In todays ever more regulated and scrutinised healthcare environment, it is very easy to throw our arms up and give up on trying new ideas a.k.a innovation. Here are things I tell myself daily to fight that temptation:

  1. If you always do what you’ve always done, you will always get what you’ve always got.
  2. Everyone has ideas. A few have the audacity to act upon them.
  3. An idea on the ground is worth ten in the head.
  4. If everyone backs your idea at the start, maybe it’s not really there, yet.
  5. If everyone is opposed to your idea after you’ve had your say, maybe it’s not there yet, either.

If you have ever been seized by an idea, you’ll know the unmistakable feeling fluttering in your gut. I have learnt that when I stop asking ‘What If?’ and stop experimenting with new ideas, I lose interest in the people and work around me. So I fight the temptation to automatically go with what’s comfortable or convinient.

It takes a brave mind to enter unchartered waters, it takes a tough heart to stay the course.