Doing a good thing, even in the middle of a bad day!

This past weekend I was enjoying some down time before heading out to the AHCA/NCAL convention in Washington, DC.

Saturday was my only free day before getting on the plane and heading east. It just so happened to be cold, wet and drizzly, and I was feeling bummed as I had planned on being outside working in the fall air most of the day. I decided to find a job to do inside the house instead and ended up demoing our powder room, which was on my honey-do-list for a few weeks at this point. After a couple hours of a sledgehammer and crowbar I had finished and decided to go into the living room and catch up on some college football. My team, Boise State, was down early 0-10 to BYU, as I was conceding the loss and turning off the TV to find something else more enjoyable to do, I looked out the window to see my 13-year-old daughter carrying a large canvas frame to the back yard. She had laid out a blanket in the wet grass, lined up all her brushes and was starting to paint.

I really didn’t think much of it other than it seemed like a bummer of an idea on such a wet gloomy day. But I know my daughter is pretty determined when she has something set in her mind, so I waved at her through the window gave her a “Thumbs up” and went about finding something else to do in the warmth of the house.

Later, that day my wife asked me if I had seen the painting that my daughter had done, I replied “no”, but I did see her setting things up outside which I thought was a bit crazy. She pulled me into the other room, and I saw the picture. I was amazed, when asking for further details my wife replied, “your daughter says it was inspired by the idea of "Doing a good thing in the middle of a bad day” It immediately connected with me, how profound but simple.

The healthcare industry very much feels like we are all in the middle of one very long bad day. And like some of us, we let that determine our moods, our actions and it limits us from what we really want to do. Much like it did with me on Saturday. I allowed myself to stay inside instead of going outside and making the best of what could have been a great day. I also turned off a game that I really wanted to watch simply because they were down so early to what seemed like a superior team.

As I looked at my daughter’s picture, I imagined the person holding the strings to all the balloons as our healthcare industry, the strings as the regulations that guide and control us and the balloons being our respective facilities, companies, and services within the healthcare spectrum. Each shining brightly, different colors shapes and sizes, but all reaching for the sky huddled together by a static collective force protecting and congregating each other from the elements. Each balloon with an internal uplifting force to do good even in the middle of a bad (Covid) year which the clouds and rain represented.

Years from now we will look back on this time in our industry as either the “COVID DAZE” or the time we as healthcare workers and providers all united despite the challenges, stresses, headwinds, and weight of it all and rose up bright and steadfast against the elements to simply “doing good things even on our bad days”. As stakeholders in the healthcare industry, I hope each one of us looks to do good even when times are tough, but I also hope that we share those great things, simple and little as they seem, because those simple little daily things are what makes our industry sparkle and shine like non other. Let’s all change our perspectives, be more positive, do things better and be better each day even in the face of our trials.

My Saturday was derailed by my unwillingness to change the narrative and do good and think positive even on a bad day. My daughter’s day was great, and the Broncos beat the Cougars even on a bad day.