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Nov. 2, 2024
The importance of gratitude to your research career
In today's episode, we explore how gratitude can be a transformative force in your research career. While it might seem unrelated to your scientific pursuits, gratitude is crucial for resilience and well-being as a clinician researcher.
Key Takeaways:
- Gratitude as a Resilience Builder: It provides the courage and strength to keep moving forward.
- Improved Mental Health: Recognizing progress and wins helps to alleviate stress and uplift mood.
- Stronger Connections: Appreciation for others enriches professional relationships.
- Increased Creativity: A positive mindset fuels innovation and problem-solving.
- Motivation and Persistence: Gratitude sustains motivation, helping us persist through obstacles.
- Job Fulfillment: Appreciating wins brings greater satisfaction in our work.
- Enhanced Well-being: Gratitude supports physical health by promoting positive habits.
Final Thoughts: Embracing gratitude is a discipline that, when practiced regularly, can profoundly benefit every area of your life, including your journey as a clinician researcher. Remember, there’s always something to be grateful for—even on the toughest days.
Sponsor/Advertising/Monetization Information:
This episode is sponsored by Coag Coach LLC, a leading provider of coaching resources for clinicians transitioning to become research leaders. Coag Coach LLC is committed to supporting clinicians in their scholarship.
Looking for a coach?
Sign up for a coaching discovery call today: https://www.coagcoach.com/service-page/consultation-call-1
Transcript
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Welcome to the Clinician Researcher podcast, where academic clinicians learn the skills
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to build their own research program, whether or not they have a mentor.
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As clinicians, we spend a decade or more as trainees learning to take care of patients.
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When we finally start our careers, we want to build research programs, but then we find
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that our years of clinical training did not adequately prepare us to lead our research
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program.
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Through no fault of our own, we struggle to find mentors, and when we can't, we quit.
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However, clinicians hold the keys to the greatest research breakthroughs.
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For this reason, the Clinician Researcher podcast exists to give academic clinicians
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the tools to build their own research program, whether or not they have a mentor.
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Now introducing your host, Toyosi Onwuemene.
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Welcome to the Clinician Researcher podcast.
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I'm your host, Toyosi Onwuemene, and it is an absolute pleasure to be talking with you
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today.
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Thank you so much for tuning in.
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I am excited to bring you today's episode titled, The Importance of Gratitude.
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You may be thinking, wait a minute, how is this related to research or being a clinician
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or medicine in any way?
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But we're going to talk about gratitude.
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It's always relevant to every area of your life, and it's particularly important as you
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are growing in your role as a clinician researcher.
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Why do I want to share this episode at this time?
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You may have experienced along your career path times when you feel tired.
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You're like, I've been writing a lot of grants, I've been submitting a lot of manuscripts,
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and there's all this stuff going on with my clinical work.
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And yes, we're in the midst of an election season that feels contentious, and there are
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wars going on all over the world.
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And sometimes you get to a point where things begin to really weigh you down.
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And you really do need to do whatever is necessary to give you the strength to keep going.
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And some of that is saying, I'm not going to focus on all the things that are happening
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outside of me that I have no control over.
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I'm going to focus on the things that I can focus on.
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And why is that important?
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It's important because if you don't do that, there will always be something that will come
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and derail you, office politics, national politics, international politics.
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That will always be something that will come and potentially overwhelm you.
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And so I want to talk about one practice that's been so helpful for me and I think will be
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helpful for you as well.
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And it really is the practice of gratitude.
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And I want to say, one of the things I've heard from a mentor that I respect very much
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is that gratitude is a discipline.
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It really is.
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And I recognize that it's a discipline and it's a practice.
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And the more you practice it, the better you get at it.
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And to be honest, it can be hard any time because especially as physicians, but just
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as humans in general, we are wired to focus on the things that are not working.
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And so to be able to discipline yourself and say, okay, it may have felt like it was a
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rough day, but what actually did work?
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What things happened that I would say that was a win?
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And I really think it's a discipline.
