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What is our purpose in life? What drives us? What gives us fulfilment?
These are deeply personal and sometimes incredibly difficult-to-answer questions, but I believe they hold the key to understanding what makes us tick.
Buckminster Fuller, the visionary architect and thinker in the throes of depression asked himself this:
“What is my job on this planet? What is it that needs doing, that I know something about, that probably won’t happen unless I take responsibility for it?
It was to change his life around, and have in turn inspired many leaders to ground themselves in a career or life-defining purpose.1 It probably sums up my general approach.
Like many colleagues, I didn’t really plan a career in Medical Leadership. For a combination of reasons—inherent competitiveness, personal tragedy at an early age, strong role-modelling (good and bad), profound faith in the human race, fascination with the ‘human condition’—I have always had a deep personal drive to be the best person I can be. I am very driven to improve the world around me, and to mine the depths of my own potential.
I was launched into a Clinical Director role in a service under extreme pressure earlier than may have been …
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