Don't Burn Out!

Ben Carson

Pediatric Neurosurgeon
Johns Hopkins Children's Center
Baltimore, Maryland

I have a prescription for boosting your resistance to burnout: Get outside of yourself, and do something that has nothing to do with your normal day's work. That's what I tell my patients. Do other things. Do things for other people, if you can. Do whatever you must to get the focus off your own problems. You need to have a diversion, particularly when times are difficult.

I average about 12 surgeries a week, from brain tumors and spinal-cord tumors to a range of other problems. I often work on more than one patient at a time, and, since each one is in a different room, I'm constantly trying to coordinate things -- how long each surgery will take and when to send for the next patient. And by my side, there's always a resident who's learning to perform neurosurgery. I feel like a pilot, trying to teach someone else how to fly a jet.

Under those circumstances, the pressure can really build. When I start getting irritated with people, I take that as a warning. I don't start yelling; in fact, I become quiet. People who know me can tell when I'm suddenly not my normal, chipper self. That's when I need a booster shot -- a day or a few minutes spent doing something besides medicine.

I've found that having a morning ritual -- meditation or some quiet reading time -- can set the tone for the whole day. Every morning, I spend a half hour reading the Bible, especially the Book of Proverbs. There's so much wisdom there. During the day, if I encounter a frustrating situation, I think back to one of the verses that I read that morning. Take Proverbs 16:32, for example: "He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city."

Ben Carson has been chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Children's Center since 1984. When he first started in that role, he was just 33 years old -- and the youngest U.S. doctor to hold such a position. In 1994, he and his wife, Candy, founded what is now known as the Carson Scholars Fund Inc., a nonprofit organization that offers college scholarships to students with high academic achievement and qualities that have a positive impact on society. Carson holds more than 20 honorary doctorates. His books include "Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story" (Zondervan, 1990), an autobiography, and "Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence" (Zondervan, 1992).

Jane Moyer

Consultant
iQuantic Inc.
San Francisco, California

I don't practice yoga or meditation. My recharging rituals are more action-oriented: I go away and completely "unplug." I started doing that back when I was a human-resources manager at Xerox Business Services. At that time, I was also one of the division's business-excellence managers on the team that won the Baldrige Award in 1997. Our team worked day and night for several years preparing for the Baldrige examination.

To stay fresh and focused, I made sure that I had certain getaway rituals -- things that I did each season, year after year. And I continue to do them today. These rituals don't always last long -- perhaps two days or a week -- but just a sip of a place can be enough to renew me for a long time.

For example, every October, I spend some time on Cape Cod, in Provincetown, Massachusetts. I rent a cabin that's two blocks away from the ocean, and I stay there for a week. The cabin has no phone or television. I don't get in my car, I don't listen to the radio, and I don't read newspapers. The sound of the waves is my only outside stimulation. For the first couple of days, I go through withdrawal, but then I adjust. I cook, I read, I walk on the beach. It's absolutely glorious.

On my way home, when I start thinking about work again, I see things differently. Work seems much less cluttered. One of the amazing things about getting away is that it helps me understand what's important and what's not.

Jane Moyer (jmoyer@iquantic.com) was named "role-model manager" at Xerox Business Services in 1996. Last year, she joined iQuantic, a San Francisco-based firm that specializes in compensation and organizational consulting for high-tech and knowledge-based companies.