Perspectives of 'new'

Yesterday was Tamil New Year Day. As is the ritual on the first day of the year, people share good wishes to one another. One of the commonly shared wishes is that of good health, and prosperity in the new year. One person wished that I should start something new, something totally unexplored before, something that excites me, something that I had always wanted to do but could not till now. It was a well-intentioned wish, and it got me thinking. This is a reflection on that wish. 

 

Venturing into new things and constantly reinvesting oneself is a good thing, but after much thinking I have concluded that it is a privilege and not essential for a meaningful life. While I was reflecting on what this person wished for me, there were two things that I asked myself. Firstly, what is a ‘new venture’? Secondly, is there a downside to starting new things? This thought process gradually drove me to my conclusion. 

 

Doing new things is great! It opens the mind to new horizons. It helps discover new aspects of ourselves. The process of gaining a new skill keeps the brain active. It throws open a new space where we can focus our energies and do good work. It breaks the monotony of routine life and makes life more interesting. Learning a new language, traveling to a new place, acquiring a new skill, changing jobs, all these things are new things that can create a breath of fresh air in an otherwise mundane life. I think, this was the basis of this person’s wish. It is also recommended by many life coaches, and self-help gurus. 

 

While doing new things can be great, drastic transformations can be uncomfortable in the beginning. I remember the early days when I was learning German. Starting from the German alphabet, to numbers, days of the week, months of the year, everything was new. The grammar was very different from English, Tamil and Hindi, the other languages that I am fluent in. Getting used to the new grammar was tough. It was a lot of brain work that I was not accustomed to. I struggled a lot during the process. After attending a class and learning new things, I would feel exhausted. Part of the reason was because those classes were during the end of the long work day, but a major reason was because of the brain work. We are so used to utilizing a small portion of our brains in our daily life, that learning new things puts on a substantial cognitive load.  But despite the tiredness, those were exciting days. 

 

But is this the only way to look at a ‘new venture’? I think not. I am a primary care physician by profession. I see patients regularly, and most of them have common minor illnesses like cough, cold, fever, headache, body pains, diabetes, high BP etc. I called these illnesses “common minor” because they are mild, not requiring life or death decisions, and they are very common. One would say these are ‘boring’ because they often do not pose diagnostic or treatment challenges to the physician. With a basic battery of 4-5 drugs, all these illnesses can be addressed. The process of the clinical encounter is usually repetitive, the same symptoms, diagnosis, drugs and counseling. Doing it day in and day out can be boring at times. But with the years, I have also realized that every patient is ‘new’ and unique in their own way. They have different combinations of problems. They have different preferences. Afterall, the practice of medicine is a judicious combination of medical knowledge with the patient preferences. I have diagnosed 4 patients with tuberculosis in the past month. One of them has TB of the eye and so one of the medications ethambutol cannot be given. One of them has recurrent TB and therefore required closer follow up. The other one had TB which could not be detected in the sputum, but was present only in the chest X ray, so negotiating with the public health system and starting his treatment was challenging. The fourth one had TB of the intestines and therefore her treatment was different. It was a “common and routine illness”, but each patient posed a new challenge. So I think there is something ‘new and unexpected’ in everyday life. Treatment of a ‘common minor ailment’ itself can be unchartered and challenging. 

 

Is there a downside to keep reinventing oneself? I think there is. It is good to reinvent oneself or have a reboot of sorts, when they perceive a sense of stagnation. But equally important is to stay and sweat it out and clock in Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours required for mastery. Doing the same thing repetitively with the same level of commitment, to achieve a high level of competence and perfection is also a matter of great virtue. Getting up each morning, getting ready to go to clinic, and interacting with the patients with the same energy and enthusiasm as the first day in the clinical postings during medical college also requires a lot of commitment and determination. Constantly doing something ‘new’ may prevent one from investing enough in perfecting any one craft. 

 

I think the wish, “I wish you a new beginning and lot of new things in your life’ is still a great one. I think, the interpretation for it need not be ‘go learn a new language’, ‘ go learn a musical instrument’, ‘go visit a new place’. It can even be, ‘I wish you courage and determination and grit, to invest yourself in your work such that it gives u something new each day’. It can even be, ‘ I wish you the patience to do your everyday things repetitively as though it is new each time’.