She is brilliantly trained and highly intelligent. She was
at the top of her class in college, medical school and in residency training.
Today she is called to do what we focused on in my old Life Choices television show – make a hard choice. She is an
executive and no longer treats patients. Her job now is to take care of the people who take care of people.
There is a problem. Finance comes easy for her. Rounding to build morale is
hard. Her shyness makes smiling difficult. She is uncomfortable with the relationships leaders must master.
In other words, her “soft” skills are under developed.
Staff members sometimes think she’s angry. They fear her when actually she only wants the best.
“It’s time to leave your comfort zone,” I told her when I
was asked to consult at her hospital. Fearful people will not bring their heart to work.”
I told her she no longer had the luxury of wearing a grim
face on occasions when her staff needs warmth.
How do you teach such skills?
That is the issue we are addressing together.
Radical Loving Care calls us to the challenge zone – to pursue areas that will ultimately enrich
life. To fulfill his promise a math whiz needs to study literature. The artist
would benefit from studying calculus. Caregivers need heart as well as head.
The comfort zone is well named. We stay
in patterns because leaving them poses risks. But patterns can kill passion.
There is an oft-reported experiment on the danger of the
comfort zone. A scientist places a frog
in a pan. He heats the pan slowly. Feeling the warmth, the frog relaxes. The
scientist gradually increases the heat until the contented frog is fried.
-Erie Chapman
[1992 publicity still for Life Choices with Erie Chapman & Kathleen Sullivan]
Journal of Sacred Work 
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