“A person who feels appreciated will always do more than what is expected.” (Author unknown)

This quote I came across many moons ago has been ringing in my head for the past few days.  Even though I am still considered a “young” professional at 36 and I was born in the transition years between Generation X and Millennials, I still feel I have an old-school professional ethos.

Do your job…work hard…do what is asked…don’t ask for anything….let your work speak for itself.

I know this blog is meant to be educational and to teach you something about medicine so you can better take care of patients in the clinical setting.  But…one of the more selfish reason I created it was because I wanted to see the fruits of my labor and feel like I accomplished something important.  Academic publishing has always been a fickle beast.  You spend weeks to months writing a manuscript and submit it to a journal, only to be judged by a select few that will decide the fate of your work.  Sometimes it is accepted….sometimes it is rejected…and sometimes it hangs out in limbo accepted but not published for years (I have 2 papers that I wrote in 2014 that have yet to be published).  This is why I started the blog and podcast.  I have control over what I do and when it gets out for people to read and listen to.

I think it more important to disseminate information and teach to whoever wants to learn, than to write for journals (that nobody reads) just because “this is what we do in academia”.  My hope is this paradigm will shift in the future as more and more people see the benefit non-traditional educational activities and how it can be used as scholarly work.  But unfortunately….this is not the day.

I never fancied myself as a writer, but I am starting to have that cathartic feeling that so many writers have.  For the 5 or 6 of you that read this blog, thank you.  The PAINE Podcast and Blog is the single most important professional endeavor I have ever done because it benefits only you, me, and patients.  No journals…no professional societies…no third parties.  The feedback I get from my students, the social media universe, and other professionals I work with tells me what I am doing means something and for that, I will always be grateful.  To me, that is more important than publications, grant funding, or research.

I leave you with “The Man in The Arena” by Theodore Roosevelt that really sums up how I have been feeling of late.

“The Man in the Arena” by Theodore Roosevelt