E137 Elijah Dixon on Mindfulness, Meditation and Being Past President of CAGS and AHPBA
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Chad Ball 00:12
Welcome to the Cold Steel podcast hosted by Ameer Farooq and myself, Chad Ball. We consider it an absolute privilege to bring you guests from around the world who are truly experts in their craft. Our mission is to offer you a combination of not only masterclasses on clinical surgery topics, but also insights into achieving personal growth, productivity and fulfillment as both a surgeon and, perhaps more importantly, as a human.
Ameer Farooq 00:42
This week we caught up with Dr. Elijah Dixon, a liver and pancreas surgeon at the University of Calgary, to talk about mindfulness and meditation. Dr. Dixon really opened our eyes on how those practices might be helpful to us both inside and outside the operating room. We also asked Dr. Dixon about what it was like to be the past president of both The Americas Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association, otherwise known as the AHPBA, as well as the Canadian Association of General Surgeons, also known as CAGS. As usual, the links are in the show notes. Can you tell us where you grew up and where you did your training?
Elijah Dixon 01:19
Sure. And thanks for having me. It's a real honour and a pleasure to be here with you guys. I was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and I grew up in Winnipeg. [I] grew up just outside the city on 5 acres in what's called Bird's Hill, just north of Winnipeg. Pretty normal, sort of, upbringing — whatever normal is — went to public schools, went to the University of Manitoba and did an undergraduate degree in science and in medicine at the University of Manitoba. And then, almost on a whim, ranked University of Calgary general surgery higher than University of Manitoba. [I] didn't expect to end up here. [I] matched, came to Calgary, did my residency here, married a Calgarian, and so, Calgary became home. [I] went after residency to Toronto and did a HPB [hepato-pancreato-biliary] transplant fellowship and then went to Boston and did a graduate degree, and then came back and started working and have been working here in Calgary ever since.
Ameer Farooq 02:32
Dr. Dixon, what was it that drew you to being a hepatobiliary surgeon and a liver surgeon?
Elijah Dixon 02:40
Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, these things always seem clear once you're through them, and try to go back and put yourself in your shoes and remember why you liked what you liked. I think, honestly, it was a combination of people I worked with — so, mentors that I've worked with — and I remember being in fourth year of medical school and working with a general surgeon — HPB surgeon — in Winnipeg named Jeremy Lipschitz. And I mean, it's hard to say that you really understand what's going on when you're a fourth-year medical student, especially in the operating room in terms of the operations that are being done. But I was attracted to the operations, I think, and just attracted to, I think, the command of the material that Dr. Lipschitz had, so he just was a impressive person. And I think that a lot of times when we're trainees, we get attracted or excited by an area because of people that we work with, and maybe we don't even realize that that's a big part of it, but I think that was the start. And then I did my residency, and, honestly, I liked most things that I did in residency, and I thought, you know, as I went through them, they're all pretty interesting, and I could see myself doing them. And then I did HPB surgery again, as a more senior trainee when I think I understood things a bit better, and [I] spent a lot of time with Francis Sutherland. And, again, you know, [I was] really attracted to the technical aspects of the operations, and just the comfort and familiarity with all of surgery that it seemed that HPB surgeons had, so I think those things attracted me to it. I liked the patients. They were pretty sick and at that time, that didn't seem onerous to me. I think as I've gone through, you get a better appreciation for how that can be, at times, tiring, but usually, you know, really rewarding as well. So yeah, the technical aspects of the operation, the complexity of the patients, and the surgeons that I work with just, I think, had a real command of surgery, and those things attracted me to it. Like I said, it's hard to remember exactly why you liked it, because I think your memory changes a little bit, but I think those are the main reasons.
Chad Ball 05:32
You know, you ascended to the pinnacle of a number of different surgical societies, both national and international, in particular the presidency of CAGS here in Canada, and then the HPBA throughout the entire Americas. I'm curious, first of all, in exploring that, what puts you on that track or that pathway to pursue those 2 avenues in particular?
