Everyday is a new day.

TO MY SISTER I don’t know how I’d survive life without my sister. As a little kid, I wanted to be her. Anything she did, I wanted to do. I was that annoying little sister who wanted to copy everything about her older sister. And she was that older sister who hated the fact that her little sister was her copycat.I quickly grew out of that phase, but this doesn’t mean I no longer look up to her.  For 19 years now, I’ve shared a lot of time with my sister so we’ve always been close. Like most sisters, we’ve gone through different stages–from playmates to study buddies to besties to enemies to shopping partners to travel buddies and so and so. Of course, it wasn’t always rainbows and butterflies between us. We’ve had our fair share of fights and tears through the years. But even so, I can honestly say she’s always been there for me–cheering me on, supporting me in all my endeavours and even sacrificing her time and energy to help me with my projects that don’t benefit her in anyway...

Life is all about love.  We don’t have to have a ton of relationships, but we all need people in our lives who get us. Who’ve seen our freak flag countless times and love when it comes out. People who tag us on memes that capture our spirit, or Tasty videos they know we’d drool over. People who text us with random pictures of bumper stickers or book covers or bath mats or beard accessories with a note that reads “Saw this and thought of you.” We all need these kind of close connections to feel a sense of security and belonging in the world. We need people who think of us, look out for us, accept us, bring out the best in us, and challenge us to be the best us we can possibly be. And we need to be that person for them. It could be the family you were born into, the one that you chose, or the one that chose you after plowing down the big wall you erected to keep yourself safe. Whoever makes up your tribe, and regardless of its siz...

Imagine this… Someone walks into the gym, warms up, does a little bit of this exercise, does a little bit of that exercise, bounces around to a few machines, maybe hops on the treadmill, finishes their workout, and leaves the gym. This isn't a critique of their workout. In fact, it's quite possible that they got a nice workout in. So, what is notable about this situation? They didn't measure anything. They didn't track their workout. They didn't count reps or weight or time or speed or any other metric. And so, they have no basis for knowing if they are making progress or not. Not tracking your progress is one of  the six major mistakes  I see people make in the gym. But here's the thing: We all have areas of life that we say are important to us, but that we aren't measuring. What We Measure, We Improve Count something. Regardless of what one ultimately does in medicine—or outside of medicine, for that matter—one should be a scientist in...