Stay the Course

I love a good graduation speech.

I’m not picky about the age of the person graduating: med students, 8th graders, preschoolers, high schoolers, I love all of them. There’s always a nugget of guiding truth in those speeches, and I am always inspired by them.

My second oldest child graduated from eighth grade this week and her vice principal’s speech really stuck with me. He had two main points. One was “Life is full of choices. Don’t let the fear of making the wrong choice keep you from making any choice at all.”

The other was, “Stay the course.” It’s easy to get so worried about making the wrong decision that you never decide anything and get stuck. You never move forward. I believe the phrase is “decision fatigue.” His point is that you do have to make the decision, and you do have to see your work through to the end.

I am constantly trying to teach this lesson to my children. (see “Grit: When the Struggle Teaches You Success” Oct 26, 25). My husband and I believe that it’s important to see an activity through to the end, even if something about it gets difficult. One bad day at basketball practice (or one bad game) is not a reason to quit in the middle of the season. It’s important to bring your commitment to a logical end point. Of course, that end point can be harder to find for an adult’s work life or responsibilities, but it is still important for us to bring our work to completion.

Procrastinating by Helping Others is Not Helping You

I have devised a clever way to procrastinate: I help other people. Through this, I am both ignoring my own work AND getting the brief dopamine hit of helping others. But I’ve realized with launching my app, with finishing tasks at home, even with taking time for myself and resting, I need to remember to follow through with my own projects.

I think it’s very easy for those of us in service industries (medicine, teaching, social work) to want to help others. It’s a natural detour to spend our time mentoring others, but it comes at the expense of putting our own needs to the side. And because adult timelines aren’t necessarily nice and neat like basketball seasons, we have to remember our priorities and stick to them. Stay the course, like the vice principal says!

Dr. Braden’s Recommendations

Grit by Angela Duckworth Great book about the importance of sticking to your plans and seeing them through. I may have recommended this one before but I’m saying it again!

Tinted sunscreen by ISDIN. I know I’ve recommended a few sunscreens in the last few weeks, but because I was in Florida earlier this week, it was on my mind again. It turns out that tinted sunscreens work better; I learned that from a dermatologist. I love this formula and it goes on very smoothly. Check it out!