The Prescription to Heal Your Career: A Treatment Plan for Individuals & Organizations

By Scott A. Cook

The first step in finding professional happiness is realizing your career needs healing. Maybe you are weighed down by a toxic work environment or feel a lack of fulfillment in your role. But the only wa

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Point Breeze Publishing Company
• Release date: Nov 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781544532189

Scott A. Cook

Scott A. Cook, MD, MPH, is a physician executive, international lecturer, podcast host, business owner, and medical doctor. He is also Medical Director and/or Chief Medical Officer of Southwestern Pennsylvania Human Services (outpatient) and Recovery Centers of America (inpatient).His solo medical practice, THE TRAVEL DOCTORx, gained so many patients he added multiple doctors, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and medical providers to create THE TRAVEL DOCTORs. On his podcast, The Coat & Scope Podcast, Dr. Cook endeavors to examine, diagnose, and treat your diseased career or corporate culture to make it healthier. If you enjoyed this book, you can find his show wherever you listen to podcasts. Dr. Cook has two wonderful children, Braden and Brooklyn. Dr. Cook lives part-time outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and part-time in Amelia Island, Florida.

Book preview

Contents

Acknowledgments

Prelude

Synopsis

About the Author

INTRODUCTION

How 2 Tame the Medicinal Mistress

Chapter 1

How 2 Use the Law of Recall

Chapter 2

Who is Charlie (Charles)?

Chapter 3

How 2 Understand Career and Corporate Anatomy and Physiology

Chapter 4

How 2 Detect Career and Corporate Disease

Chapter 5

How 2 Detect Signs Versus Symptoms

Chapter 6

How 2 Tell If Charlie Is Having a Baby!

Chapter 7

How 2 Perform Career and Corporate Surgical Excision

Chapter 8

How 2 Chase Passion, Not Money

Chapter 9

How 2 Promote Career, Corporate Wound Care, and Healing

Chapter 10

How 2 Perform Career and Corporate Rehabilitation and Treatment

Chapter 11

How 2 Establish a Career and Corporate Health Maintenance Program

Chapter 12

How 2 Strengthen the Hypoglossal Nerve (Speak No Evil)

Chapter 13

How 2 Fine-Tune the Vestibulocochlear Nerve (Hear No Evil)

Chapter 14

How 2 Improve the Optic Nerve (See No Evil But Have Vision)

Chapter 15

How 2 Learn New Languages (But Keep the Classics)

Chapter 16

How 2 Not Get Stuck like Chuck

Chapter 17

How 2 Expand on The Fifteen-Minute Hour

Chapter 18

How 2 Understand Growing Pains and Numbness

Conclusion

So, What Happened 2 Charlie?

About the Coauthors

About the Author

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Acknowledgments

Proofreaders: Kellie McKevitt, BS, MSW and Coach James Hargro.

Book Editor: Shawn L. Schwaner, PhD.

PUGS Editors (Punctuation, Usage, Grammar, and Spelling): Deidra Reese, BA, MPP and Candace Sinclair

Book Cover and Logo Designs: Scott A. Cook, MD, MPH, Kevin Quach, and Jay Alfred Ferrer.

Character Creation: Scott A. Cook, MD, MPH.

Character Illustration: Scott A. Cook, MD, MPH, Braden Cook, Brooklyn Cook, and Rahul Chauke.

A Project of The Point Breeze Publishing Company

In association with The Coat & Scope Podcast

In association with THE TRAVEL DOC Rx, LLC

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Prelude

Reasons 2 buy and read this book: 2 transform and ignite your career or corporate culture.

Time 2 read: 2 hours. Short but powerful. Please start with the introduction.

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Synopsis

Have you ever felt overwhelmed in your career? Is your organizational work culture toxic? Do you feel a lack of fulfillment in your current role? Do you feel stuck? Are you questioning your career choice or current company?

The first step in finding professional happiness is realizing your career might be sick and in need of healing. Written as a brain exercise formatted 2 reprogram the way you think, this book will help 2 rehabilitate your career or corporate culture.

Successful careers and corporate cultures do not appear magically in a vacuum. They must be curated, cultivated, and created. When they are done so with fervor, they become ignited.

So, are you ready 2 get started truly transforming yourself and your organization?

