Choices

Last month I shared with you about the book The Final Summit by Andy Andrews. You may recall it was about a group of people from all across history trying to find two words that would reset the compass of humanity and turn things back on course. This book was one of those “game changers” for me. And while we had some good fun guessing at what those two words would be, today I want to talk about them.

It seems fitting that we start off our discussions about Medical Transcriptionist Week by talking about these two words.  In the end, it’s such a simple principle that I found myself is one of those “DUH moments” when you scratch your head and wonder how that eluded you.

Before I give you the two words, let me give you a bit of background. I was at a place where I just wasn’t sure what was next. What I knew is that I wanted to create something that mattered to our profession. What I knew was that the traditional avenues for trying that weren’t working. I spent hours and hours analyzing ideas, reading things, thinking about possibilities. And then I read this book. I thought it would make a great weekend read. I was toying with the idea of another site for MTs, one that offered a membership and could provide premium content, some ways to connect to other groups out there and tell our story, and be something that could make a difference. It’s so easy to get stuck in what I like to call paralysis by analysis. Then came the two words:

DO SOMETHING.

It was with this I realized it was time to stop thinking and just DO. It was time to stop reading about ideas, talking to others, asking people what they thought of a name, etc., and just do something. From that, the MT Inner Circle was kicked off, with a great team of MTs who agreed to be a part of the original group and help develop content. Many of you have since joined that site.

In the past month, we’ve made some great strides. New members are coming on every week. We have had some great discussions on the general blog. The members only section is growing with content, including a really awesome video about how to encrypt the hard drive of your computer by Mike DeTuri. We made contact with the Society for Participatory Medicine and began to tell our story to that group, a group that has some real influence in DC and also is a way to reach out to patients and explain our role in keeping them safe by what we do in healthcare documentation. The last couple of weeks have been full of “doing” and led to the webinar we will have on Thursday about the EHR and roles for the MT. I can’t wait to share the conversations that have been happening around that with you and hope you have signed up to attend!

Our Own Final Frontier

Our profession is much like the description of humanity in this book. We are challenged beyond belief. It’s not the same world it was 15, 10, 5, or even 2 years ago. Technology is changing how we do things every single day. Every single day we hear that we could be eliminated. And every single day we hear about someone else who is going to “figure it out” for us. We seem to spend a lot of time talking about how we need to do something, how we need to figure out our future, and yet we don’t seem to spend as much time and energy really doing anything. It’s time to change that.

Your Challenge

Today I want to challenge you to do something. What that sometime is will be entirely up to you. Maybe it’s about taking the step to get your credential. Maybe it’s about doing something for your health. Perhaps you are thinking of going back to school. Some of you may be even thinking you should sign up for the EHR course we’re doing here on this site. Maybe it’s stepping out and applying for that new job. And maybe, some of you have been considering joining us at the MT Inner Circle. Today’s challenge is about stopping all of that thinking and do something.

What will you do today? What step will you take toward changing things for yourself? I look forward to some great discussion on this one!

Today’s prize will be one registration for the EHR Course that we have here at MT Tools Online. The current course is on week four this week and we’re having a great time learning new things and poking the box about our roles for the future. All you have to do to be eligible for the drawing is to add your comment below answering the question posed and you’re in the drawing. Remember you must comment here to be eligible!