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It's a practice.
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And so I want to share some of that practice with you and some of the benefits of that
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practice.
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So the very first thing I want to share is that gratitude helps you have resilience.
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And it is important because honestly, the stuff we do as clinician researchers, as scientists,
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as clinicians, it's not so hard.
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I mean, the actual doing is not so hard.
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The challenge is that we keep getting knocked down.
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To be honest, we're really resilient people.
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We stand back up again, we shake it off, we dust it off, we do it again, and then we get
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knocked down again.
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And we're like, okay, okay, okay, I'm going to get back up and we do it again.
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And sometimes we can keep doing the getting knocked down and getting back up again, and
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then three weeks will pass and then we're okay, right?
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Because the rotation is over or the weeks on service are over or the clinic itself, it's
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over something.
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You are able to kind of muscle through because you know that there's an expiring date.
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But sometimes you get to this place where finally you get knocked down and you're like,
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you know what, how about I just don't stand up?
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Or what I just stay laying down on the floor, curled up in a corner and I don't move because
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if I'm laying down, they won't try to knock me down again, or there's just nowhere else
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I can go, so I'm just going to lay down.
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And I believe you've probably experienced some of those days.
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I feel like I've experienced some of those days very recently.
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And to be honest, this podcast is later than it should be because it's one of those days
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where I'm like, I don't even want to show up today.
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But when you are lying down, maybe you're curled up in a corner and you start to think
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about, okay, what is going on that's right with the world?
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It feels like everything is against me.
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It feels like nothing is working.
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But what is working?
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What are the things that actually are working?
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And when you start to think about that, you realize you're like, wait a minute, it's not
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all bad.
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Things are actually working.
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There are some things that are not going so well, but there are other things that are.
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You know what it does?
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It gives you the courage to get back up again.
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And it gives you the courage to go again.
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It gives you renewed zeal.
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We need courage.
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It just gives you the oomph, the energy you need to move forward.
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And so gratitude matters because it gives you resilience.
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It reminds you that you can.
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It reminds you why you can't.
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It reminds you of the things that are working, that are going right.
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And it gives you the strength to get back up again.
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So gratitude matters because it increases your resilience.
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Number two is that gratitude is so important for your mental health.
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All of the things I mentioned weigh on you.
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And sometimes they're like a thick, heavy, not comfortable blanket that just weighs you
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down.
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And it's like, oh my goodness, I don't know what's going to happen next.
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I don't know who's going to do this.
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I don't know what's going to happen with this grant.
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I don't know what's going to happen with my transition.
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I don't know what's going to happen with how much clinical work I have to do.
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There's so much that we're always thinking about.
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And I have to tell you, it can be overwhelming.
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I don't even have to tell you.
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I bet you know.
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It can be overwhelming.
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It can feel like you're being weighed down.
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It can just feel like everything is just not working.
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And when you start to think through the things that are working, it probably releases some
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endorphins because there's a happy mood that comes over.
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And you're like, wait a minute.
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It is working.
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Because some of the things that get us down are the feelings that we're not enough or
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that we're putting in so much effort and nothing is coming out of it or that nothing's been
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accepted.
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We've published no managers.
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We've had no grants go through.
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For example, I feel like I'm in such a state.
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We have a grant that's going to be reviewed on the fourth.
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But after that grant, there's not another grant going to be reviewed.
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So now I feel like, oh, I lost my mojo.
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I mean, actually, I did try to submit a grant.
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It didn't quite work out.
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But that's a story for another day.
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But now I don't have like, OK, this grant's being reviewed.
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And then the next grant is coming.
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Then where to submit another grant?
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And so it feels like, oh, I'm doing nothing.
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You know, weighs on me.
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But when I think about it, I'm like, wait a minute.
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You submitted this grant last time.
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And this one was funded.
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And this one got a good score.
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And this one you're going to put in next time.
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I realized that, you know what?
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There's a lot of opportunity here.
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And things are moving forward even when they don't feel like they are.
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And so it improves my mood.
