Maintaining myself ...or no dentistry gets done

I love to cruise and not just because of the port of calls. I like the day to day running of the ship. I love to walk the decks of the ship and watch the ship crew at their daily activities. Ship life is interesting because some form of cleaning or maintaining is going on all the time. I met two interesting people on my last cruise the Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas. They both taught me a valuable lesson.

First was a painter named Raymound from Africa. He told me painting the sides of the ship is ongoing. He paints six days a week for three hours year round. Once he is done painting the whole area of the ship that he is responsible for he starts the process over again- 'from where he started'. It is an on-going, never-ending process. This made me realize that we have to be on-going and never-ending in our attempts to keep our lives and possessions at their best. Once we have maintained what we are responsible for we must then go back to the beginning - the start of it all. This applies to most things in our life-housekeeping, lawncare and car maintenance. This is a routine that must be repeated over and over- it is never ending.

As I continued my stroll around the ship I drew correlations in my own life. Being a dentist is pretty rigorous on the body. I work out in one form or another six days a week. Every day is dedicated to a body part or area. Once I have trained all the various areas I start over again with the first body part trained. I had never thought about myself as 'something' to be maintained but without training in this manner I would not be an effective dentist.

Those who love me know that I can be just a tad obsessive about things I love especially training. I remember another conversation I had with Raymound. I asked him why he didn't just paint eight hours straight and get the job done quicker. He could have a couple of days off! It seemed more efficient to me. He stated that if he painted more that three hours a day his shoulder and back started to hurt. He said that was counter-productive because then he had to spend many days recuperating and no painting got done. I need to remind myself to avoid obsessive training. To do so is counter-productive. I will hurt myself and spend days recuperating. No dentistry will get done.

My conversation with Raymound was just as memorable as the sights I saw in Haiti and Jamaica. Through his insight I realized why my daily workouts were so important. I also learned that over training is counterproductive because injury means no training and possibly no dentistry.
So I will maintain myself through scheduled, short but intense training periods indefinitely because maintenance is on going and never ending.

Tomorrow I will tell you about Rowanda. I cannot remember where she was from but the lesson she taught me is unforgettable.