Elijah Dixon 06:01
Yeah, it's an interesting question. Again, you sort of look back — I think a lot of times, you probably don't even know why some of these things happened. I want to tell you that it's based on merit, and it's because I deserved it, but I don't think that that's the truth. I think that for a lot of these things, again, it's a little bit of opportunity — so, being in the right place at the right time. I think it's having mentors that are advocates for you and looking out for you. So for the case of — so I'll stick to general surgeons — I think, honestly, I don't know this for sure, but I think that Jan Pessica, who's one of my mentors, and who was heavily involved with CAGS at that time, I think spoke with Robin McLeod about me and suggested that I, you know, might be someone that would be worth getting involved. And I think advocacy by Dr. Pessica, with Dr. McLeod, probably led to me being offered being the program chair at a very early stage in my career. I remember when they asked me, you could see some of the people in the organization were surprised, I think, because I was quite junior at the time. So I benefited, I think, from mentorship and help from people that were looking out for me; I think, with the AHPBA, it was similar. You know, I had said, "Yeah, I'd be happy to be involved in any way that I can be." And they put me on the research committee, which — it's an important committee, but it's not, by any means, a fast track to leadership in the organization. And at that time, Nick Volpe was the chair of the research committee. And, I mean, I took it seriously, and I went to all the research committee meetings, which were twice a year — and back then everything was in-person — and I think for 2 or 3 meetings in a row, the only people in the room were me and Nick, and there was probably 10 people on the committee. So the meetings became a coffee between me and Nick Volpe, and Nick asked me to help him with things, and I think I did an okay job, and Nick ascended through the organization. And I think, again, Nick's mentorship and advocacy, really helped set me on that path along with a few other people in the organization that helped along the way as well. I think the other big thing is that — and I think that there's an overemphasis on us expecting people to have a plan for the future and know what they're going to do. We always seem to ask people, "What's your 3-, 5-, 7-, 10-year plan?" I remember getting asked that when I was a medical student in surgery interviews and, I mean, it's sort of a silly question. I don't know how you can answer that when you have no idea what residency is really going to be like, and you have no idea what you're going to like and not like. And there's an expectation that you have this grand plan, which, I mean, I think it's good to have some plans, but I think you've got to be flexible and you have to be open to opportunity. And I think part of that is is saying yes to opportunities, especially opportunities that you might not have had planned or expected. And for me, in both of those cases, it was, you know, me saying yes to things that definitely were not in my plan. I didn't plan to become the program chair at CAGS, which then leads to, you know, positions on the executive and to the presidency. So yeah, I think that there's a tendency for people to want to have everything planned out, [to] maybe not see opportunities as opportunities, and probably say yes a bit more than I think we tend to do; I think sometimes we tend — if it's not in our plan, we're not going to do it. And I think that you miss a lot of opportunities. And I mean, it's impossible to plan the future. If you, sort of, go back and look at every year and look at what the predictions in the news are, like, what are going to be the big news stories next year? It's almost 100% that they're wrong. Like, no one predicts a pandemic, no one predicts a war in the Ukraine, these things are things that happen, and you've got to be prepared to adjust on the fly and see opportunity where maybe you might not have expected to see an opportunity. So yeah, just benefiting from mentorship and probably saying yes sometimes, when it wasn't obvious why I would say yes.
Ameer Farooq 11:26
So tell us about what was, like, the most, sort of, meaningful aspects of being part of the organizations and also being the presidents and the head of the organizations?