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It re-energizes me.
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And it helps my mental health.
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And so imagine if I did that every day, right?
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And this is not me saying anything negative against antidepressants.
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If you take them, please do take them.
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Don't stop taking them.
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But what I'm saying is that it really does.
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It's a booster to your mood.
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And so if you're going to think about, how can I think about gratitude?
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Think about it like medicine for your mood, medicine for your feelings, to help you just
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to remind you of why, of why you keep going.
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Because things are working.
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Because you are moving forward.
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Because you are doing work that matters.
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So practice gratitude to improve your mental health.
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The third reason to practice gratitude is that it connects you with people.
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Here's the thing about gratitude that's really important to know.
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You are more thankful for people in your life than you are for things in your life.
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And even when you're thankful for things, you realize that people brought you those
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things.
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And so in reality, your life is an amazing collage of people's contributions for good
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and for bad.
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But we're talking about gratitude.
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So really talking about good.
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For example, if I had a paper that was published, yeah, it may seem as if I'm grateful for the
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paper that was published.
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But you know what?
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When I go all the way back, it was the mentee in my lab who said, OK, let's write this paper.
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And someone who wrote the outline.
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And there were collaborators who reviewed the manuscript and made it better.
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There were reviewers who actually took time to review the manuscript and then to approve
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it and give us feedback that helped us make it stronger.
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There are people throughout the process.
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OK, maybe it was that I got a raise.
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OK, it may not have been a big raise.
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Maybe it was a bonus.
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It was a small bonus, but it was still a bonus.
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Somebody said, I'm going to pass this all the way through.
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I'm going to make sure it comes out on time without being delayed.
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These are the things that people contribute.
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And so yes, at the end of gratitude, you feel a stronger connection to those people who've
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made a significant difference in your life.
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And they've made the difference because they are supporters.
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They've made the difference because somehow they care about the work you do.
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Maybe they don't even care about you, but they care about the work you do.
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And so they support your work.
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And that's a powerful and important thing.
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And so when you exercise gratitude, you also make connections with people because they
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are the source of your gratitude.
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And it makes those connections stronger.
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All right.
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Number four is increased innovation and creativity.
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There is nothing like feeling sorry for yourself that zaps your creativity.
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You have no energy to move forward.
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You feel like nothing is working.
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Why bother?
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Why should I try?
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But when you start to get in the space of gratitude, you're like, wait a minute, I did
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this and that worked.
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I did that and that worked.
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Oh my goodness.
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I moved this forward and this has turned into this and it energizes you to get creative
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again.
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It takes energy to be creative.
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It takes time.
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It takes you.
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It takes you investing time and energy to really create things.
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And so if you're feeling bogged down because you're not aware of all the wonderful things
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that are happening in your life and how you're really killing it and doing a great job, and
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you probably are not very creative as far as moving things forward.
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Or maybe you're in a place of criticism and you feel bad about yourself because you're
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like, well, if you would just get it together, you would have done this and you would have
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submitted this grant and you would have done that manuscript.
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And you have no creativity.
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But the moment you start to realize what has been done, what is working, what is evolving,
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it gives you energy to go again.
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And so you can be creative.
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You can go do more.
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You can go incorporate more people into your team to do more.
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So many wins come from celebrating the things that you have won in and you have won.
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You're like, I haven't won in anything.
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Yes, that's why it's a discipline.
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You got to look closely because your mind is more likely to focus on the things where
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you're not winning.
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There will always be at least one thing, one thing in which you're not winning.
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One of the funniest things I heard recently, the story of Adam and Eve and how they weren't
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allowed to eat anything in the...
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Well, they weren't allowed to eat from one tree in the garden and the garden had so many
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trees and how is it they focused on just the one they weren't allowed to have?
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And it tells you about the human tendency to focus on the thing, the one thing that's
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not working even when everything else is working.
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And of course it fills your creativity and then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy
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because well, you said it wasn't working.
