#229 What I Learned from Ryan Holiday's "The Obstacle is the Way"

Hey, everyone. Today we're going to talk about a crucial topic for physicians. For anyone listening to this episode, it's about overcoming obstacles. How to perceive them, the obstacles so you can better and more successfully overcome them. I know this is relevant for everyone out there. I know you're going to enjoy it. So stay tuned. Welcome to the Passive Income MD Podcast, where we talk about creating your ideal life through multiple streams of income. If you enjoy hearing about this stuff, make sure to hit subscribe. Now let's get on with the show. Okay, so no matter if you're a physician, a parent, a partner, a friend, it doesn't matter what you do. We all deal with difficult challenges in our lives. Maybe as a physician in particular, you have to deal with a tough patient today, or you had to navigate a complex medical issue or maybe even navigate your healthcare system to get what you want. There's so much about managing this not only from a physical standpoint, like let's say you're a surgeon, you gotta figure out a solution to a problem, but also the emotional part of it, but really can take, take a toll on all of us when we're trying to balance work, life challenges, get through new projects. This whole journey can feel like one obstacle after another, and many times it can get us just downright feeling down. I think we all know conceptually that obstacles are an inevitable part of life, but no one teaches us how to really deal with those. So let me introduce you to one of my favorite books about changing your mindset in the face of these obstacles and hurdles and impediments. It's a book called the Obstacle is the Way. And I know I've talked about it before on my, on blogs, wherever I can, I know I'll talk about it. It is a book by the author Ryan Holiday. He sold millions of copies of this book and many other books in addition to this. And the Reason why it's currently one of my favorite books. I have it on my nightstand. I take it on vacation with me. I read chapters of it here and there and as I go. The reason I think it resonates so much with me is it demystifies or makes it really simple how to get past obstacles in the most productive way so you get the outcome that you want. Isn't that what we all want? We want an outcome. We it. Things are in our way. So we want to either knock it down, jump over them, get to where we want to get to. I have so many examples of obstacles, but let's say in my career here's an obstacle that I've talked about before, but maybe I'll talk about a little bit more detail now. When I first came out of fellowship and I did fellowship in OB anesthesia, my first job was my dream job. It was the location where I did my fellowship. And I was so excited to be there. I thought I was on top of the world. I was completely set. They have a two year partnership track, and so I knew that for two years I'd be working as a junior partner. In fact, I was ready for the grind. I'd already been grinding during residency and fellowship, so what was a big deal? I'd be getting paid more for it, but I'd be putting in a lot of the nights and the weekends and the holidays for a couple years until I became a partner. Now, there was some expectations set around becoming a partner, and that was the concept of equitable shifts. And I'd be eligible for those equitable shifts, but I wouldn't necessarily get them until they would free up. Meaning that right now the whole group was relatively full in terms of shifts. As shifts became available, they would flow to me as the new partner in two years to the point where I would get full and fed, and it would pretty much put me on equal footing as every other partner. So I put in my time for those two years, and two years can be a long time. But of course, if we've been through residency fellowship, it just feels like another two years working a ton of nights, sleeping in the hospital. And for me and OB anesthesia, we were in house. So I was sometimes sleeping in house 10 to 12 to 13 nights a month. And you all know what those call room beds are like. And those call rooms are like. They're not the greatest places to be. But it was okay. I put in my time, and I knew that if I did that there would be rewards on the other end. As physicians, we're great at delayed gratification. In fact, that's what we've been trained to do. And so we're used to doing that. And I remember hitting the partnership mark and being so excited. Not too much of a change. I mean, I would get paid a little bit more, but I knew that any other available shifts would start flowing to me and things would open up. Unfortunately, one of our partners passed away. Somebody that I saw as a mentor, someone I absolutely loved, and I would never wish that upon anybody or this person. But net result was that these shifts opened up and naturally they would flow to me as a partner. And when the next month came around. That's what I had expected when I saw the schedule. But a funny thing, my schedule didn't change and in fact it got worse. I found myself having more nights and then I found the person in charge who was making the schedule. Somehow his schedule got better. He had basically cherry picked the good shifts for himself and again flowed. The bad shifts to me didn't impact any other partner. I don't know how you feel in that situation, but I got really upset. I saw what was happening. I felt it was unfair. I felt it was unjust, especially based on the expectations that I had. Conversations were had before I joined the practice, how things would go, and it was nothing like I expected. And I saw that as a huge challenge, a hurdle, an obstacle. It completely changed and I was down. I was really upset, I was angry. I don't know if I was fully depressed, but I was really sad about the situation. And I wish I had a book like this, the Obstacles Away because I didn't really know how to handle it. Have you ever thought about investing in luxury short term rentals? If so, let me introduce you to Wandering Capital, a powerful, distinguished investment firm. And they're shaking up things in this whole space. They're currently launching their second short term rental fund and I want to tell you it's a passive income opportunity that.

