Maria Pierre: 00:02 Thanks for listening to the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry, here to help educate, motivate and put you on the right path to take control of your health through weekly discussions on topics in the medical field, public health arena and in your community. Now your host Dr. Berry. Dr.Berry : 00:25 Welcome to Lunch and Learn with Dr.Berry, this is episode 47 of the Lunch and Learn heading to the home stretch of 2017. For show notes like always you can head over to DrPierresblog.com/LLP047, again if you want today's show notes please head over to DrPierresblog.com/LLP047 Dr.Berry : 00:53 If you're just joining us, last week we talked about how to not make a mistake when signing up for health insurance. We had our guest sponsor of Capital Insurance that talked about the mistakes that patients make when signing up for health insurance. So please check out that episode, it's episode 46 on all of your favorite podcast outlets, as well as the website. But you know particularly Apple podcasts, Sound Cloud, Google Play, Stitcher Radio. Find out what you can do to make sure you don't sign up for the wrong health insurance plan, especially as we know Open Enrollment is coming up and it's going to be finishing on my birthday, which is December 15th. So if you need any way to remember when does Open Enrollment finish up and close, is going to be December 15th, Dr. Berry's birthday. Dr.Berry : 01:50 So today's episode, episode 47 we're going to be talking about affirmation, we're going to be talking about health affirmations and we're actually going to be giving nice little sneak peek on an upcoming book that I'm dropping the end of December, early January. 'Affirmation 2018', which is actually a follow up to my book 'Affirmation 2016' and we'll talk about why I actually labeled it 2018 versus 2016. So get ready for another great episode, and like the motto says, here to prevent the preventable death, one person at a time. Alright so thank you for listening to another episode of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry. Today's theme is going to be right still on par with the health coaching theme that we tend to do with these podcasts. Today we're talking about affirmation and why I feel that everyone, and not just those who are really focused on certain goals, especially in regards to their health, but why everyone should have an affirmation and why it was something that I took a part in just last year. So from the motivations standpoint, so the motivation of today's episode was two part, 'cause when we
do these things I always try to see how can we intertwine health care with what we do especially on a podcast when we sometimes talk about like the personal coaching aspect of it. Just to start of right, when I talk about affirmation, like what does that mean? Dr.Berry : 03:37 So affirmation, even just a plain definition means the process of affirming. It's a process of pretty much putting stuff out there to the world as it's true. Lots of people do this, there's lots of various reasons why they do this, those of you may be very familiar when you do your New Years resolutions. So that's an affirmation, in the beginning of the year you say I am going to do less of this, or I am going to do more of that. That is an affirmation that you put out to the world. When we talk about in health care, and majority of the time in health care usually affirmations range from wanting to just become more healthier, either wanting to see the doctor more, see the doctor less depending on you know where you fall in that spectrum. Whether it be losing weight, gaining weight, and for some people whether it be just trying to get off the medications that they're on. Like in health everyone has their different health affirmations that they want to go abide by on a daily basis, on a yearly basis, where they each want to try to take the control of their health care. Dr.Berry : 04:56 That's important because I think for a lot of us when we set out these goals, because we tend to try to keep these goals secret, and within ourselves, and a lot of that is almost a self defeating attitude. We figure if we tell people what we want to do, then it may not happen right. If it doesn't happen right then there's no one to hold you accountable for it. This is what happens a lot in the world of the health affirmations. Like you know you want to get healthier, lose weight, gain weight, see the doctor more, see the doctor less, you know you want to do these things but you don't put it out there to the world, because you don't then want the responsibility of having to do those things. Like at the time when before you go in with in an affirmation, it's more of a hey I want to do these things. But the second you put it out there to the world, the second you put it out in public that you want to lose weight. The second that you put it out in public that you want to get healthier, it almost becomes a need right? Like you need to do these things because everyone else knows I need to do this, and I told everyone I want to do it.
