Skip to main content

Theme 1: My 'Why'



This is ME! (in a nutshell  🥜)

After an impromptu poll from my peers about what qualities and characteristics make me unique, the traits to describe me were fairly unanimous among my closest co-workers and friends. 

My Personal Traits

  • organized
  • dependable
  • punctual
  • master advocator
  • confident
I am often the person in the office who volunteers to roll out a new process or pilot a new workflow. I attempt to find ways to bring us together as a team while also keeping a fun environment that helps us to remain sane in a stressful environment. Often in our profession if you can't find ways to laugh you will almost certainly cry on some days. Personally, working hard and feeling productive gives me a sense of pride and fulfillment. It's hard for me to slow down because of this inner drive!

The things that I love in life and bring me joy are easier for me to recognize after taking a period of time in which I reflected upon what makes me feel true happiness. I try to pick something off of this list and do it when I feel like I am in a rut and need something to give me a boost. I think everyone should make one of these lists and try to do something that brings you joy every day. 

My Happiness List

  • Exercising 💪
  • Watching the sunrise or sunset  🌅
  • Going on an impromptu dinner with a friend 🍲
  • Self care activity (massage, manicure, pedicure, hair treatment, etc)💆
  • Sending someone a small surprise or appreciation text 🎁
  • Playing a board game with my kids 🎲
  • Calling my dad 📱

A little bit about my career... 

I'm an oncology nurse and have been for almost 15 years. I found my passion in oncology care when I first became a nurse although I initially thought the excitement of critically ill patients in an acute trauma care setting would be my calling. I quickly found out that I had much more to offer to the oncologic population and immediately had a connection with that group of patients. 

But this does not tell you WHY I do what I do. It just tells you WHO I am by giving a background of my personality and experiences, so you have a better understanding of what motivates me on a personal level. 

So let's get into it! What makes me tick? What is my why?

This is my why... 

😍

Ok, I know a person can't be your 'why' technically, but the lessons that I learned while being a part of his life has lead me to a greater understanding of why I do what I do every day and led me to a path of greater self-actualization about myself and how I can change the lives of others. This was my husband who passed away about 9 months ago. I cared for him for 7 years before he lost his battle with cancer. 

Since I was living my life with someone who was literally living every day like it could be their last it opened my eyes to what is really important to me in this lifetime. The desire to help others in their time of need is an inexplicable internal feeling that I have. I almost don't feel whole if I'm not helping others and I have this deep-seated internal need to help others when they are their most vulnerable. While I know I'm not likely to find the cure for cancer, I do know that I can at least make each person's cancer journey perhaps a little more tolerable. I wish everyone could watch this next video published by the Cleveland Clinic (2014). It literally brought me to tears and although there is no actual speaking in the video, it says more than anybody's words could say. 




Everyone is going through something in their lives and until we stop to think about that in our daily interactions, we can't truly provide for the needs of each individual on a deeper level. 

One of my favorite videos that I have come across was a post of Steve Jobs speaking at a commencement ceremony at Stanford University in 2008 entitled 'How to Live Before You Die'. Much of what he says strikes an emotional chord with me as I can personally relate to what he has to say in this speech. It stands out in my mind when I hear him say, "if today was the last day of your life, is this what I would want to be doing?" He goes on to state that, "the only way to be truly satisfied is to love others and to love what you do" (Jobs, 2008).  In our fast-paced world, sometimes we need to stop and reflect on that concept.



Now for a little more technical perspective...

Simon Sinek (2010) does an excellent job discussing and differentiating between being internally driven and being driven by external factors. If you are inherently driven by what you are passionate about the effort needed to accomplish what you need doesn't feel like a job at all. If you find external factors motivating your daily decisions all aspects will seem like a chore. 

If you are passionate about what you are doing you are driven to make changes to make improvements. Take the Diffusion of Innovation Theory curve for example (see below). As you can see, there are only a small part of the population that are early innovators. These are the people that have the strongest internal motivating drive. It's not always about what you have or the resources you are given but the passion to continue to keep pushing forward often after multiple attempts or rejection from peers. Sinek emphasized that it is not until the 15-18% mark on this curve where the system actually tips to make an idea take off (Sinek, 2010).  

