Dr. J's SOAP Notes: August 2013

Monday, August 05, 2013

Are YOU a Champion?

The dictionary definition of a champion is a person who has defeated or surpassed all rivals in a competition. My personal favorite definition, is to "live your life in your own way, to reach for the goals you have set for yourself, and to be the YOU that you want to be."

What makes a champion? I bet you know a champion. Are they your neighbor, your co-worker, your family member? Is it Mary Lou Retton, Kelly Clarkson, a pastor, a doctor, a nurse?

I want you to imagine yourself right now as a champion...go ahead, close your eyes, and imagine what it would look like to be a champion. No, I do not want to hear you say, "I am not good at anything. " Now go ahead, close your eyes. I want you to imagine what it looks like to be a champion. This may take a little time. I want you to find a quiet place. There must be no distractions. Make a list in your head of all your talents.

I can see that it is not hard for you to list the talents if you are a top speed skater, a pro basketball player, a famous artist. Are you the fastest runner on your team? Have you won All-conference honors on your basketball team? Did you qualify for the National Golf team? Are you an award-winning novelist? Do people naturally gravitate toward you because you are a natural leader?

Ok, that is a great start. Next, I want you to list those talents you have that are a little deeper inside. You know they exist! These are the talents that you have kept hiding and are not being fully utilized. Keep this list because we will refer back to it.

Now, picture you are looking for someone to join your team. You are looking for a champion. It can be your softball team, your rowing team, your debate team, etc. When you pick your teammate, are you looking at their "gifts" that are obvious? For example, are you looking at the person's gifts and projecting those into the future? They have talent now so they will be my champion in the future. Or are you thinking that person has a lot of potential and with hard work, passion, discipline, commitment and good instruction, that person can be an amazing teammate?

Its okay, there is not a right answer. I just want you to be aware that many people who have amazing talents, never reach their full potential, so you may have passed up the true champion who was ready, willing, and able to be your student. It might have been you...with all your "hidden" talents that were not being utilized.

I ask you again, "Are you a Champion?" More importantly, "Can you pick the champion?" I will tell you this one thing to be more true now then ever before...the kind of feedback students get from the people who evaluate them (their parents, their teachers, their coaches) makes the difference between finding a champion or finding someone who is not. Specifically, champions are found when evaluating the process (e.g., effort, learning) as opposed to a focus on the person (e.g., talent or ability).

Who is Dr. J

Background:

She is originally from Spencer, Iowa. Malea is a graduate of Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. She attended medical school at the University of Osteopathic Medicine in Des Moines, Iowa. She graduated from her Family Practice Residency program at Iowa Lutheran Hospital in Des Moines, Iowa in 1998.
In her spare time, Malea trains clients on physical activity and nutrition, spends time with friends and her wonderful father, and loves to watch football. What is better than bodybuilding? “Wolverine football on Saturday and Vikings football on Sunday!” Malea also loves basketball as March Madness rounds out a wonderful basketball season. As you may have guessed, Malea is very sports oriented, having been a four-sport athlete in high school, and a three-sport athlete in college.

Why I do what I do:

Jensen approaches her medical practice with the same determination as anything else she does. “The effort to understand how to promote more active lifestyles has been of great importance to the health of this nation. Schools, workplaces, and families need to weave physical activity into the fabric of their daily lives. The key to lifetime fitness is consistency!”

What I Do Away From Work

Dr. Malea Jensen is the total package. She’s exceptionally bright. She’s remarkably attractive. She’s a doctor. She’s a bodybuilder. “I have been competing in bodybuilding since 1996,” Jensen explains. “Bodybuilding was never a whim”, Jensen says. “I have always admired men and women with muscle. Initially, it was not my ambition to get up on stage and pose, but this has been a way to extend my competitiveness. It is an ambition of mine to keep fit and look lean, with muscular detail.”

She credits her father for pushing her to “give 100 percent,” whether it was school, work, or one of the many sports at which she excelled.

Mission Trips

Why does Dr. J go on mission trips? You are probably thinking I go so I can do medical work. It’s funny, our culture has formed us from our earliest days to see our significance in terms of WHAT we do. It is old school thinking that mission work is all about giving and doing for the poor. This is true to a certain degree. Missionaries, when asked if they were successful during their mission trip, often speak of their success by what they have done, whether spiritually or materially. But really our significance as people comes not from what we do, but from WHO we are. So, to answer why I go on mission trips...it is for nothing less than for the sake of conversion...my own conversion! This conversion has to do with a change in the way that I view my own life - what I do, what I have, who I count as friends, what questions I ask myself, what issues I pay attention to, who and what I give my allegiance to. In essence, I have to leave my world where I have control and go someplace I have never been...to a place where I am poor and powerless. It is hard to do this at “home.”
Any time you enter a third world country, you will see the poor, but more importantly, you enter into the world of a deprived people and share not only their pain and struggle, but also their hope! To see this is so amazing!