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In the book, he talks about reframing challenges. For many of us, we see challenges as roadblocks and something we get upset or angry about. But what if you could take that and reframe it as an opportunity for Growth, an opportunity to learn, to improve, to find a better way. As a physician, it happens to us all the time. We have difficult cases, we have setbacks, we have a ton of obstacles, and that's the norm for all of us. It's not like when a surgery goes wrong, or you get in there, there's an anomaly, or you get into a complication where you stop and you're like, I'm done. No, you figure it out. You find another way on the spot. You have to be innovative, You've got to be resilient, you've got to be resourceful to figure out how to get to a better outcome. I wouldn't say it always happens this way, but sometimes you end up with a better outcome than you originally had gone for. And he has this quote. He says, the things which hurt instruct, meaning the things that challenge you can actually be your teacher. It can help you figure out new things and learn new things along the way. I mean, how many of us were forced to learn new things because we hit up against the wall and we had to find another way? I know we're all capable of that, and we've all become so resilient, whether we know that or not. All these obstacles that we had during residency, all the challenges of the hours, the work, this did make us more resilient, not only in our medical lives, but outside lives as well. We use those as stepping stones to help get where we're at. Sometimes we forget what we've gone through, what we went through to get where we're at today. And sometimes we worry about things that will come. But if we just looked at what we've already done, we'll realize that we've done it before, and we're capable of taking challenges head on, learn from it, and figure out how to get better. So in the book, it's all about that first step, perception. When you're faced with a situation, take a moment to see what it actually is. Is it something that will stop you from getting what you want forever, indefinitely? Or just something that will challenge you, give you an opportunity to see things differently? And to do this, it actually takes action to do this, it takes intentional thought. And I know this can be challenging because we all default to a certain emotion or how we want to feel in a certain situation. But if you can have this framework in your mind where you're gonna perceive something, see it for what it is, see what it could be, and be intentional about seeing it a certain way, and then figuring out what action you need to take. I mean, it's so important for all of us. Any of you who have been in a code situation, I know that's every single person out there listening to this, where a patient codes, and you have to deal with it. Who are the people that you look to in this situation to lead? Who are the people that you're confident with? It's not the people that are running around screaming their heads off. It's the people you can tell have mastered their emotions in a high stress environment like that, know how to center themselves, see the situation for what it is, and then figure out what to do next. And the people that got really good at it. I don't know. I was always impressed by the people who seem to have, like, supreme control of that moment. They knew the protocols in and out. They knew what step to take, and they weren't freaking out. Especially as an anesthesiologist, you run into situations where the pulse ox starts dropping. You run into difficult airway, the patient's paralyzed. You have to get that airway in as soon as possible. In the beginning, you would freak out because you didn't know how to control your emotions. You didn't know the next steps. Over time, through practice, you become a master of your own emotions during that time. And the next time it comes, you get better. So with my situation at work, it took me actually a few weeks to break out of that funk. And I don't know what exactly what it was, but there was a shift in my thinking where I realized, okay, I've been a little bit naive about the way things were. I thought everything would be perfect and rosy and I would be set Once I became a physician and attending, I mean, and I felt like I had to grow up a little bit. Not everything will work my way. I can't control everything. And when I understood that, it opened up the pathway for me to figure something else out. And I realized I need to create other income streams outside of medicine so I can control my life in medicine how I want it. And that led me to learning about real estate, learning about businesses. And although it was not the same path forward that I thought it took me in another branch, I would never trade that for the world.

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We can't wait to see you inside. In that moment, I looked at the situation as something that was horrible and I would never want to go through it now on the other side of it, a little bit more than 10 years later, I realized that was necessary to push me in a different direction, to expand my mindset, to expand my opportunities and resources. And I wouldn't want it any other way right now. I mean, how many of you have something in your life like that where something happened in the past? Maybe it was a rejection to a certain school, maybe it was a rejection certain person. And it ended up and ended up in a way that you would have never anticipated or expected and you wouldn't want it any other way right now. Just take a moment, think about that. So this is what he means by the obstacle is the way. In fact, obstacles are here to stay. You're going to keep running into them. When you overcome one, there's going to be another but can you realize, and how quickly can you realize that it is the way to get where you need to be. It is the way to teach you. It is a way that you will grow. It will help you get better. That's what Ryan Holiday and all these other thought leaders in the space of stoicism and overcoming challenges, that's what they're all about. And because he's had such a profound impact on my life, that's why I've invited Ryan Holiday to be the keynote speaker at this year's PIMDCON 2024. It's just in a few short weeks, he's gonna talk about how to overcome the challenges and the adversity you're feeling in medicine today, whether you're a private practice physician or whether you're an employed physician. But just the overall concept of meeting challenges in medicine, which will inevitably happen for all of us and in our daily lives, and how to actually see that for what it is, which is an opportunity for growth, for something better. In the end, I hope you can join us, but even if you can't, I'll definitely share some more insights from what I learned after the event. I hope this has been helpful for you in some way. Thanks for all your encouraging messages about the podcast, how it's impacted you. It's always funny to think that people are actually listening to me as I speak into this microphone, but I really appreciate you. Your encouragement means everything and it motivates me to keep going. So thank you so much. Thanks for sharing this podcast with others that you think might get value from it and have an amazing week. Well, let's talk again soon. Take care. Enjoy the show. Let me know by dropping a review in the podcast app you're listening to us in. And if you haven't already, be sure to hit subscribe. Join thousands of physicians who are also on this journey to creating their ideal lives through multiple streams of income. Learn more at our website, passiveincomemd.com thanks again for allowing me to be a part of your journey. See you next time.