One of my favourite stories about the power of learning to promote positive change is one that is close to my heart because it’s from my husband Brendan Dolan. His decision to completely change his career after years of success is one of courage, insight and it all happened because he learned, literally, by accident.
Brendan worked in residential construction for 15 years. He was good at it. He enjoyed it but, at some point, he felt he wasn’t learning anything anymore which caused some boredom and lethargy. Never a good combination for ongoing success and motivation. Unfortunately, one day while on a ladder installing a second-story window, he fell injuring his back, legs and feet. He sought medical treatment, but nothing really resolved the root of the problem to get him on the road to complete recovery. A colleague suggested going for acupuncture and shiatsu massage and within a few treatments he was 100% better.
It got him thinking – this is amazing! He was so impressed by the results of Eastern Medicine techniques that he decided to quit his job and go back to school for 4 years to become a Registered Acupuncturist (R.Ac.) and Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner (RTCMP). That’s a big change. Construction to healthcare. It wasn’t an easy decision to go from something comfortable with a proven track record to something completely unknown as an adult. But what he learned from his recovery process is what he truly loved was the ability to always be learning and to share that learning to help others in a meaningful way. And TCM is something that he can always learn: from different treatment protocols, to challenging cases that require complex diagnosis, to new and evolving treatment modalities.
“I approach health from a pragmatic point of view. The most important thing to me is that people get better and live healthy and happy lives.” – Brendan Dolan, B.A., R.Ac, RTCMP, Avenue Acupuncture
Change is hard. And when something is hard – it usually translates into bigger and better growth, in my experience and opinion.
I empathize with this in our business. When something big happens in our business I like to look at it as an opportunity vs. a setback. Change should be the catalyst for growth. It’s an opportunity to look at our business fresh and through a different lens. And I like to think it’s what keeps us on our toes and our eyes wide open to push ourselves outside of our comfort zone to not only help our clients but push us into new ways to innovate, collaborate and excel.