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About the Author

Scott A. Cook is a servant. Information about Dr. Cook can be found at www.BookDoctorCook.com.

INTRODUCTION

How 2 Tame the Medicinal Mistress

Practicing medicine is like having a jealous mistress. This is something we hear throughout our careers as doctors. Meaning, she (medicine) will not be ignored. She will call in the middle of the night and expect you 2 come 2 her. She will bother you on holidays when you are spending time with your family. She will show up at your child’s birthday party. She will rear her ugly head while you are on vacation. She is relentless. She is demanding. She will not take no for an answer.

As a physician who is involved in the clinical practice of medicine, it is often seen as the most demanding and brutal of professions. I previously had severe job fatigue and successfully recovered from career burnout. The strategies employed can be applied 2 healing in any profession. Have you ever felt overwhelmed in your career? Is your organization or work culture toxic? Do you feel a lack of fulfillment in your current role? Do you get mad or anxious when it is time 2 start your workday? Are you questioning your career choice or current company? I have felt all this many times in my professional career. I want 2 share with you the prescription 2 heal your career or corporate culture.

The medical profession is tireless and demanding and promotes a high level of burnout among practitioners. The workload drives us mad. It is often said that all doctors are crazy in one way or another. I have found this 2 be true. Images of crazy doctors, such as the nutty professor or mad scientist, come 2 mind. After all, one must be somewhat crazy 2 enter a profession where you get your butt beat physically and mentally for an entire career. Moreover, and oxymoronically, even though you are going 2 be pummeled, lose your mind, and suffer from exhaustion, you pay admission at a ticket price of $300,000 to $500,000, so you can take the beating. We all have our idiosyncrasies. The characters created herein came from my idiosyncratic brain confirming madness.

I have been told, You cannot do that, or You will never make it more times than I can count. There have been incessant naysayers. Through both divine intervention and tenacious perseverance, I successfully navigated the obstacles and roadblocks that were laid as traps 2 cause failure. Instead, and in the words of Buddha, I learned, The obstacle is the journey.

If you feel stuck in your career, the following reflections from my life learnings will provide a roadmap 2 achieve both happiness and success in any field of human endeavor. Make no mistake, I have been very blessed. Though I had some failures, those served as fuel 2 keep moving forward. Happily, I eventually reached my destination many times over. You see, overcoming obstacles requires keen navigation along with a prescription and treatment plan.

The secret 2 professional success is finding work-life balance. If you find fulfillment in life outside of work, your career will improve. Based upon my experience, the number one thing you can do 2 make yourself a better professional is 2 develop interests outside of work. A well-rounded life/work balance permits you 2 practice your craft with both competence and passion, while at the same time avoiding burnout.

The term burnout originated in the 1940s as a word 2 describe the point at which a jet or rocket engine stops operating. The word was first applied 2 humans in the 1970s by the psychiatrist, Herbert Freudenberger. Using the term 2 describe the status of overworked volunteers in free mental health clinics, Dr. Freudenberger started an important dialogue. Burnout syndrome is when an individual notices three main characteristics: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a lack of personal fulfillment.

We are hearing in the news that death from suicide, substance use, and despair are on the rise. Feeling professional burnout increases the likelihood of poor mental health, despair, substance use, and suicide. Anne Case and Angus Deaton first wrote about deaths of despair—deaths by suicide, drug use, and alcohol poisoning.

The lifetime prevalence rate for all mental health disorders is 30–50 percent. This means that one out of every two or three people you encounter has, had, or will have a mental health condition at some point in their lifetime. Diagnosis and treatment of mental health problems is of vital importance. Prevention of these issues is of paramount importance.

The US Congress Joint Economic Committee report on September 5, 2019, stated mortality from deaths of despair far surpasses anything seen in America since the dawn of the twentieth century. This is a major problem!

Long-Term Trends in Deaths of Despair (Source: Social Capital Project analyses of CDC data)

How can we move from life-threatening job fatigue 2 the opposite of work-related burnout, which is career health? In 1948, the World Health Organization (WHO) defined health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being. It’s not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. This was a new holistic view of what it meant 2 be healthy. The paradigm shift really resonated with society and helped redefine healthcare. Life balance and developing hobbies outside of work are the keys 2 professional health.

My hobbies are community service and travel. Amazingly, I have been blessed 2 combine my