Dr.Berry : 06:03 So that's where when we'll talk about why this is so important, especially for the patients. Especially for the patients who are listening and those who may be in tip top shape, but you know you have family members and moms and dads, and uncles, and grandparents, and cousins, brothers and sisters, someone who you know probably isn't where they want to be at in that health sphere. Sometimes this is a great motivator to kind of get them over the humps that do come right, 'cause in the end we don't like to sugar coat things here on the podcast. We understand that there's going to be bumps that you're going to run into, there's going to be obstacles that you're going to hit. The question is, when you hit those, not if you hit them, when you hit them, what are you going to do about them? I think that's where this affirmation process comes in, where like now that I've put it out to the world that I want to do X, now that I put it out to the world that I want to lose weight. Now that I put it out to the world that I want to get off my medications, now someone out there can hold me responsible for it. Dr.Berry : 07:15 I would say that this topic just kind of popped in my head, but it didn't. My coach, a coach of mine, for those who've been following me over the past year know that I've been very vocal about the need for coaching in whatever industry you're in. I was, I am a physician, I'm a board certified internist, I'm a program director in Internal Medicine Residency, but still I understand the need for coaching and someone who is above me in terms of maybe social status or a place, or a business stature. I know I want to get there but I don't know exactly how to get there. I encourage everyone who feels that they're at a point in their life where they want to get to point B but they don't really seem to know how. That instilling the help of a coach could be very important and very meaningful. Dr.Berry : 08:21 So my coach Dr Jura, actually as we speak, is having a tele summit about momentum in medicine. It's a conference he does, honestly it's probably the most amazing conference I've ever been to, especially as a medical professional where we're in conferences like all the time. Hands down the best conference I've ever been to. One of his guests, Dr.Tanya Lowe, who's a mind set wizard, I just had to say it short and sweet, she's absolutely amazing. She talked about how she has all of her clients put down, write down, verbally say out loud what their affirmations are, like it's a requirement for her. I felt that you know what, I definitely have to reach out and touch the
Lunch and Learn listeners with this message, 'cause it's way to important. It's something that I follow, it's something that I practice what I preach, but I didn't even realize I was doing it. Dr.Berry : 09:25 Just kind of listening to her talk about affirmation and like how it's had such an important impact on her career as well as the lives of the people she touches, only made more sense that we were going to make sure that before the year ends out. Before 2017 ends out right, like that we put it out in the air, that we need to really start working on our affirmations, especially propel us forward in 2018, from the medical side. So that was my business side of why we wanted to do this affirmation right. But from the medical side, I had a patient, very recently, who's family member had met some unfortunate circumstances with their health. Because this family member, which is again this is not out of the ordinary, because this family member had not seen a doctor for years, had not taken care of themselves for years. Because this family member had did this, a lot of unfortunate medical issues began to arise. What this family member, who again who was not the patient, but what this family member stated that, that was just seeing their family member kind of go through all of the trials and tribulations that she had to go through just because she wasn't regularly checking up with her doctor and making sure her health condition was on point. Was enough to turn her around, made her turn a complete 180, and say you know what if I don't take care of myself no one will be able to take care of me and I won't be able to take care of others. Dr.Berry : 11:07 So that was, she put it out to the world, she said I'm going to get on insurance like right now, 'cause again this was a patient who didn't have insurance, just like the friend, the family member did not have insurance and the patient did not have insurance. So again there's some reasons why she didn't go see a doctor as long as she was supposed to. She made it a point, she said I'm going to go see a doctor like right now, like I got to get myself checked out, I need to know if anything is wrong with me we're going to take care of this like asap. So those two things are extremely telling. It was saying you know what something happened in my life that changed the course, that said you know what if I don't put it out there to the world that I want to do A, B and C, I don't think I'm ever going to do it. That was the motivation for when I did my book last year.
Dr.Berry : 12:03 So I have a book called 'Affirmation 2016' and in that book it was, and again I didn't realize I was doing it at the time, I just knew I needed to do it, because I knew myself. For a lot of us and I always encourage my patients, like know yourself, you need to know your limits, you need to know what motivates you. You need to know what's going to make you take it to the next level. What's going to help you work out that extra gym session? What's going to help you put down that food that you're not supposed to be eating? What's going to help you take the medications you're supposed to be taking? We all know what it is that makes us do it, but a lot of times we tend to avoid it. So when I talk to the patients family member, when I talk to the patient, a lot of it was, you know what with this situation I just got to put it out there in the world. So that's what I did with the book, when I was with the book I was in a much different space than I'm in now. Dr.Berry : 13:05 Like right now from a career standpoint, it's absolutely amazing, I absolutely love what I do now, but I didn't really have these same feelings last year. I didn't have these same feelings in 2016, going into 2017. I didn't love the job, like I liked the people at my job, I didn't