Doctors on Social Media.

Fact: doctors can journey safely through the rocky passages of social media if they take on the right branding steps and tread carefully.

Alone at the Start.

When I started out on my own social media journey many years ago, as a physician, I was alone. Being a doctor on social media was unheard of. There were basically no doctors on social media at the time.

Armed with creative passion and the will to make something of it – to somehow find a way to combine the fruits of my imagination with the field of medicine – I set out to make something happen.

I wasn’t quite sure of what that ‘something‘ would be, at that point in life, but I knew what I needed was time and patience.

Rules.

If you’ve read Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, then you already know about the 10,000 hour rule. But in case you don’t, here’s a recap:

“The ten thousand hour rule is a definite key to success.”

Gladwell explains that those who achieve levels of greatness in their fields – known by mere utterance of just their first names (ie Oprah. Kobe. Ellen.) – do so after many hours of ‘practice‘. 10,000, to be exact. Clearly that’s an approximate, but he’s making a point for us all. In other words:

Hard work begets hard-core success.

Success. 

(What does success even mean where it comes to you being a doctor on social media?)

What is success? What does it mean to YOU?

I’ve been doing this (writing on a blog, and using various social media platforms outside of my exam rooms) for quite some time, and have realized just how relative success is.

As beauty is in the eye of the beholder, success is too. You will achieve it depending on how you define it.

I’ve discovered that laying out goals in small increments, and setting them within an obtainable reach, works best.

Once there, bask in it – momentarily – and then pick up and take on the next set of goals. You always need goals.

Reflecting. 

(Always reflect. Always.)

As I reflect back today, years after my own ‘start’, I recognize that the day I wrote my first blog post on my website was Hour 1.

Scratch that, it was back when I took a break from medicine – a period of self-discovery. I suddenly landed in unexplored territory and found other interests, outside of medicine.

To Give Up or Not To Give Up. That is the Question for Doctors on Social Media.

I recall a time, sometime around hour 7,583, when I wanted to give it all up.

In fact, I can think of similar feelings around hour 3,490, and even around hour 103. In truth, I’ve thought of quitting every single hour.

You’ll have that, too.

Hitting 10,000.

I may never make it.

I realize there exists a possibility that Malcolm Gladwell underestimated. Or that Malcolm Gladwell wasn’t exactly talking about my ‘making it outside of the practice of medicine‘ in the first place.

But when I think about it more, I realize I hit Hour 10,001 long ago. And that it doesn’t really matter what hour I’m on now, really, because I truly love what I do.

Have you considered taking on your own Hour 1?

Let’s do this, doctors on social media. Let’s make a difference into the world using connection.