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You killed your creativity and you stopped moving forward and all of a sudden you started
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to create the environment where things are not working because you're not moving forward.
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And so gratitude allows you to get back to creating.
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It gives you the energy you need to move forward.
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All right.
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Number five is that it boosts your motivation and it helps you be persistent.
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Now you may know already, but if you don't know, I'll tell you that the only way you
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succeed as a researcher is by persistence.
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No, it's not because your grants are beautiful.
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It's not because your writing is amazing and yes, your writing is amazing.
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It's not because your ideas are amazing, even though your ideas are amazing, it's really
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about persistence because no matter how amazing your ideas are, there's always reviewer number
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three who comes and derails the grant.
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And then you're like, okay, I'm going to resubmit next year and reviewer number three shows
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up as reviewer number two.
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And then you're like, ah, I'm going to submit the grant again and all this while the grant
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is getting better.
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And you finally get to a point where reviewer number three, now reviewer number one says,
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you know what?
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This person has been submitting the same grant for the last three years.
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Let's give them a pass.
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I don't want to read this grant again next year.
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Okay.
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So it doesn't happen exactly like that, but persistence pays off.
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It is the only thing that really pays off.
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And so for you to count your wins and to realize that, you know what?
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It may feel hard, but a lot of things are working.
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It gives you the motivation to persist.
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It gives you the motivation to keep going.
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It gives you the motivation to put the next foot in front of the other, to submit that
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grant again, to just write up the manuscript again or revise it and resubmit it.
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It gives you strength to keep going.
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And so it boosts your motivation and it helps you persist.
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Number six is that it gives you job satisfaction and fulfillment.
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Sometimes we hate our jobs and we don't hate our jobs because our jobs are awful.
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We hate our jobs because in that moment, there's this one thing that feels overwhelming and
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we just can't think of anything else.
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And when we finally start to think about the things that we appreciate, the opportunity
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to write, the opportunity to work with great collaborators, get feedback from great colleagues,
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it really just makes you appreciate the things in your job that keep you coming back, the
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things on your job that keep you motivated and excited.
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And for that reason, it really helps you appreciate your job.
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And no, you might not like every one of the job.
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No, you may have challenges, but it does help you appreciate what is before you and it helps
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you keep going.
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It does bring a measure of job satisfaction.
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So please embrace gratitude because all of a sudden you start to love the job you have,
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where before you might've really hated it, but it really does help you to move forward
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in a way that perhaps you didn't think that you could move forward.
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All right.
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And then what it also does is improves your health and your wellbeing.
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I've kind of alluded to it a lot.
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I'm going to say it again.
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When you were tired and exhausted, you don't want to go to the gym.
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When you hate your job, you just don't want to do anything.
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And when you practice gratitude and you see how things are working and you see how your
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efforts are paying off, it allows you to do the right things, avoid the cookie jar, go
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to the gym, go for a walk, take breaks, stand up, stretch.
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It gives you opportunity to do the things that actually help you be healthy.
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And the more healthy you are, the better you feel.
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The easier it could be to practice gratitude.
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So gratitude has so many benefits and I want to summarize them again.
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It gives you enhanced resilience, improves your mood, your mental health.
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It gives you a stronger connection with your colleagues who are related or connected to
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your reasons for gratitude.
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It increases your innovation and creative muscles.
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It boosts your motivation and persistence that you can keep going.
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It gives you greater job satisfaction and fulfillment and it improves your health and
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wellbeing.
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Yes, it makes you less stressed and a healthier person all around.
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So I invite you to take out a journal right this moment and practice gratitude.
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Write down three wins that you've had today.
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I'm going to do it too.
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As soon as I'm done recording this episode, what are three things, three wins that you
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are so thankful for?
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Write them down.
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Yes, it's got to be three.
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And then celebrate.
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Celebrate yourself.
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Celebrate the person you are and celebrate the opportunity you have to lead the work
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that you do.
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And as always, if you're looking for a coach, happy to be a coach to you or maybe recommend
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someone that I can support in your circle.
