Do you love your work? Do you love your life? Have you made it through the past three years by keeping your head down and staying out of the line of fire? Going along to get along? Following the crowd rather than being yourself? Is this how you want to spend the rest of your career?
In the end, all of us want to be happy and want to know that we are okay no matter what. We want to know that we are making a difference. Does this sound good to you: To like yourself enough, to be for yourself, no matter what the circumstances? Standing up for what you know is right is part of being a leader, supporting others who are standing up for what is right, for their truth? Believing that it is possible to live a life that perfectly suits you, a life that you love?
When I was working as senior vice president of medical affairs of a tertiary medical system in the Midwest, we went through two corporate mergers. The first went relatively well, with the overlap of two independent medical staffs coming together fairly easily, considering how individual physicians each have their own view of how things work best.
Three years later, the second merger was a different story. There was no overlap between the two medical staffs, and the corporate cultures were very different. There came a point where, in my executive leadership role, I felt compelled to stand up for the physicians who opposed the direction that the rest of the executive team and the new board were taking. My taking that stance resulted in my position being reconfigured and re-titled as senior vice president, chief learning officer. That was a role that I embraced, as it suited my strengths and what I loved to do.
However, within a year, my new position was eliminated during a reduction in force. Most likely the move had been planned in advance because it was easier to justify eliminating a CLO than a VPMA. While it was certainly a powerful ego-dissolving experience at the time and resulted in a great degree of personal angst and turmoil, I can say now that I am eternally grateful that it happened, as the values and culture of the newly merged corporation did not align with mine. My contractual severance was the optimal solution for all concerned. Today, 20+ years later, I can’t imagine how I could ever consider going against my values to keep my job.
A Study in Human Design
After leaving that organization, I was invited to study the human design system, a map of the unique circuit board of each individual’s vehicle: the body. The human design system is the operating manual for each person’s genetic code. It demonstrates how our energetic vehicle is being moved through the quantum illusion of time and space. It shows us how to discern our own personal authority, our natural gifts and talents as well as our conditioned thoughts. Living our design allows us to align with our own unique frequency and relax into enjoying our life.
I was a family physician, a physician leader, and a scientist at heart. I was wholeheartedly for the medical profession, both allopathic and osteopathic. I had a deep love for the medical profession, and it was difficult to watch the insidious devolution that was taking place underneath the surface when I was in my executive roles.
While studying the human design system over several years and becoming a licensed and certified human design analyst, I came to see how critical this knowledge of human design is for individuals, particularly those who are in leadership roles. Getting in touch with our innate natural gifts and talents, knowing how our energy is designed to work optimally, and even more importantly, acknowledging the unconscious energetic pull and mental stories that can pull us away from our true selves is essential to being ourselves, to loving ourselves, exactly as we are.
It is possible to truly recognize and appreciate others, to genuinely guide and support others in a leadership position or with family and friends only when we are in touch with our own inner guidance system, our connection to the wisdom of the transcendent power within us that is greater than we are.
We are at a critical juncture in retaining — or maybe I should say regaining — the medical profession’s integrity and its autonomy. The oath that we have all taken — Primum Non Nocere, first, do no harm — must come back to our oath to care for ourselves, for our patients, for each other as leaders.
We need to return to the truth of our sovereignty, be guided by what we know is true for us, and be willing to stand up for that to the benefit of all. That is the role we as physicians have in society, and we need to remind ourselves of it over and over and over again.
As Peter Angood, chief executive officer and president of the American Association for Physician Leadership, says, “We must all continue to seek deeper levels of professional and personal development... . Exploring and creating the opportunities for broader levels of positive transformation in healthcare is within our reach — individually and collectively.”(1) Unless we believe this and work actively toward it, we will see our profession continue to devolve.
Call for Inner Exploration
I encourage you to explore the human design system for yourself, assisted by an experienced licensed and certified human design professional who is living their own design. If it doesn’t call you to this inner exploration for yourself, notice and act on your own inner transcendent guidance as it is appearing to you now.
If we all look in this direction, stand in our truth, and support each other in the process, we can resurrect our connection to the divine physician within each of us who was called to and who has entered the medical profession with the intention to be of service.
This reclaiming of our power as individual physicians can benefit not only us, but also our profession, our patients, our communities, and our relationships with our families and friends. Only by reclaiming our individual integrity and authenticity can we reconnect to our innate happiness and know that we are always okay no matter what. And, seeing through our energetic conditioning as shown via the human design system, how our energy works best in the whole is what allows us to create lives that are perfect for us, to relax into our vehicle which carries us into the future.
Allowing our heart’s desire to come forward, seeing through our limiting thoughts, both subconscious and unconscious, can revitalize us as physician leaders — that’s how we can look forward to a bright future. Performing service, with love for ourselves first, and love for our families, our patients, our colleagues, and our greater communities, is where the real satisfaction and fulfillment lies. It lies within us.
Resources
Bunnell L, Hu RU. The Definitive Book of Human Design: The Science of Differentiation. Carlsbad, CA. HDC Publishing; 2011.
Stone L. Living Your Design Student Manual. Santa Fe, NM. Human Design America; 2007.
Hu RU. Profile and Type Reference Book. Santa Fe, NM. Human Design America; 2010.
Swann-Herbert D, Swann-Herbert L. Your Own Authority. Jovian Archive Corp. 2012.
Schober P. The Human Design System: The Centres. Derendingen, Switzerland: Human Design Services GmbH; 2012.
Rudd R. Circuitry: A Complete Guide to Circuits, Channels and Gates. Santa Fe, NM. Human Design America; 2003.
Judkis M, Steuver H. The List: What Is In and Out in 2023. Washington Post. Dec. 30,2022.
Jovian Archive. Why Human Design? Jovian Archive website. https://jovianarchive.com/Human_Design/Why .
International Human Design School. An Introduction to the Human Design System. IHDS website. https://ihdschool.com/newcomers .
Britt J, Harrington K, Madigan M, et al. Cracking the Rich Code, Vol.10. Auburn, CA. Cracking the Rich Code, LLC; April 2023.
Reference
Angood P. Right-Side, Left-Side, Bi-Directional — Which Is Best? Physician Leadership Journal. March/April 2023. www.physicianleaders.org/articles/doi/10.55834/plj.6305927068