RWL Newsletter #114
Greetings from the University of New Hampshire! It’s very quiet here because this is Spring Break! Woo-hoo! Time to catch up on all the other non-teaching work I haven’t been doing!
Actually, early this semester I gave a lecture about work-life balance and my thoughts on how work is essential to self-actualization, and I opened the lecture with this quote from L. Sprague De Camp’s Conan the Barbarian:
When I go down the long road that leads to Crom’s great throne, he’ll ask one question of me: have I solved the riddle of my life? And if I cannot not answer, he will drive me forth to wander the empty heavens, a homeless ghost. (emphasis added)
I read Conan back in 1982 (when I was in 6th grade) when it first came out, and I’ve always remembered that question. For me, work is a critical part of answering Crom’s question. Being a teacher, being in healthcare, having been in the military - just being in a mission driven career - is an important part of who I am and what gets me up in the morning and where I draw my meaning from. So taking advantage of a little down time for Spring Break, I re-read Conan for the first time in 37 years. I’ll be honest, except for that one passage, it’s fun but forgettable. But that one question, what is the riddle of your life? That’s worth reflecting on.
And here’s some links for this weekend’s reflection!
Read
What: CNBC.com, Stop asking ‘how are you?’ Harvard researchers say this is what successful people do when making small talk
Why: from the article:
“How are you?” These are the three most useless words in the world of communication. The person asking doesn’t really want to know, and the person responding doesn’t tell the truth. What follows is a lost opportunity and meaningless exchange with zero connection.
One of the things I counsel military service members who are preparing to leave the service is that they need to learn how to network. As I drew to the end of my 23 years in the Army, I realized I had never learned how to network. I never needed to. My next job was always handed to me. That’s not the reality in the civilian market. You have to be able to network, and part of networking is learning how to talk to strangers, and find common ground quickly. This article gives some useful tips for how to do that last part. I teach mostly undergrads now and this is something that they also need to learn how to do. When I force them to go to ACHE events, they often clump together and hide in the back of the room until I drag them over to meet an executive. I’m definitely sharing this article with my young people. You might find it useful for yourself, and also for people you mentor.
Watch
What: Father Gregory Boyle, How Working With Gang Members Changed My Life
Why: I spent a year or so doing research on prisons and gangs, and during that time I came across the work of Father Boyle and his Homeboy Industries. Doing that research was heavy, and I have to say I don’t miss it as it weighed on my soul. But I stumbled across this video of Father Boyle the other day and I was reminded of the importance of that work. Boyle shares a powerful story about a young man who has found himself after escaping gang life. I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to me to be a teacher. I have the privilege of working with young people who, while they all have challenges, do not have these challenges. For me, the mission of teaching is not just to help young people find a first job (or for grad students, find a better job), but to help them reach a higher level of self-actualization. Social violence, as manifested by gangs, is a public health issue. The treatment, as demonstrated by Boyle and Homeboy Industries, is to help the individual find him or herself and reach that higher level of self-actualization.
Listen
What: Health Leader Forge, Alex Walker, Executive Vice President and COO, Catholic Medical Center
https://healthleaderforge.blogspot.com/2019/03/alex-walker-executive-vice-president.html
Why: Alex was a lot of fun to talk to, and you’ll hear me laugh a lot during the interview. But he has a really interesting career journey, starting in the Marine Corps, becoming a lawyer and eventually leading one of the largest law firms in New Hampshire, before taking a leap of faith and leaving the practice of law to become a healthcare executive at the peak of his law career. It’s great to hear him talk about how much joining a mission driven organization meant to him. Check it out, and let me know what you think!
Thanks for reading and see you next week! If you come across any interesting stories, won't you send them my way? I'd love to hear what you think of these suggestions, and I'd love to get suggestions from you. Feel free to drop me a line by e-mail, or you can tweet to me at @mbonica .
Also, if you find these links interesting, won’t you tell a friend? They can subscribe here: https://tinyletter.com/markbonica
Have a great weekend and do amazing things!
Mark
Mark J. Bonica, Ph.D., MBA, MS
Assistant Professor
Department of Health Management and Policy
University of New Hampshire
(603) 862-0598
mark.bonica@unh.edu
Health Leader Forge Podcast: http://healthleaderforge.org
"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor." - Henry David Thoreau