Elijah Dixon 11:36
Yeah, I mean, so, there's lots of things. I think it's definitely exciting and interesting to, sort of, be on the inside and see how things work and to, in a large way, be on the forefront of the organization and, in these cases, the specialties; you really get to see, you know, what's up-and-coming, where are the areas of, sort of, debate and conflict, and where are the questions, and having some input into planning and directing, you know, how things are going to go forward. When you're planning the annual meeting, I mean, that's a — it's a big deal. And, you know, what gets put in the various sessions in the plenary sessions; those are important questions, and they really affect, I think, the specialty and the development of the specialty and how things move forward. So all of that is — it's not hard to get excited about that, and get excited about being involved in the planning of that, and navigating those issues and the debates around those issues. Probably, honestly, the most rewarding part of being part of those organizations, though, is the relationships that you make and the friendships that you get, especially, you know, the AHPBA; you meet people from all over North, Central and South America. And yeah, it's just — it's eye-opening, you meet people that are incredibly interesting, you meet people that, you know, you've read their textbooks, and you become friends with those people, and you realize that we're all a lot more similar than we are dissimilar, and that people are working towards the same thing; people's intentions are generally good, and you really develop lifelong friendships. So yeah, that was — that's probably the most fulfilling thing, honestly — the friendships that I've made in both those organizations. And, you know, they're friendships that — they're not just, sort of, professional work friendships; like, these are people that you become good friends with. So that aspect, I think, is very rewarding. And, and then that leads you to, you know, being asked to visit different places and see how people do things differently in South America and in Argentina, Colombia; like, you see how people do things. You learn a lot. You interact with hundreds and hundreds of people, and that, for sure, I think, is the most rewarding, fulfilling part of being involved in those organizations. Dr. Dixon, I mean, you were part — or that, you know, the president at both the AHPBA and CAGS, and those are 2, in my mind, very different organizations in many ways, with very different focuses. And you know, you mentioned this fact that, you know, putting together the annual meeting, thinking about, kind of, which direction the organization goes, is so important. How do you think about, like, what were — what was, sort of, different about the roles of those 2 organizations? And when you became the president, what sort of things went through your mind when you were trying to decide, "Okay, what's going to be my sort of focus during my tenure? And how do I set the stage for the organization before?" Yeah. Those are good questions. So I mean, there's differences, but there's probably more similarities than you'd guess between the organizations. I think that both of them — a lot of it depends on the length of the presidency. So if someone is a president for 2 or 3 years, that's a really significant commitment. And in 2 or 3 years as president, you can start some really big initiatives and/or make some big changes, and [you] expect to be able to make that happen because you're going to be president for 2 years or 3 years. When you're president for a year, it's hard to make huge changes, and truthfully, the organization resists big changes when people are constantly coming and going on a 1-year term. And so, you really want to have some continuity in terms of the plan from president to president. And so, you know, in both organizations, there's a long period where you're, sort of, working together as, you know — usually, you're going to be the secretary or the treasurer first, and they're going to get a good look at you that way. And then, depending on, you know, how things go and how you work with the leadership, then you [can] potentially be considered as president elect or president elect second, in the case of CAGS. So there's a long lead-up to becoming president. And I think that helps in terms of continuity and making sure that there's not huge changes in direction, which is both a good and a bad thing. So, you know, the executive is usually all on the same page and have the same vision for the future, or close to the same vision. It's bad in that it's difficult to make big changes or to initiate new initiatives. And honestly, sometimes, the organization doesn't need that every year; it just needs stability. And sometimes we'll see that, where he'll look and see a new initiative and you'll wonder, you know, "Why is this?" and "Does this make sense?" And