First up – there is no sex in this blog post! Now that only two of you are left, let’s crack on. Lifelong learning is a great thing. For doctors as a group and for GPs in particular, a lack of curiosity is terrible. Listen and learn – the patient will tell you their story, and often the diagnosis. The average doctor interrupts the patient in less than a minute. Don’t aspire to be average.

Patients appreciate it when their GP takes the time to listen to them. They like it. Patients don’t sue doctors they like AND taking that time improves your diagnostic skills. If you listen, you learn, and the more you learn, the more you earn. We see that while good medicine is not the entirety of good business, it’s certainly a component (but an essential one for us at PartridgeGP). Why not anchor listening and learning together?

What is anchoring? James Clear, in his excellent book Atomic Habits, calls it habit stacking but credits the concept to BJ Fogg. It is linking a new habit to an old one, with the old habit acting as an anchor that keeps the new habit in place. If we combine listening and learning in the modern age, we get the podcast (For those that don’t know,a podcast is a digital audio file made available on the internet for downloading to a computer or mobile device, typically available as a series, new instalments of which can be received by subscribers automatically). These are a fantastic way of learning while you do something else. Whether it’s the washing, the shopping, driving to work, or even getting to sleep, your chosen podcast app can deliver some learning gold to you. I like listening to most things at 1.5 times speed – because who wants to learn slowly! I use Google Podcasts or Castbox (these do 95%+ of what I want a podcast app to do).

Now, you are being exposed to ideas every day. These ideas can get together in your head, and have idea sex. Of course, idea sex can lead to idea babies. Innovation, creativity, even wisdom can be born from this approach. For those that are a bit disappointed by the rather tame appearance of sex in this post, I give you an alternative wording. Consuming better content, as per the theory of maximum taste, will improve your cognitive foundation and you’ll start connecting ideas across books and disciplines. You will develop deep fluency. I like the idea sex and idea babies, if you want more of the alternative wording, hit up the Farnam Street Blog (highly recommended).

I’ve started doubly anchoring my podcast listening by replacing music during my running. I have found that rather than high energy dance music, an informative podcast improves my time and cadence during a run! I look forward to reporting on further success with this in a future post. Perhaps I will develop a small amount of wit and wisdom as I run.

Good luck with lifelong learning and making those mental connections that lead to wit and wisdom. You can do this in your personal and professional interactions as well as in your learning – and that can start with your GP! You can make your appointment with us conveniently online right here – or call our friendly reception team on 82953200.

You can continue the process further!

For everyone, we believe that having a usual GP or General Practice is central to each person’s care and recommend that people with any health issues that come to the attention of other health professionals should be advised to attend their usual GP or General Practice rather than a specialised service (ie a place not providing the holistic care a specialist GP would).   If  they say that they don’t have a usual GP or general practice, they should be helped to find one and to actually attend it. Call PartridgeGP on 82953200 or make an appointment online here.

(Hat tip: Dr Oliver Frank)

(TL;DR – Get a regular GP or General Practice and use them!)

If you’re employed, get a side hustle and get into business. If you’ve already got a business, get a network. Want to get started? Find your tribe here!

If you are a great GP or a great Allied Health Professional, and you want to serve your clients or patients to the best of your ability, without worrying about all the non clinical things that get in your way, lets talk. Call Mrs Hayley Roberts on 8295 3200 and have a coffee and chat with us as to how PartridgeGP can help you to help others.