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At the very least, I invite you to share this episode with someone else who could benefit
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from a little bit of gratitude today.
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All right.
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It's been a pleasure talking with you today.
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I look forward to talking with you again next time on the Clinician Researcher Podcast.
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Thank you for tuning in.
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Thanks for listening to this episode of the Clinician Researcher Podcast where academic
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clinicians learn the skills to build their own research program, whether or not they
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have a mentor.
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If you found the information in this episode to be helpful, don't keep it all to yourself.
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Someone else needs to hear it.
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So take a minute right now and share it.
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As you share this episode, you become part of our mission to help launch a new generation
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of clinician researchers who make transformative discoveries that change the way we do healthcare.
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Thank you.
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Bye.
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Welcome to the Clinician Researcher podcast, where academic clinicians learn the skills
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to build their own research program, whether or not they have a mentor.
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As clinicians, we spend a decade or more as trainees learning to take care of patients.
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When we finally start our careers, we want to build research programs, but then we find
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that our years of clinical training did not adequately prepare us to lead our research
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program.
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Through no fault of our own, we struggle to find mentors, and when we can't, we quit.
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However, clinicians hold the keys to the greatest research breakthroughs.
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For this reason, the Clinician Researcher podcast exists to give academic clinicians
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the tools to build their own research program, whether or not they have a mentor.
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Now introducing your host, Toyosi Onwuemene.
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Welcome to the Clinician Researcher podcast.
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I'm your host, Toyosi Onwuemene, and it is an absolute pleasure to be talking with you
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today.
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Thank you so much for tuning in.
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I am excited to bring you today's episode titled, The Importance of Gratitude.
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You may be thinking, wait a minute, how is this related to research or being a clinician
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or medicine in any way?
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But we're going to talk about gratitude.
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It's always relevant to every area of your life, and it's particularly important as you
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are growing in your role as a clinician researcher.
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Why do I want to share this episode at this time?
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You may have experienced along your career path times when you feel tired.
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You're like, I've been writing a lot of grants, I've been submitting a lot of manuscripts,
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and there's all this stuff going on with my clinical work.
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And yes, we're in the midst of an election season that feels contentious, and there are
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wars going on all over the world.
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And sometimes you get to a point where things begin to really weigh you down.
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And you really do need to do whatever is necessary to give you the strength to keep going.
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And some of that is saying, I'm not going to focus on all the things that are happening
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outside of me that I have no control over.
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I'm going to focus on the things that I can focus on.
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And why is that important?
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It's important because if you don't do that, there will always be something that will come
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and derail you, office politics, national politics, international politics.
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That will always be something that will come and potentially overwhelm you.
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And so I want to talk about one practice that's been so helpful for me and I think will be
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helpful for you as well.
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And it really is the practice of gratitude.
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And I want to say, one of the things I've heard from a mentor that I respect very much
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is that gratitude is a discipline.
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It really is.
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And I recognize that it's a discipline and it's a practice.
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And the more you practice it, the better you get at it.
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And to be honest, it can be hard any time because especially as physicians, but just
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as humans in general, we are wired to focus on the things that are not working.
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And so to be able to discipline yourself and say, okay, it may have felt like it was a
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rough day, but what actually did work?
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What things happened that I would say that was a win?
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And I really think it's a discipline.
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It's a practice.
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And so I want to share some of that practice with you and some of the benefits of that
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practice.
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So the very first thing I want to share is that gratitude helps you have resilience.
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And it is important because honestly, the stuff we do as clinician researchers, as scientists,
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as clinicians, it's not so hard.
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I mean, the actual doing is not so hard.
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The challenge is that we keep getting knocked down.
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To be honest, we're really resilient people.
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We stand back up again, we shake it off, we dust it off, we do it again, and then we get
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knocked down again.
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And we're like, okay, okay, okay, I'm going to get back up and we do it again.
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And sometimes we can keep doing the getting knocked down and getting back up again, and
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then three weeks will pass and then we're okay, right?
