It is traditional for everyone to anticipate the new year with resolutions or to deliberately ignore the process (that would be me), though I do try to honor my heritage with greens and black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day.
The upcoming year promises to be challenging to say the least. We already have the specter of coding on steroids, metrics run amuck and formularies changing at the slightest whim. So, I decided to reflect on lessons learned or reinforced in 2016.
- Everyone has an opinion as well as a right to be wrong.
- Time does not expand to meet demand.
- The only thing permanent in life is change.
- If you don’t like what is happening today, wait awhile, it will change.
- The “new idea” that did not work 20 years ago may have a chance now with new people, new energy, different resources and enthusiasm.
- Getting old is, indeed, “not for sissies” but it beats the alternative.
- Open eyes, listening ears and warm hands are your most valuable assets when assisted by an open mind.
- Our mistakes are our strongest teachers.
- You don’t always have to “do something” but you do need to have the knowledge and wisdom to know when to wait and see.
- Patience is a virtue, procrastination isn’t.
- And, if all else fails, “there’s an app for that.”
Happy holidays and may 2017 exceed your dreams, or at least perform better than anticipated. I hope we are all up to the challenge.
Joyce Copeland is core faculty with the Duke Family Medicine Residency Program. Email joyce.copeland@duke.edu with questions.
Editor’s note: A member of the Duke Family Medicine Residency Program leadership team guest blogs every month.