I think sometimes it's the feeling of wanting to leave your mark, you know? People will come in for their presence, and they want to do something special, which is good, but, you know, it's maybe not always needed. So, it's a long-winded answer to your question. I think, with CAGS, I mean, I think that part of general surgery's problem has always been our name, general surgery, sort of — it doesn't imply that we're subspecialists that are highly trained. And so I sort of wanted to put a little bit of focus on us defining ourselves as real subspecialists, and really being proud of who we are and what we do and, again, trying to bring the group together, as opposed to the continual, sort of, fragmentation of general surgery, where you get groups breaking off all the time, which, again, is both good and bad, and we could talk about that for a long time. For the AHPBA, you know, again, I didn't want to make any massive changes, because I think that organization — I followed some really great leaders. I followed Bill Jarnagin and Will Chapman, and then had Javier Lendoire as well, and all of them are exceptional leaders and I think had similar visions, so it didn't really require any big changes in path. I wanted to help develop Clinical Trials Network, and so I asked Mike D'Angelica to start an ad hoc committee that would bring together various institutions across the Americas to work together in clinical trials. And that was, sort of, I think, my small contribution, but mostly just keeping things along the same path and in order was the job, and I think that's what I I tried to do. It's difficult. I mean, we had issues a few years before I was president with the management company. And I've seen it in other organizations where there's significant problems with the management company. And especially when you have a 1-year president, the inertia is against making a change. You really don't want to make a change in the management of a company when you're the president, because it means you're going to, or you're potentially going to, have a difficult presidency, a lot of work. And so the tendency is maybe not to deal with issues that need to be dealt with. And in my case, I again, I was lucky, I followed Will Chapman and Bill and they made the hard decision during their presidencies to change the management company, which was definitely the right decision, but a difficult decision. So, it's hard in a 1-year presidency. I think that 1 year is attractive, because the commitment's not onerous. A 2- or 3-year presidency is very onerous, because, you know, if you're president elect for 2 years, and you're a president for 2 years, and you're a past president for 2 years, you're talking about, you know, more than half a decade, so it's a big [inaudible]. But there's definitely pros and cons to 1- versus 2- or 3-year presidencies.
Chad Ball 21:36
You've not been quiet, necessarily, about your increasingly strong, I think passion is a fair word, for meditation and mindfulness. I was wondering if you could define for our audience who maybe is not totally familiar, particularly, with the definition of mindfulness, what that means to you and how meditation and mindfulness, sort of, work together.
Elijah Dixon 22:01
I think that mindfulness is really just learning to have very focused attention, be aware of what's happening in your mind, and being able to apply yourself in a very focused way. I think that meditation is — it can be the same thing, but meditation also, sort of, gets at, sort of, the nature of reality, and having a deeper look at the nature of reality, and our relationship to reality, sense of self and the ego and, sort of, understanding, you know, non-duality and the fact that we might be all part of the same thing, and having an appreciation of that, so it can definitely be more, and it sort of gets at, I think deeper, sort of, existential questions and looks at the nature of reality, whereas mindfulness is really training your mind to be able to be very focused and have focused attention. I mean, we have surgeons that, if you were to say to me, "What would people be surprised about in terms of our training?" I think that there's 2 things that we do a terrible job of training surgeons that. One is the business and financial side of surgery. It's almost a taboo in medical school and residency to discuss that. And then you're done residency, and you're expected to go out and start a practice and develop a business. And you've really got no training — zero. And there's, you know, many different models have business for surgery, and we get trained in none of them. And so, we do very badly at that. And I think we also do very badly at understanding how our minds work, being aware of how our minds work and being aware of, you know, how we regulate ourselves. Surgery is stressful. It can be emotional. And I think that you — you see, I mean, I know you guys. You've dreamed similar