Trying to learn from Goldilocks…

Written by Dr Paul McGurgan

Our personal and professional lives have highs and lows, with many challenges along the way. I would love to say that I have it sorted, but my lived experience tells me that this is all too frequently far from the case.

So how can Goldilocks teach us about life as a doctor? She did not like her extremes, preferring what Aristotle would term the golden mean.

After Paul graduated from TCD med school in 1995, he decided that he needed less sleep and more adrenaline in his life… although he later found that starting a family could have achieved these same goals, he decided to become an O&G.

Paul loves running with his dogs and hopes the dogs feel the same way. Whether it’s having to run up one of life’s big hills or cruising down one, Paul tries to remember what a lucky bugger he is regardless.

The Goldilocks’ Rule states that humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities. Not too hard. Not too easy. Just right. In our doctor roles, each day is a learning day, and we are often consciously or subconsciously trying to find our Goldilocks’ zone; if I do something new or challenging and I ask for assistance too early, am I lacking confidence? Or if I don’t seek assistance, do I lack insight?  Between which of these two Scylla and Charybdis zones we steer towards will depend on the circumstances, but I have learnt, painfully, that overconfidence is a dangerous trait in medicine. 

Likewise, most of us want to be the best at what we do, but we all sit somewhere on the many bell curves of life. By all means try to be your best, and keep on getting up when you fall down, but consider that if it were just down to effort and positive thinking, then everyone who plays a sport and applies these rules would be an Olympic gold medallist. Kenny Roger’s ‘The Gambler’ has much to teach us about life; like everyone, doctors would do well to learn when to grit, and when to quit. 

Lastly, our professional identities may benefit from Goldilocks’ principles also. Nurture and value your role as a doctor, it can sustain you when the going gets tough at work, and keep you doing the right thing when no one is watching. But I have seen too many of my colleagues allow medicine to dominate their lives, with ill effects on them, their families and loved ones.

So I continue to hope for the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. And I am still often trying to learn from Goldilocks…