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Because the rotation is over or the weeks on service are over or the clinic itself, it's
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over something.
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You are able to kind of muscle through because you know that there's an expiring date.
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But sometimes you get to this place where finally you get knocked down and you're like,
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you know what, how about I just don't stand up?
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Or what I just stay laying down on the floor, curled up in a corner and I don't move because
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if I'm laying down, they won't try to knock me down again, or there's just nowhere else
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I can go, so I'm just going to lay down.
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And I believe you've probably experienced some of those days.
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I feel like I've experienced some of those days very recently.
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And to be honest, this podcast is later than it should be because it's one of those days
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where I'm like, I don't even want to show up today.
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But when you are lying down, maybe you're curled up in a corner and you start to think
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about, okay, what is going on that's right with the world?
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It feels like everything is against me.
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It feels like nothing is working.
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But what is working?
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What are the things that actually are working?
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And when you start to think about that, you realize you're like, wait a minute, it's not
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all bad.
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Things are actually working.
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There are some things that are not going so well, but there are other things that are.
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You know what it does?
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It gives you the courage to get back up again.
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And it gives you the courage to go again.
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It gives you renewed zeal.
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We need courage.
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It just gives you the oomph, the energy you need to move forward.
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And so gratitude matters because it gives you resilience.
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It reminds you that you can.
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It reminds you why you can't.
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It reminds you of the things that are working, that are going right.
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And it gives you the strength to get back up again.
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So gratitude matters because it increases your resilience.
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Number two is that gratitude is so important for your mental health.
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All of the things I mentioned weigh on you.
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And sometimes they're like a thick, heavy, not comfortable blanket that just weighs you
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down.
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And it's like, oh my goodness, I don't know what's going to happen next.
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I don't know who's going to do this.
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I don't know what's going to happen with this grant.
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I don't know what's going to happen with my transition.
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I don't know what's going to happen with how much clinical work I have to do.
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There's so much that we're always thinking about.
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And I have to tell you, it can be overwhelming.
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I don't even have to tell you.
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I bet you know.
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It can be overwhelming.
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It can feel like you're being weighed down.
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It can just feel like everything is just not working.
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And when you start to think through the things that are working, it probably releases some
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endorphins because there's a happy mood that comes over.
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And you're like, wait a minute.
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It is working.
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Because some of the things that get us down are the feelings that we're not enough or
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that we're putting in so much effort and nothing is coming out of it or that nothing's been
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accepted.
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We've published no managers.
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We've had no grants go through.
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For example, I feel like I'm in such a state.
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We have a grant that's going to be reviewed on the fourth.
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But after that grant, there's not another grant going to be reviewed.
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So now I feel like, oh, I lost my mojo.
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I mean, actually, I did try to submit a grant.
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It didn't quite work out.
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But that's a story for another day.
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But now I don't have like, OK, this grant's being reviewed.
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And then the next grant is coming.
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Then where to submit another grant?
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And so it feels like, oh, I'm doing nothing.
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You know, weighs on me.
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But when I think about it, I'm like, wait a minute.
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You submitted this grant last time.
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And this one was funded.
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And this one got a good score.
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And this one you're going to put in next time.
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I realized that, you know what?
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There's a lot of opportunity here.
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And things are moving forward even when they don't feel like they are.
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And so it improves my mood.
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It re-energizes me.
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And it helps my mental health.
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And so imagine if I did that every day, right?
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And this is not me saying anything negative against antidepressants.
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If you take them, please do take them.
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Don't stop taking them.
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But what I'm saying is that it really does.
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It's a booster to your mood.
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And so if you're going to think about, how can I think about gratitude?
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Think about it like medicine for your mood, medicine for your feelings, to help you just
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to remind you of why, of why you keep going.
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Because things are working.
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Because you are moving forward.
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Because you are doing work that matters.
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So practice gratitude to improve your mental health.
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The third reason to practice gratitude is that it connects you with people.
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Here's the thing about gratitude that's really important to know.