places and times as I have. You've seen situations where people you've worked with have not had good control of their emotions and their — yeah, emotions — and control their attention. And it's not surprising because I don't think that we really get trained in that. We did a terrible job of training surgeons about their mind and about mindfulness and how to be focused, and how to focus on what's important, and how to not be overtaken by emotion, especially at the most critical, you know, part of your day or the most critical part of an operation. So I think it's things that — we don't get trained well, and we do need to do better. Surgeons; we just aren't trained to think in that way, or to think about the way we think or to really, like, take that bird's eye view of ourselves in that role. And it really is a very stressful, in some ways very chaotic, environment, you know, especially when things are going wrong. How did you get into this? Like, was that — is that something that was formally introduced to you? Was that a practice that you, kind of, always picked up? Or was it someone close to you that was doing it and you, sort of, took it from them? How did you get, sort of, introduced to the topic? Yeah, so I mean, I never really — it wasn't strange to me. My dad meditated my whole life. He did transcendental meditation. And so I think I was always aware of it and it was always sort of in the background, and I think I was probably predisposed to it because of my dad. Having said that, I didn't really understand it, and I didn't understand why he would do it. You know, it was just a fact of life: Dad does this. And you sort of, you know, as you get older, you wonder why you would want to sit quietly and not do anything for an hour once or twice a day. It seems like a bizarre waste of your time. And then, you know, as I, once I got started, and I was working — and as you know, because you're going through right now is probably the most stressful time of your life, in your careers, when you first start your practice, because coincidentally are usually moving, you're trying to start a business that you're not really trained to do. You're trying to, you know, establish yourself as a surgeon and trying to still learn how to operate to an extent because, you know, you keep learning for a long time. You're trying to integrate with your partners. You may be trying to get grants and write papers, and establish yourself that way. And then you're probably developing some sort of relationship or marriage and/or having a family. And in my case, I think I started thinking about these things when my marriage started to break up. And I wouldn't say I was depressed, but I think for the first time in my life, I wasn't — I didn't wake up, like, happy every day. And so you start thinking, you know, starting asking yourself some deeper questions and some existential questions. And I remember reading a book by Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now, and it just sort of struck me. It was simple. His message was simple, but I mean, he, you know — basically, we spend most of our energy worrying about the future or the past. And that if you live in the moment and you're very present, there's usually not a problem right now. Most of your problems are created by your mind worrying about the future and the past. So that sort of started it. And then I got on to Sam Harris. And that was just sort of luck. I was — I think I was listening to a Jordan Peterson podcast, and they asked him who his biggest adversary was, and I think he said he didn't have an adversary, but the smartest person he had debated was Sam Harris. And I had never heard of him, so I went and looked up Sam Harris, and then that took me to his app. He's got an app called Waking Up. And I mean, it's just, it's the most amazing app for the small price that you pay, and you don't even have to pay for it if you can't afford it. He'll give it to you for free. It covers so many things, so many areas in terms of meditation, mindfulness, leading in a sort of, you know, an informed, well-intentioned life. He talks to, you know, he regularly talks to experts in all sorts of different fields related to those issues, and it's a meditation app. And so I got into that. And then, yeah, it just took off from there. I mean, I can't say enough about his app. It's amazing. And, yeah, it was what really, sort of, got me really going down the path.
Chad Ball 30:21
Now, we'll be sure to link that material to the show notes for this show for the listeners. I hope it's not overstated, and I hope you're not mad for me saying this, so I should — but you know, you're a savage in the hospital. Clinically, you work like a savage and you operate a time and you're just a super-duper busy dude. So I really want to know how you integrate the practice of mindfulness, sort of, day-to-day in these crazy days, when you're in the building? How do you do that?
