Here’s the latest from CLEVER DOC, who wonders if you are stressed out and juggling too many balls in the air? Are you
looking for a sense of calm? Do you feel like you need to tap into deep
sources of energy, motivation, and talent? If you missed them: Here are the first four questions:
Do you Laugh Enough?
Are You Still Learning?
How Angry Are You?
Do You Feel Trapped?
Today she wants to talk about conversation…
THE WORD “conversation” has two Latin roots: “con” meaning “with”–as in “consensus”–and “versus” meaning “turn”—as in “reverse.”
When we enter into a conversation it means that we are willing to “turn with” someone else. We are willing to listen, to learn, to expand. Ideas and facts come to the surface and sparkle and push. A conversation doesn’t just rearrange the furniture, it adds pieces. A conversation rarely fixes anything all by itself, but it can start us on a new road to fixing, for example, a friendship or a neighborhood pot hole.
Over the years, RENEW has convened Conversation Groups© to tap into reservoirs of wisdom and to build communities. Guidelines are few. They include commitments to confidentiality, attendance, and honesty.
Each group of 6 – 10 chooses its own topics: “Are we living our values?”; “What is success?”; “Barriers and boosters to change”;
“Making prayer or meditation part of a busy day.” Some Conversation Groups have met about every two months for years because conversations can be life-changers and life-sustainers.
Without further ado, here is QUESTION NUMBER 5:
How often do you typically have conversations with people outside of your profession?
2 – 4 times a week (4 points)
Once a week (3 points)
Every 1 – 3 weeks (2 points)
Every 1 – 2 months (1 point)
Quarterly or less (0 points)
A good friend of OTBKB, Clever Doc’s real name is Linda Hawes
Clever, MD, MACP and she is an internist and the founder of an organization
called RENEW. She is also an
occupational health specialist with a national reputation for activism
and for professional and community service.
Galvanized by the growing exhaustion she observed among fellow
health professionals and inspired by the work of John W. Gardner,
founder of Common Cause and former Secretary of Health, Education &
Welfare, Dr. Clever and colleagues formally launched RENEW in 2000.