Many would claim that I am the eternal student as I have spent the majority of my living years studying, learning and attending school. Ones response to said claims should entail verbiage enlightening everyone that life in itself is an educational endeavor, metaphorically like the lessons learned in school, and we are all eternal students of this great universe. Ancient wisdom taught us this before our time. One of the three methods of learning wisdom, “the bitterest”, is by experience or as it is more commonly referred to “life”.
Some of us do not need to be motivated to fill our buckets with new data, philosophies, processes, theories or concepts, instead of letting life happen to us we simply want to happen to life. It is this philosophy of life that should move us to want to continue to learn and grow and therefore return to school, or obtain certification in ones’ area of expertise.
Whether motivation comes from intrinsic, extrinsic, a who or what, everyone should take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves. In The Alchemist, Pablo Coelho refers to this as one’s Personal Legend, Socrates to the examined life and Confucius in learning wisdom. Regardless of what ones motivator is, each and every person must search for their internal yearn to live life to its fullest potential. This requires introspection of the internal drivers to be better, more educated and accomplished human beings.
An ex-coworker recently reached out to me, she does so every year around this time. She reminds me that the holidays are around the corner and that she remains loyal to her side business. She puts together beautiful gift sets. We reminisced for a short time and she updated me on other ex-coworkers. Interestingly, she mentioned one, with surprise, announcing she had obtained her doctorate in nursing. This is a person who throughout my tenure at another healthcare organization (7 years), approximately 4 years ago, was adamant about not returning to school. Yet, as the story was told, this individual realized that the world was changing around her, and unlike the stubborn Zax (Dr. Seuss) this ex-coworker’s motivator, whether intrinsic or extrinsic at the time, reminded her that she needed to stay current and competitive or become obsolete as the world continued to metamorph. I reference the Zax to provide a picturesque conceptualization of the poignant fact that, especially in healthcare, the world does not stand still. Given the volume and speed of change, innovation, evidence based research, and technology in healthcare and other industries, it is imperative that one stays ahead of the times and embrace change to remain viable.
If one believes as Shakespeare wrote, all the world’s a stage and we are merely players where every man throughout time plays many parts, then I still have many parts to play and I look forward to discovering my treasured oyster. The opportunities are boundless and my pearl is yet to be discovered. My inspiration comes from the eternal search for the pearl in the oyster.
What is your motivator?
