A speaker explains how laziness and selfishness drive their teaching approach, prioritizing efficiency and enjoyment in a communication skills course. They argue these traits push them to cut waste and design for real transformation, not busywork.
Why does this make me a better practitioner? Well, it means that I'm really, really, really focused on getting it right the first time. I hate having to repeat myself. I hate having to answer questions more than once because it just bugs me, I think. Well, then all that time I was talking before, that stuff I did, I wasted my time with it. I really want to get it right the first time in as little time as possible so that we can move on to other things. And that's informed my entire approach with patients. And the entire approach I teach through the Happy Patient project is how can you say and explain stuff? And how can you get the patient to understand and trust you quickly and easily with the minimum amount of effort? Because if you have to go back and redo it, that's just a waste of time. So I really, really streamlined it. Not just my approach, but the way I teach the course as well, to just make sure it's going to give you the most bang for your buck. So I believe that taking a course designed by somebody who's lazy like me actually makes it more effective because then you can benefit from my laziness and just get the stuff that works right away. I'm also selfish. A lot of people. My chair's gone down there. See, I'm too lazy to retake this video like I'm a couple of minutes in now. I'm not going to go and repeat that. So you get all the glitches, you get all the blogs. Anyway, that aside, I'm selfish. I do not like doing something that I don't want to do for myself. And I think that actually, again, is one of my superpowers. So when I say selfish, what I'm referring to is I'm very, very high in trait disagreeableness. That doesn't mean I'm a disagreeable person. I don't like people. Obviously, I wouldn't be doing this job. But I'm disagreeable in the sense it is really, really difficult to get me to do something I don't want to do. If I don't want to do it, I almost certainly won't. Now that you could say that, that's somebody who knows their own mind. If you like them. If you don't like me, you'll say I'm stubborn. And believe me, I've been called stubborn by people I know and love. Sometimes it's really, really hard to get me to do that. If something isn't fun or enjoyable or leading towards something I want to do, I won't do it. And that even goes with patience as well. So my entire approach with patience in order to do it well, because I'm lazy and I want to get it right the first time. I've also had to make sure that it's fun, that it's enjoyable. I am not going to go and deliver a report of findings that isn't enjoyable. That leaves a knot in my stomach like, I used to do that because I really, really believed I had to. And I thought that's the only way. And my laziness was going, well, if I do it that way, at least it'll work the first time. But I found it often didn't. And even when it did, every time I went in, I was just. I had a slight knot in my stomach. I worried that I was going to seem like I was selling. I'd worry, like, I'd seem like, you know, I was after their money or, you know what? It's like you felt that way, too. And I'm so disagreeable and I'm so selfish that I thought, no, I'm not putting up with that, even if it is for the patient's best interests, which I thought at the time was true. I'm not going to do it. I'm too selfish. So I had to go and find other ways of doing things that. That were enjoyable to me because I love clinical practice. I love seeing patients get better. But I can tell you that if I didn't enjoy it, I would stop. When we came back after Covid and all the restrictions and stuff were around at the start, and it was a really different way of working, I came home and said to my wife, after two weeks, if this is how it stays, I quit. Like, I'm not spending the rest of my career working like this. I hate this. Fortunately, it didn't. But that's the only time in my career I've ever considered doing something else because it wasn't fun. That goes for the Happy Patient Project as well. The approaches that I teach, the skills that I teach, they have to be fun. They have to be enjoyable. Otherwise, I'm not going to use them, and then I can't in good conscience teach them. So what that means is when you enroll in the Happy Patient Project, you're getting a course designed by someone who's selfish and lazy, meaning they had to make sure it was enjoyable for them. They had to make sure it was something they wanted to do, something that was fun to use the patients, and they had to make it really efficient. They didn't have to go back and redo things or say 10 words when five would do. So if you're not sure about joining because you think, is this for me? You know, is it going to take too much time? Am I going to have to then spend a load more time with patients? No, because I don't want to spend any more time than necessary to get the job done and do what needs to be done. Are you also thinking like, oh, am I going to, is this going to feel good to deliver? Yeah, I've made sure it's fun. I've made sure the entire process of completing the course is fun. Because if you don't enjoy it, you will not be a good practitioner. If you don't enjoy what you do and believe what you're saying and feel good saying it, it won't work as well. So if those are some of your objections, I get it. I would have exactly the same concerns. Rest assured that's not the case. If you're concerned about the investment, I get it, it's an investment. It's not the cheapest course out there at all. We've broken it down so you can pay over 12 months to make it much, much easier. But, but if you're concerned about that, I understand as well. It is a commitment there. That's why I've put in the money back guarantee. So 100 days, you could go through over three months of content, which is a lot of the prerecorded stuff you'll have access to. And if you go, you know what, this isn't, this isn't right for me, that's fine, you can have every penny back. So if you're concerned about the amount it's going to cost, I get it. But you can have that money back if you decide it's not for you. That's no problem at all. The last concern some people have is the amount of time it will take to go through the content again. I get that it is a commitment. This is not a quick five hour course. And there you go, move on to the next thing. I'm only really interested in working with people who are serious about this because you can't improve your communication in a quick five hour course. You can get some quick tips, you can get like a few like incremental changes, but you won't get the transformational change. And that's what I love seeing. I don't want to teach quick tips. I'm selfish. That just doesn't wake me up in the morning, that doesn't get me excited to do stuff so I'm only really interested in working with people who are prepared to get that transformational change. But that said, it doesn't take a huge amount of time. There are breaks built in throughout the entire program. It's released gradually because the early feedback from earlier versions was there was a bit too much of a brain dump at times. So it's spaced out so you can do it bit by bit by bit by bit. That's why it takes place over 12 months. You don't need 12 months to get through all the recorded content and get through the core modules at all, but you have the access there. You also have lifetime access to all the pre recorded content. So if you get to the end of 12 months and go, you know what, there's still bits I want to cover and people often do, you have all of that there as well. So time doesn't have to be a barrier. So hopefully that's given you some idea as to why having a course designed by someone who's lazy and selfish is helpful. Hopefully that's given you some reassurance if you do have any of those concerns. But if you are unsure about anything, then just reach out and let me know. Equally, if this has put you off and you're going, I don't want to give my money and my time to someone who's lazy and selfish. Great, let me know. I would love that feedback as well. But like I said, that should give you some reassurance. And if you do want to enroll, make sure you do it by midnight on Friday. That is when we're closing enrollments, so it will open again sometime later in the year. I don't know yet when, but if you don't want to get fomo, you don't want to miss out, then make sure you enroll by midnight on Friday and I'll see you in the course. Take care.
