Focus

So today I got an excellent lesson in focus, not the ability to maintain attention, but the idea that what you focus on in your life gets bigger. It was a typical busy Saturday in January, alone in my pediatric office with a waiting room full of patients (me against the world, so to speak). I was running from room to room, trying to give each patient and family the attention they deserverd, while trying to keep the waiting time to a minimum.
I came to a room with a teenage girl with sinusitis, mad at the world for being sick and taking it out on me. "Why didn't the doctor last week just give me antibiotics?" (never mind that it was just a cold back then and would not have responded to antibiotics), she asked with disgust. "You better call my medicine in now because I don't want to have to wait!" was her parting shot.
After the patients were gone and I was left alone in my office, writing my charts, I started to think about this girl. My mind began to race with thoughts of how inappropriate she had been and how shocked I was that her mother let her speak to me like this. I began to feel my body get tense, as I thought, "Wow, people can be so unappreciative. Here I am coming in on a Saturday to help people and that is the thanks I ge." Soon I was actually getting angry, even though this exchange had occured over an hour earlier. Suddenly, a thought came to my mind, "are people really that ungrateful? What about the other teenage girl I saw today who specifically thanked me for being there on a Saturday? What abou the parent with the child with Strep and a 104 degree fever who thanked me profusely for helping them out?"
As I thought about those happy patients, more examples came to me of how nice patients are to me . And then I was able to think back to that first teen and realize that she was just tired of feeling sickand wanted someone to help her. A true sense of gratitude came over my and my day brightened.
We have all heard that life is never about what happens but about how we react to it. The great thing about being a pediatrician is that the kids are always there to refocus me and make me appreciate my life and my work. The more I focus on gratitude the happier my life is. Amazing how smart those kids are!

Douglas Curtiss, M.D.
www.ownersmanualforyourkids.com