The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. I have taken so many steps that it is only in retrospect that I realize I have been moving in a specific direction. Nothing about my path has prepared me to write or to blog, yet everything in my current journey urges me to do so. I have spent my entire adult life either training to become or actually being a Physician. It is in one of my brief glances in the rearview mirror that I realized that my entire life has been a training ground, not just for Medicine, but for this moment.
Physicians help people to be in the best health possible. At least that’s what we are supposed to do. I enjoy that aspect of my profession. What is less appealing is helping the insurance billing or the medical charting along that same path to good health. Like many Physicians, I found I was dedicating way too much time to the clerical aspects of the role and too little to the actual helping people part. A large portion of my day was spent ‘doctoring the chart’ and ‘hitting Review of Systems bullets’ so insurance billing could happen.
Unlike many other Physicians I decided to do something about it. I became certified in Holistic Integrative Medicine expanding my approach to respect my long held beliefs that the emotional, mental and spiritual aspects of health and healing are as important as the physical modalities. I developed expertise in Functional Medicine, the approach that addresses the underlying causes of disease, using a systems-oriented approach and as the years went by trained in and incorporated Aesthetic Medicine into my portfolio and opened an Aesthetic Medicine Boutique Practice. “After all”, I reasoned “the idea is to get people looking as good as I’ve now made them feel.”
It dawned on me about a decade ago that there are segments of this country and in fact many segments of the developing world that have limited access to excellent medical care, and certainly none to the kind of niche care in which I specialized. At this juncture we embarked on our mission to improve access to, and the quality of medical care to the people in the Developing World. To date we have established and launched 3 Cardiac Centers of Excellence in the Caribbean, another as well as a Medical Call Center in West Africa. The success of those initiatives have been gratifying to us and a blessing to the people of the areas our centers serve. As I transitioned along the spectrum of Clinical approaches available to me, I began to realize that like Goldilocks, I was finding ‘too hard’ or ‘too soft’ that is until I happened on ‘just right’.
I find what I enjoy even more than looking at various approaches to health care delivery is encouraging people to actually “get a life” to go along with good health. Regardless of what technique or modality I employ, my consistent aim is that we all live our best lives in the best health possible. I have preached it at every stage of my career and have practiced it at every stage of my own journey.
In a nutshell, this is how my life’s work has evolved into encouraging lives that work. It does indeed take work. It is employing the tools, tips, techniques and hacks gathered over a lifetime to encourage people to enjoy their best days today. It is about having life and having it “more abundant”. It is about adding life to our years, expressing gratitude for the journey and living with full joy each and every day. I recognize a healthy life as the existence of all these things and this blog is devoted to finding the best things in life and sharing them with each other. Does this mean we won’t have problems? No! Even the Bible warns us that “in this life we will have trouble”. We learn to embrace the tests because without them we would have no testimony. What I know is that we can focus on obstacles or opportunities. I choose the latter. Not only does it work; but frankly, it is simply more FUN! Every day I awake and live my life on purpose and you can too.
So here’s to the testimony of bountiful blessings and showers of favor. Let’s talk about the best countries, cities and towns to visit and the ideal places to stay. We will dish about satisfying Moet tastes on Proseco budgets as well as setting and achieving Krug Clos d’Ambonnay goals. We will explore tunnels but most importantly, I will help you navigate your way to the light at the end.
Let’s share our plans to live tomorrow’s dreams today, Coz I’ve made a bucket list and I’m checking it twice (or thrice as the urge arises).
Join me in living a bucket listed life!