Elijah Dixon 30:54
Yeah, no, that's a good question. So I think, I mean, part of my attraction to it was that I think I was fortunate in that, you know, when people get really upset and emotional, often they don't even know they're upset or emotional; they're so taken over by their emotions. And I think I've always been lucky in that I've always, sort of, had an awareness of that. Like you said, Ameer, I have that bird's eye view. I've always been able to look and say, "Okay, you're getting really upset," or "You might not be handling this situation very well." And so that, I think that helped me become aware that that was important, and just knowing that, I think, when those situations arise at work, I think I'm able to often step back. It's still hard, and you can still get caught up in the emotions, both, you know, when you're dealing with a difficult situation with the patient, or you're dealing with a difficult administrative issue. But when you are able to sort of step back and become aware of your emotions, and view them from an external viewpoint, it really dissipates them and they don't take over. So I think at work, with mindfulness, the awareness that that's important has definitely helped me and made me be more aware of it, and probably made me be more aware of it than I ever was before, and sort of tried to purposely view myself from that perspective often. You know, you would think, when things are going badly in the operating room, that the most in-control person in the room is the surgeon — and it should be — but as you guys know, that's not always the case. And I think that, you know, we need to be that person. And people need to be trained to be able to do that. In terms of the meditation — so, I mean, on Sam's app, there's a 10- or 20-minute daily meditation you can do, and I'll do that pretty much every day, 20 minutes, with his app, with his daily meditation. He also has a whole bunch of other meditation experts coming at meditation from slightly different angles and disciplines. And I'll often, you know, listen to them and get into them and do some of those meditations. I've done a fair number by a guy named Henry Shukman, a Zen Buddhist who, you know, is really outstanding on his app, and then I'll just, I'll just meditate myself. The thing that limits me is fatigue. I'm sure you guys can both relate to that. Sometimes if you sit down quietly, especially if you close your mind, close your eyes, the next thing you know, you're waking up half an hour later, 45 minutes later, so I'll often do it at night, but I'll take a nap, sometimes, for 30 minutes when I get home from work, and then I'm wide awake, and then I'll meditate after I've had a nap. And I just, I make it a priority. Like, I do it probably before I do a lot of other things in my life that I used to do, you know, when I wasn't at work, it's definitely a priority. Having said that, there's lots of days when I don't do that because I'm too busy or I'm too tired.
Ameer Farooq 34:40
We have this — or at least I had this preconceived notion of, sometimes, of meditation as being this very, like, kind of esoteric, hocus pocus kind of practice that people do. But, you know, to hear you describe it, it's clearly a very integral part of your life. And I think — correct me if I'm wrong — but it's not even just about surgery, but it's really about like, thinking about your life and our purpose and what the meaning of life is. I feel like so often those really important questions don't — we don't even ask ourselves these; we just get lost in the day-to-day, like, just mundanity of it all. And we just keep going down these paths. We don't even think about where we're going. Dr. Dixon, for someone who doesn't do meditation on a regular basis, what do you recommend being the best way to kind of get into it? Is it using that Waking Up app as the best way to kind of get into it? You know, we interviewed Jillian Horton, who wrote a great book called [We Are All] Perfectly Fine, where she actually talks about going away to a retreat on mindfulness and meditation. Is that something you'd recommend? To the uninitiated, how do you get into mindfulness and meditation?
Elijah Dixon 36:03
Yeah, that's a good question, and I think there's no single right answer. I personally think that an app like Waking Up, Sam Harris' app, is a really nice way to start, because he has a series of lectures that sort of go through the logic around meditation, talks about mindfulness, talks about meditation, talks about, you know, the effects that it can have on your life in terms of calming you, being less controlled by your emotions. And then, you know, as you get more into the meditation aspect of it, you know, he does have a lot on there about, sort of, enlightenment and, you know, making sort of — understanding the nature of reality, more understanding nonduality. And, you know, how best to practice towards that. I think that a lot of times, especially if that's your focus, meditation can become about striving for that, and I think he addresses that better than a lot of people, and that, you know, any meditation is good; you don't necessarily have to sit by yourself in a retreat for — a silent retreat for a week or a month or 3 months. I think going on a retreat is outstanding. I think that that's a steep way to get into meditation, though, if you haven't meditated, and you go to that sort of a retreat. It could be frustrating, and expecting a lot from yourself. So I think that there's, yeah, huge benefit and in doing [a] retreat, but I think as a means to starting out, I personally think his app is amazing. And he has a lot on there about the logic of mindfulness and meditation that, I think for people that are not familiar with it, and think it's sort of weird hocus pocus, that it's a really nice way to go through it. And I mean, he's a scientist; he's got a PhD in neuroscience, so you know, he really goes through it in a critical sort of way and explains things really well. He's an amazing orator, so, you know, you really understand things well. So that, I think that's the — that, personally based on my experience, that would be a great way to start.
