01 Jun Do the Right Thing
A founding partner of Family Practice Associates is Dr. Jeff Foxx. If you are lucky enough for him to be your doctor, you know how intelligent and knowledgeable he is but also what a person of character and integrity he is. So much of what FPA stands for is from him and the personal codes by which he lives. If you have known him long enough, you have probably heard something that he is very fond of saying and that is “Do the right thing.”
When you first hear it, you think, “Of course you do the right thing. That’s a no-brainer.” However, as is often the case with these sorts of simple sounding phrases, there are levels of truth to explore. In some cases, the right thing is that no-brainer and we do it. Then are the times in which other things in our head and heart are blinding us to what is right and we remain stuck. Finally, there are the other situations and decisions in which we know the right thing but struggle to get ourselves to do it and can even find ourselves doing just the opposite. The whole idea of doing the right thing is more complicated than it seems.
I want to focus just a bit on the third one and that is the one in which the right thing to do is clear but we struggle with getting ourselves to do it. When I confront people about this dynamic, I often ask if they knew someone in their situation, what they would advise that other person to do. Without fail, their advice would be to do the thing that they themselves are resisting.
I get it. A complicated mix of fear, low self-esteem, denial, and good old-fashioned stubbornness are burned so deeply into many of us that what seems like a simple course from the outside looking in is often a tangle of mixed emotions that leave us frozen in our tracks. Trust me when I say that I’ve been there and I’ve done that.
Like many of the things I write about in my blog, the message is simple to say but difficult to follow. I can only ask for your own sake that you do the things you know you need to do. Eat better. Drink less, Exercise more. Get your physical. Apologize to that one you’ve hurt. Accept the apology of someone who has tried to mend things with you. Reach out to that relative that you’ve kept at arm’s length for all these months and forgive them. Practice your faith more. Get more sleep. Turn off the TV, social media, or video game sooner. Close your mouth and open your eyes and ears more. Speak up and advocate for yourself. Social distance. Wear your mask when you go out in public. Whatever those right things are, please do them. You will make Dr. Foxx so proud!