My brother is about to get married in London. Obviously, I’m heading over for the wedding, but I am on a flight out the next day to get back to run a wellbeing conference for doctors, three days after the wedding.
To do this I’m missing the extended family trip that follows the wedding.
I’ve received a fair bit of criticism for this, for prioritising work over family, and I can see that perspective.
I can also see that running a wellbeing conference for doctors has a compounding effect on both the doctors who attend and their future patients who are treated by doctors in a better head space.
Obviously, I placed more importance on the second situation, so I’m doing the conference.
Life is a series of choices. You could equally say, life is a series of compromises. Rarely will we please everyone, so I don’t think we should try to.
If we let our purpose guide our decisions then I think we’ll generally get it right.
One of the greatest lies we tell ourselves is that we’re falling behind. That someone else is ahead.
As a young man I associated strength with force; louder voices, sharper opinions, firm lines in the sand.
There’s a strange kind of pride we’ve developed in being exhausted. But even lions, the king of the jungle, rest.
We sometimes believe strength means self-sufficiency — that being independent means being isolated.