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January President's Message - Dr. Guillermo Chacon

“We spend January 1st walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives…not looking for flaws, but for potential.”
Ellen Goodman

Dear members:

2023 is here! After a couple of hard years – I think most of us were ready for the New Year. My wife and I sit down every New Year’s Eve and discuss our upcoming resolutions. When we started listing them, it felt different – almost wrong to be so critical of ourselves after the past two years. The next day, I was doing some reading and came across the quote at the top of this newsletter. It felt so appropriate to what I was feeling and how the past two years have changed me. I needed to reframe the conversation I was having – and instead of thinking about all that had gone wrong in the past and how I could fix it – I needed to look at what went right and expound on it.

When the pandemic hit – I was down in the dumps (probably like most of you!). The uncertainty was so hard, and I spent many sleepless nights worrying about many things. One morning, my wife showed me an article in the New York Times (we are old school and still get an actual paper every morning!) from a woman by the name of Sharon Salzberg. In the article, she said something that will stick with me forever. The insight is this: when things are swirling around you, don’t try to boil the ocean, change the world, fix everything; instead, just focus on your three feet of influence.

In other words: just focus your attention on the here and now; on the thing that you are best at; on the people immediately in your vicinity. That’s literally it. Be the best that you can be, with what’s around you. Be an influencer with the people in your life that really matter: your immediate family, closest friends, patients, and staff. That’s it. You cannot control the world, the country, your city, the mood swings of those you love, but you can try to create around you a little bit of space that is all your own, a place where the rules of interaction you’ve chosen make sense and your actions have integrity.
Since that day, I have tried to remember this phrase – “three feet of influence.” When the days seem stressful and hard, being narrowly focused on who and what really matters has helped make all the difference. So, this year, instead of New Year’s Resolutions, I have decided to focus on New Year’s Momentum Magnifiers, improving as a father, husband, surgeon and boss – because in the end – nothing else really matters. Everybody gets Three Feet of Influence. The challenge for you is: how will you choose to use yours?

Happy New Year!


Guillermo

Sign up now for the Tuesday, February 28, 2023 GMM, at the Tacoma Country & Golf Club.

Dr. Brittany Barber from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, speaking on
“Head and Neck Cancer for the Dental Professional”
Registration & Social 5:30 PM, Dinner 6:00 PM, Business & Speaker 6:15 -8:15 PM.

To reserve your spot & menu choice, email cindy@pcdentists.org
Flat Iron Steak, Chicken Picatta, Portobello Mushroom Stack (veg option)
Cost $46.00. 2 CE credits.