On a surgical rotation, one of my old mentors at the time (thanks Rob) told me that there are three types of decisions you can make when you have a sick surgical patient in front of you. You can make the decision to operate and take the patient to the operating theatre. You can make…
OPD is what I call Obsessive Planning Disorder. As you’ve already guessed, it’s what happens when you over plan things a bit too much. Even though it sounds a bit like a proper medical condition, it’s not — I’m being deliberately light-hearted with the name. But it’s still a worrying trait that some people have…
Sometimes moving forward is as simple as letting go of what’s holding you back. Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? But you’d be amazed how many people stay stuck precisely because they’re gripping too tightly to the very thing that’s keeping them trapped. Think of monkey bars in a playground. You know how they work. To move…
There’s a well-worn path most people take through life. It’s gentle. It’s easy. It’s crowded with everyone else who’s chosen comfort over effort, safety over risk, acceptance over achievement. It’s called the Path of Least Resistance, and it will almost always lead you to an average destination. Not terrible. Not great. Just average. And if…
You trust old information more than new information. You believe the way you’ve always done things is better than trying something different. And that belief, comfortable as it is, is probably keeping you stuck. Welcome to Conservatism Bias, one of the most common cognitive biases you have. It’s the mental shortcut that makes you hang…
“It’s not my fault.” He said it with accusation in his eyes, scanning the room for someone or something to blame. And he found plenty. My fault. The practice’s fault. The NHS’s fault. Society’s fault. The world’s fault. For him, nothing worked, and it was never, ever his responsibility to fix it. I remember this…
You’re Not the Same Person Who Started This Course Think back to where you started. Maybe a week ago, maybe longer. Think about the version of you who opened this course for the first time, probably with that familiar mixture of hope and quiet scepticism that you’ve felt before, the part of you that wanted…
You’ve finally done it. You’ve taken that big leap into what feels like the deep end. Something big, and perhaps something that felt brave at the time and now feels increasingly like it might have been stupid. Maybe you’ve left a job. Started a business. Ended a relationship. Moved to a new city. Signed up…
I had my foot down on the accelerator. Engine revving. Going nowhere. Not a metaphor. Actually happened one morning. Driving to work, engine screaming, but the car wasn’t moving. Or rather, it was moving, but painfully slowly. Like pushing through mud. Then I realised. Schoolboy error. The handbrake was still on. That’s the feeling I…
Your life × doing zero = zero progress. That’s the Zero Law. Simple mathematics with profound implications for your life. I’m not a mathematician. I’m a GP. But I remember enough from school to know that any number multiplied by zero equals zero. n × 0 = 0. Always. No exceptions. And this basic mathematical…