love the job. It was getting more and more telling that where I wanted to go wasn't the direction the job wanted me to go. So it was a depressing time period for me, and of course you know you're thinking, oh Dr. Berry you're a physician, you're seeing a lot of patients, you're making a lot of money, how could you be depressed? I always tell my mentees this all the time, regardless of how much someone is willing to pay you if you don't like the job you're not going to do it right. We see this all the time, especially in the world of health care, like where you get paid a lot of money, you do, especially in comparison to the average person. You get paid a lot of money, but if you don't like doing what you do, you'll be those... Unfortunately there's a lot of them still walking around in this profession. You're going to be those old cantankerous physicians who are upset at the world, mad at everybody, yell at everybody and no ones going to really want to talk to you. Dr.Berry : 14:31 I knew that I never wanted to be like that physician, so I had to make a way, and I had to make my steps to get out there. But what was I going to do? What was I going to do to ensure that I can go out, go out from the position I'm at, but still do what I love. 'Cause I love medicine, so I didn't want to go away from medicine. So in that book, in 2016 I had a few affirmations, and I
wrote four of them, and what was absolutely amazing was that it all came into fruition. Like I think that was the crazy thing that I'm still like kind of shocked by, like I'm still like when I look back, 'cause I read it the other day and I'm like, oh my God actually did everything I said I was going to do. I'm not sure if it was divine will or was it for the simple fact that I wrote it down and I knew that I had no choice to do it. Dr.Berry : 15:21 So in like the first part, and I talked about getting back some of my time, like when I was in 2016 I was doing all of this work for this company that I didn't like and I couldn't do work for myself. Like I couldn't work for myself, I couldn't work on the side, I couldn't do anything I really wanted to do. So I set out to say, you know what I'm going to reclaim my time, and I've said this before, time freedom is absolutely gold to me. It means much more than any dollar amount, if I have my time, I have my sanity, I have my mental health, I'm good. So I started out saying you know what I want to get some of time back, and I made the necessary steps to get that. Dr.Berry : 16:11 Another thing you're listening to it, I said you know what I want to start a podcast, and I had lots of reasons for starting a podcast, I actually put a link in the show notes of why I wanted to start to podcast. But I wanted to start a podcast and as you can see you're listening to episode 47 of the podcast, right, like it's been absolutely amazing and I almost wish I would have started podcast earlier. That's how much, that's how amazing it's been kind of starting this podcast. I wanted to become a paid speaker, like I wanted to become a paid speaker. For those who know me, know I like to talk, talking is something that I can do very well and I can a lot of it. Unfortunately in the medicine world, and you know I do blame some of our predecessors in the medicine world we tend to do a lot of speaking for free. We tend to do a lot of our expertise and give away our expertise for free. A lot of the times it's just 'cause we don't really ask for it, we don't ask for it and because we don't ask for it no ones just going to hand it to you. Dr.Berry : 17:13 So I was very assertive in putting it out there that if you want me to come speak at your event, if you want me to come talk and give my expertise you will have to compensate for that. It's been almost life changing, 'cause for one thing I stopped getting those requests, I stopped getting those requests left and right. 'Cause I used to get them all the time, oh can you speak here,
can you speak there? But once I started putting it out to the world that, no, if you want me to speak you'll have to pay me, all of a sudden I got less speaking engagements. For those who are maybe thinking, like what does that make sense? Like you're talking less? Well actually remember my first thing was I'm trying to reclaim my time back, because again, I don't know about you, when I go to speak I'm not just kind of winging it. I'm not just oh I got to go speak at eight o'clock, I'm not even going to think about what I need to speak till 7:40. No, it takes time to actually prepare for said speech, and then do a good job at said speech. Dr.Berry : 18:16 So I took a lot, I take a lot of pride in my speaking, and I take a lot of pride and preparation for speaking. So it takes time to do it, and if you want me to do that you got to compensate. So what tended to happen was I was getting less speaking engagements and I was getting more of my time freedom back. The speaking engagements I did get, I got paid for them, 'cause all of a sudden like oh, okay sure, not a problem, here's a fee. I wasn't asking for 20,000 a speech, at least not yet right? I wasn't asking for $20,000 to talk, but I was asking to be compensated, and it's a beautiful thing when you're actually compensated for doing the thing you actually love doing. I tell it all the time, when you actually love doing what you need to do, the fact that they pay you is absolutely amazing. The opposite works the same, when you hate what you want to do, when you hate doing what you're doing, it doesn't matter how much they're paying you an hour, per year, per month, it's not going to matter. You're going to absolutely hate it and the moneys never going to be something that's going to sway you. Dr.Berry : 19:22 Last but not least I wanted to become a published author, and the reason why I wanted to do that, for several reasons. I wanted to put it out there in the world that hey I know how to write, I wanted it to be out there to say, hey I'm a best seller. That happened as well too right, so even though I don't usually do the full introduction when I talk, I guess my tag line if you would say is 'Dr.Berry Pierre, Board Certified Internist, founder of Dr.Pierresblog.com, best selling author, host of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry'. That's a lot, like imagine if every time I came on I had to say that. That's a lot of talk, but you know what I've got a good resume for me.
