Transplant
By Steve Gahagen
My son-in-law, who recently completed his residency in general surgery, was doing a transplant rotation during his training. My daughter sent a picture of him flying to another city to pick up a liver that was to be transplanted in a patient in Columbus, Ohio. The capabilities of modern medicine are astounding. And the lengths that people would go to save someone’s life are equally amazing. Contrast that with the senseless loss of life we see too often in our culture.
The picture of my son-in-law carrying that liver in a cooler made me think about the concept of transplant. Gallup would say that we live in a remedial culture and that we often focus on weakness instead of strength. Even after we have become aware of the importance of a strengths focus, it can be difficult to avoid negative patterns of thinking about oneself or others.
When I was a kid, I was told to use the following defense if someone was trying to bully me: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Of course, that is not true. Words can hurt us and cling to us longer than broken bones. Negative words can play over and over again in our mind like a broken record.
What if we could get a mind transplant? What if all the negative words and messages were somehow erased and we only thought about what was good? What if it was natural to focus on our strengths rather than all the things we need to fix? It would be amazing and life-giving.
Though it may be impossible for the transplant to happen instantaneously, through effort and creating new habits, we can change the way we think and establish new pathways in our brains. That’s why training in strengths becomes most transformational when we establish new habits that make it easier to focus on what we have instead of what we lack. Over time, it can almost be like having transplanted mind.
Questions to Consider:
If you could have a transplanted mind, what kind of thoughts would you want to be gone?
What disciplines have helped you focus more on strengths than weaknesses? How has that changed you?
What can you do this week to help the people close to you, whether family or colleagues, see and be amazed at the talents they have instead of the things they are missing?