physician business owners, the beginning of a year is a time filled with hope and intention. "It's going to be a(n even) better year. I’m going to be better at X, Y and Z"! we tell ourselves.

I mentioned previously that

. I have discovered them to be grandiose and difficult to achieve, leading to a sense of failure and self-flagellation when we fall short and find ourselves back to square one a month or so later.

I don't believe in New Year's resolutions

What, if instead of focusing on these "ideal" outcomes, we paid more attention to the process... the journey? How would it feel at the end of the week, or the end of 2012, to celebrate your efforts even if you haven't achieved the results yet?

Focus on the process, not the outcome

This was one of our core tenets in the

(CPM) in which I recently participated.

Creativity and Personal Mastery Program

I'm as guilty as anyone is talking about how the time is flying, how hectic things are. In my conversations with clients and other physicians, I note how often the words "stress" and "stressful" are used. Is this really how we want to live our lives?

The New York Times

A recent opinion piece from touched a chord in me. Titled “

,” the article tackles the question of how to develop internal stillness, clarity and focus in the face of all that bombards us and chews up our time remorselessly all hours of the day. And in turn, experience peace and happiness.

The Joy of Quiet

From the article:

“The urgency of slowing down — to find the time and space to think — is nothing new, of course, and wiser souls have always reminded us that the more attention we pay to the moment, the less time and energy we have to place it in some larger context. “Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for our miseries,” the French philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote in the 17th century, “and yet it is itself the greatest of our miseries.” He also famously remarked that all of man’s problems come from his inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

Read more.