Dr.Berry : 20:07 So all of the stuff that I wrote down in that book 'Affirmation 2016', like I did it. It's been so amazing that I said, oh I got to do it again. That's kind of where we're at now, so we're at a point where we're getting into 2018, and all of the stuff that I said I wanted to do I've done. So now I have to do more of it, so starting probably towards the end of December, maybe early January, I will definitely let you guys know. I'm actually going to be working on 'Affirmation 2018'. If you didn't notice it, like my first book was 'Affirmation 2016' my second book will be 'Affirmation 2018'. Reason why I'm doing that is because when I was going back and forth with my wife and some others, we were going through the title. They asked me, well what year did you want to date it? I dated it for the year that I wrote it, when in hindsight Monday morning quarterbacking, maybe I should have dated it for the year, like the upcoming year. Dr.Berry : 21:15 So that's why I wanted to do this year, so this years going to be 'Affirmation 2018', essentially going to be the same format, I'm going to have maybe like four affirmations where I talk about what the plans are for 2018, where do I want to go, what's the next level for me. But I'm also going to have, yeah 'cause it's not just a book that I can read myself. 'Cause sure it's going to be a pretty interesting read, but what's going to be important, I'm going to have tips that can help you. I'm going to have tips that help, what did I do to break the mold and go to that next level. Because anything I do especially with Dr.Berry related I want to make sure you guys get as much out of it as I do. So there's going to be sections on there, there's going to be areas where you can even take notes. Where it goes through the process of helping you get to your affirmation and how you can get there as well. Dr.Berry : 22:13 Remember like I said, last year 2016 I had no podcast, I wasn't getting paid to speak, I was working all the time, I had no book out. By the time 2018's going to roll around I'm going to have at least two, I already have two books out now, I'm going to have at least three, especially if we can get it out before the end of December. I'll be on close to episode 50, yeah about episode 50, so you know a lot of great things are happening here. So I want to make sure that I give all of the tips and tricks that are in the bag to kind of help you get your affirmation together as well. 'Cause again we're not calling it a New Years resolution, we're putting it out there to the world to say, hey this is what we're going to do in 2018, whether you like it or not.
Dr.Berry : 23:03 So either you're with us, or you're not. So like that's the goal, I want you to kind of take this podcast and say, you know what, Dr.Berry's ramping up his affirmation, you know what I've got some health affirmations for myself. I got some business affirmations for myself, I want to go to this next level, and if I don't go to the next level it's because I'm not putting it out there to the world. Like that's where we end it, I want you guys to become accountable for what you want to do. Stop being the best kept secret, don't let your business be a best kept secret. Don't let your goal be a best kept secret, put it out there to the world. If you want to go ahead to Dr.Pierresblog.com/llp047, leave it in the comments or you can hit me on all of the social media outlets. I'm at, it's on my Lunch Learn pod, across the board and you know just mention me, DM me, drop it on a Facebook inbox. Wherever you want to put it at, and let us know what your affirmation for 2018's going to be as well. Dr.Berry : 24:15 For my podcast listeners especially those who are still listening right to the almost the very end, I'm going to have a little discount code for you guys for the book. So for the book you'll be able, nice little discount code, and pick that up as well. So 'Affirmation 2018' will be out towards the end of December, and 'Affirmation 2016' still available on the website. Just go to Dr.Pierresblog.com and it's under books, and you'll be able to get it there. You'll also be able to get a link to my best selling Amazon best seller, for it as well, for last year. So you guys have a great, blessed day and I'm going to see you guys next week. Dr.Berry : 25:03 Hey Dr. Berry here, you have just listened to another great episode of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry. Hope you're excited and hope you learned something from today's episode, hope you learn from all of the episodes. Now that you get a chance to listen to before you leave, if you have not already done so go ahead and subscribe to the podcast. I am everywhere where you like to listen to podcast at, whether it be Apple podcasts, Google Play, Sound Cloud, Stitcher Radio, I heart Radio, wherever you like listening to podcasts that Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry is there. Also go ahead and follow me on my social media outlets, I'm on Instagram, I'm on Facebook as well as Twitter, all at Lunch Learn pod. Whether it be Twitter.com/lunchlearnpod, Facebook.com/lunchlearnpod, and Instagram.com/lunchlearnpod, where you can get any videos, any pictures I may post, any messages or writing. So please follow me on there, right after you go ahead and subscribe to
the podcast and right before you leave me a five star review on either Apple podcast or Stitcher Radio, or wherever you can actually leave me a review. Dr.Berry : 26:08 I'm much appreciative of all of you guys support, and like I said earlier in the show I will see you next week.