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You are more thankful for people in your life than you are for things in your life.
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And even when you're thankful for things, you realize that people brought you those
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things.
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And so in reality, your life is an amazing collage of people's contributions for good
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and for bad.
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But we're talking about gratitude.
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So really talking about good.
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For example, if I had a paper that was published, yeah, it may seem as if I'm grateful for the
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paper that was published.
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But you know what?
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When I go all the way back, it was the mentee in my lab who said, OK, let's write this paper.
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And someone who wrote the outline.
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And there were collaborators who reviewed the manuscript and made it better.
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There were reviewers who actually took time to review the manuscript and then to approve
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it and give us feedback that helped us make it stronger.
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There are people throughout the process.
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OK, maybe it was that I got a raise.
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OK, it may not have been a big raise.
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Maybe it was a bonus.
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It was a small bonus, but it was still a bonus.
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Somebody said, I'm going to pass this all the way through.
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I'm going to make sure it comes out on time without being delayed.
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These are the things that people contribute.
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And so yes, at the end of gratitude, you feel a stronger connection to those people who've
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made a significant difference in your life.
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And they've made the difference because they are supporters.
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They've made the difference because somehow they care about the work you do.
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Maybe they don't even care about you, but they care about the work you do.
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And so they support your work.
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And that's a powerful and important thing.
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And so when you exercise gratitude, you also make connections with people because they
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are the source of your gratitude.
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And it makes those connections stronger.
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All right.
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Number four is increased innovation and creativity.
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There is nothing like feeling sorry for yourself that zaps your creativity.
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You have no energy to move forward.
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You feel like nothing is working.
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Why bother?
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Why should I try?
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But when you start to get in the space of gratitude, you're like, wait a minute, I did
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this and that worked.
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I did that and that worked.
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Oh my goodness.
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I moved this forward and this has turned into this and it energizes you to get creative
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again.
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It takes energy to be creative.
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It takes time.
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It takes you.
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It takes you investing time and energy to really create things.
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And so if you're feeling bogged down because you're not aware of all the wonderful things
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that are happening in your life and how you're really killing it and doing a great job, and
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you probably are not very creative as far as moving things forward.
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Or maybe you're in a place of criticism and you feel bad about yourself because you're
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like, well, if you would just get it together, you would have done this and you would have
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submitted this grant and you would have done that manuscript.
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And you have no creativity.
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But the moment you start to realize what has been done, what is working, what is evolving,
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it gives you energy to go again.
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And so you can be creative.
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You can go do more.
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You can go incorporate more people into your team to do more.
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So many wins come from celebrating the things that you have won in and you have won.
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You're like, I haven't won in anything.
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Yes, that's why it's a discipline.
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You got to look closely because your mind is more likely to focus on the things where
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you're not winning.
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There will always be at least one thing, one thing in which you're not winning.
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One of the funniest things I heard recently, the story of Adam and Eve and how they weren't
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allowed to eat anything in the...
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Well, they weren't allowed to eat from one tree in the garden and the garden had so many
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trees and how is it they focused on just the one they weren't allowed to have?
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And it tells you about the human tendency to focus on the thing, the one thing that's
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not working even when everything else is working.
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And of course it fills your creativity and then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy
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because well, you said it wasn't working.
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You killed your creativity and you stopped moving forward and all of a sudden you started
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to create the environment where things are not working because you're not moving forward.
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And so gratitude allows you to get back to creating.
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It gives you the energy you need to move forward.
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All right.
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Number five is that it boosts your motivation and it helps you be persistent.
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Now you may know already, but if you don't know, I'll tell you that the only way you
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succeed as a researcher is by persistence.
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No, it's not because your grants are beautiful.
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It's not because your writing is amazing and yes, your writing is amazing.
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It's not because your ideas are amazing, even though your ideas are amazing, it's really
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about persistence because no matter how amazing your ideas are, there's always reviewer number
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three who comes and derails the grant.
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And then you're like, okay, I'm going to resubmit next year and reviewer number three shows
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up as reviewer number two.