Ameer Farooq 39:02
You mentioned a few times now, duality. What's duality and nonduality?
Elijah Dixon 39:09
Well, I mean, the duality is how pretty much all of us live, which is with a strong sense of the ego or self, and that everything outside of us is outside of us. So the duality is, you know, subject–object. Us, the ego and then everything outside of us. And if you, you know, — a common theme as you listen and read and hear about people that have had these enlightenment experiences, one of the big common threads is the nondual nature of the world; that, really, we're all part of the same thing and we're all part of — our reality is 1 big reality. And the ego is really a construct that we create for ourselves. There's a great TED talk about someone that had a stroke in her default mode network of her brain, which is the area of your brain that gives you your sense of self or your ego. Her name is Jill Bolte Taylor. And she, again, she's also a scientist. She gives a great, short — I think it's 10- or 15-minute — TED talk. She had a stroke of her default mode network and describes what it's like to not have that functioning and basically describes nonduality. And her description is very, very similar to these, you know, meditation masters or people that have had these enlightenment experiences and how they describe nonduality and their perception of reality, without having a stroke, obviously; just through meditation. And yeah, it's worth listening to. It's very, very interesting, and she can describe it much better than I can.
Ameer Farooq 41:27
I'm curious how this practice has spilled over into other aspects of your life, maybe beyond the operating room.
Elijah Dixon 41:38
I mean, the biggest, and I'm sure that both of you would say the same thing; that lots of times in life, you're sort of, you're waiting. Like, you're, you know, I just need to get that grant, or I need to publish that paper, or I need to get that promotion, or I need to, you know, get my driver's license, or, you know, whatever it is that you're waiting for in the future. And it takes away from your appreciation of the time that you're in right now. I mean, the best time of your life is probably when you're 8 or 9 years old, and you have no worries. But when you're 8 or 9 years old, you can't wait to get your driver's license, you can't wait to do all these adult things. And you know, when you start your practice, you can't wait to be whatever it is; vizier or, you know, get that promotion, get that grant, become whatever it is that you think is important to you. And I think that although you know that intuitively, it's very hard to actually live your life that way and practice that way. And I think that being more aware of this stuff has helped me a lot in terms of just, yeah, enjoying the moment and being happy with how things are right now.
Chad Ball 43:02
If you were able to go back in time and chat with yourself, give yourself some advice, some sage thoughts, maybe when you're starting practice or as a trainee; what would you tell yourself?
Elijah Dixon 43:14
Oh, I mean, I would try to tell myself what I just said; try to enjoy where you are right now, because it's, you know, it's great. And then the other is, I would, I would tell myself to ask more questions, and that there's no stupid questions, and not be afraid to sort of question things. I think that, especially when you're a junior, we tend to just accept the way that things are, and that's the way that it is. And it very well may be that that's the right way, but I think, a lot of times, you don't ask questions; you do things because you think that's what you have to do. And I think asking more questions, you know, would be helpful. So, like, the example is, you know, I just — because we trained in an academic place, I just assumed that, you know, working in academic places is what you need to do to have a fulfilling career. And I think that if you asked me — if I would have asked more questions, especially with people that weren't working in an academic place, I would have had a stronger appreciation that there's lots of different paths in surgery that are very rewarding. And that, you know, you don't need to necessarily work at the quaternary centre. There's lots of other very rewarding practices. And that's something that, you know, I realized through experience and through going and helping out in Red Deer and working in a non-, you know, academic, quote unquote, academic centre, and you realize that the surgery and the care they give is every bit as good as what they do in an academic centre, and it's very rewarding. So there's just lots of examples like that where I assume things and I probably should have asked more questions and investigated a little bit more, and maybe other people are better at that than me. But yeah, I would have asked more questions and been a little bit more critical in some of my assumptions.
Ameer Farooq 45:35
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