Distribution.png

Here is a motto that I repeat daily when attempting to do something new that makes me nervous. This is also a popular motto for the population of innovators: 






Truer words could not be spoken. 

The overarching theme I found during this reflection that resonated with me is to live each day like it is your last as you only live once! - or in the words of our new digital generation -- YOLO!😎

Continuing on with technicalities...

After reviewing the Scope and Standards of Practice of the American Nurses Association (2016) I discovered a few areas of professional growth that I could focus on to help me to become a more effective leader and contribute to reaching my goals. This includes increasing continuing education and certifications. To be a good nurse leader, I would need to role model professional development and ongoing education. This can be accomplished by specialized certifications, continuing education programs, and formal schooling such as the master's program I am currently enrolled in. A majority of additional educational opportunities must be obtained independently and require a drive to want to learn more to be able to be a wealth of knowledge to your peers and patients. 

Additionally, skills required to assist in management and allocation of resources and fiscal responsibility will be a new task as a leader that I am not previously accustomed to considering. This will require a different way of thinking to possess the qualities needed to excel in incorporating these into creating a better environment for those that I work with. 


I hope you continue to follow my blog through the next 7 weeks as I continue on my path to becoming a more effective leader through ongoing self-reflection. 


References: 

American Nurses Association. (2016). Nursing Administration: Scope and Standards of Practice (2nd ed.). Silver   Spring, MD. 

Cleveland Clinic. (2014).  If we could see inside other people's hearts [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQtOgE2s2xI

Jobs, S. (2008, March). How to live before you die. [Video]. TED Conferences.     https://www.ted.com/talks/steve_jobs_how_to_live_before_you_die?language=en     

Sinek, S. (2010, May). How great leaders inspire action. [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Theme 2: Understanding Preferences and Personalities

My Personality Test Results I was quite excited for the post this week as I knew it would be a way to take a more analytical approach into my personality and to learn more about myself and how I can use my strengths to become a more effective leader. More importantly, I was interested in learning my weaknesses so I would be able to recognize them as areas of potential improvement and be able to utilize new techniques to not allow my weaknesses to negatively impact my ability to function as a leader.  After completing a personality assessment on 16personalities.com/personality-types  the results are in... Results of personality test: Advocate  What an advocate is: f or advocate personalities, success doesn’t come from money or status but from seeking fulfillment, helping others, and being a force for good in the world. Nothing lights up Advocates like changing someone else’s life for the better. “Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to becom...
Post a Comment
Read more

Healthy Organizations

I knew that this week would be enlightening but also difficult for me at the same time as this is an area in which I struggle and have a known need for improvement :  Conflict management and dealing with anger.   My people-pleasing attitude leads me to want to accommodate other people's wishes and often be passive when I am upset about something. I have come a long way in actually voicing my opinion and dealing with conflict and am currently seeking several ways in which I can become a more effective communicator in this instance, particularly due to the importance of these necessary skills as a leader.                                             Thomas-Kilman Conflict Model My Results: Accommodating: 'I Lose, You Win' Accommodating means putting others wants or requests before your own. However, this style of conflict management can be viewed as ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Concluding Insights

  This course has been one of the most enlightening educational experiences that I have had thus far. I have learned about improving my self-awareness and gaining strategies to become an ideal leader in a complex adaptive system like healthcare.  I was previously concerned with learning technical skills and being considered the most intelligent. What I have come to find out was that being the best version of yourself is so much more than the technical aspects and runs on a much deeper level emotionally than I ever took the time to think about. Also, I gained knowledge that emotional intelligence (EQ) tends to win out over intelligence quotient (IQ) when comparing career and lifetime success.  So....Who am I?   This is career me, Kari Accurso, oncology nurse at the local university cancer center. A woman striving to find a way to do what is best for my patients and trying to do more than what is expected because it inherently feels like the right thing to do. I'm co...
Post a Comment
Read more