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And then you're like, ah, I'm going to submit the grant again and all this while the grant
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is getting better.
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And you finally get to a point where reviewer number three, now reviewer number one says,
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you know what?
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This person has been submitting the same grant for the last three years.
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Let's give them a pass.
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I don't want to read this grant again next year.
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Okay.
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So it doesn't happen exactly like that, but persistence pays off.
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It is the only thing that really pays off.
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And so for you to count your wins and to realize that, you know what?
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It may feel hard, but a lot of things are working.
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It gives you the motivation to persist.
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It gives you the motivation to keep going.
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It gives you the motivation to put the next foot in front of the other, to submit that
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grant again, to just write up the manuscript again or revise it and resubmit it.
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It gives you strength to keep going.
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And so it boosts your motivation and it helps you persist.
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Number six is that it gives you job satisfaction and fulfillment.
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Sometimes we hate our jobs and we don't hate our jobs because our jobs are awful.
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We hate our jobs because in that moment, there's this one thing that feels overwhelming and
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we just can't think of anything else.
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And when we finally start to think about the things that we appreciate, the opportunity
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to write, the opportunity to work with great collaborators, get feedback from great colleagues,
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it really just makes you appreciate the things in your job that keep you coming back, the
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things on your job that keep you motivated and excited.
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And for that reason, it really helps you appreciate your job.
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And no, you might not like every one of the job.
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No, you may have challenges, but it does help you appreciate what is before you and it helps
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you keep going.
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It does bring a measure of job satisfaction.
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So please embrace gratitude because all of a sudden you start to love the job you have,
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where before you might've really hated it, but it really does help you to move forward
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in a way that perhaps you didn't think that you could move forward.
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All right.
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And then what it also does is improves your health and your wellbeing.
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I've kind of alluded to it a lot.
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I'm going to say it again.
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When you were tired and exhausted, you don't want to go to the gym.
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When you hate your job, you just don't want to do anything.
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And when you practice gratitude and you see how things are working and you see how your
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efforts are paying off, it allows you to do the right things, avoid the cookie jar, go
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to the gym, go for a walk, take breaks, stand up, stretch.
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It gives you opportunity to do the things that actually help you be healthy.
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And the more healthy you are, the better you feel.
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The easier it could be to practice gratitude.
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So gratitude has so many benefits and I want to summarize them again.
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It gives you enhanced resilience, improves your mood, your mental health.
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It gives you a stronger connection with your colleagues who are related or connected to
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your reasons for gratitude.
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It increases your innovation and creative muscles.
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It boosts your motivation and persistence that you can keep going.
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It gives you greater job satisfaction and fulfillment and it improves your health and
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wellbeing.
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Yes, it makes you less stressed and a healthier person all around.
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So I invite you to take out a journal right this moment and practice gratitude.
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Write down three wins that you've had today.
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I'm going to do it too.
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As soon as I'm done recording this episode, what are three things, three wins that you
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are so thankful for?
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Write them down.
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Yes, it's got to be three.
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And then celebrate.
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Celebrate yourself.
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Celebrate the person you are and celebrate the opportunity you have to lead the work
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that you do.
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And as always, if you're looking for a coach, happy to be a coach to you or maybe recommend
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someone that I can support in your circle.
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At the very least, I invite you to share this episode with someone else who could benefit
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from a little bit of gratitude today.
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All right.
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It's been a pleasure talking with you today.
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I look forward to talking with you again next time on the Clinician Researcher Podcast.
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Thank you for tuning in.
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Thanks for listening to this episode of the Clinician Researcher Podcast where academic
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clinicians learn the skills to build their own research program, whether or not they
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have a mentor.
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If you found the information in this episode to be helpful, don't keep it all to yourself.
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Someone else needs to hear it.
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So take a minute right now and share it.
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As you share this episode, you become part of our mission to help launch a new generation
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of clinician researchers who make transformative discoveries that change the way we do healthcare.
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Thank you.
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Bye.
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