Meet today's guest, Dr. Weili Gray, a board-certified sleep and lifestyle medicine physician who practices in the Northeast. She is also the founder of Dare to Dream Physician, where she offers life planning and hosts a weekly podcast.
In this episode, Dr. Weili highlights the idea of knowing your "why?", which she describes as "Life Planning", to identify the true drive behind most of our daily pursuits in life, and to achieve the dream life of fulfillment and satisfaction.
Notes
Although externally it seemed that things were perfect for Dr. Weili but she didn't feel that way especially with changes at her workplace following the pandemic. She signed up for a Life Planning class out of curiosity and had an awe-inspiring experience. This was how she got into Life-planning. The clarity from the experience helped her get over those feelings she had earlier on.
Although a lot of people describe their reasons for work as their kids or financial security, it is important to keep asking why. The more you ask, the deeper and more heartfelt your answers are, and the more warmth you feel in your heart. For Dr. Weili she has always loved connecting with patients but over time, with the demands of medical school and other aspects of her work, she started to lose track of her 'why?'. She had to remind herself not to get bogged down chasing perfection in those other aspects but to draw energy from the areas of her work that she enjoyed. "I think it's fully possible to be an engaged physician and follow my ‘why?'"
About Life-planning: Life-planning can be formal during sessions but may also include daily practices and questions. There are 3 questions used in Life-planning;Firstly, if you were financially secure, what would your life look like? This question aims at uncovering the 4 main resources people have including money, time, energy, and talent. Once you figure out your 'why?', the next step is to start to align those 4 resources with it. While a lot of people focus so much on the limited nature of money, they forget that all the other resources are also limited and need to be harnessed efficiently.
The second question: “if your doctor told you that you only had 5-10years to live, what would you do in the time you had left to live? How would this change how you prioritize things in your life?”
The third question: if your doctor told you that you only had one day to live, what feelings arise as you confront your mortality? Here you ask yourself, 'what did I miss? who did I not get to be? And what did I not get to do?' The goal of these questions is to give deep insight from reflection
Rules of thumb in facilitating people to get their dream life:The first step is that they have to know what their dream life is. This is achieved through the reflective exercises in Life Planning and they will feel the energy surge driving them to go for it. The next step is that to go for it, they have to step out of their comfort zone, which would make them different from other people around them. Dr. Weili has had to step out of her comfort zone to start running, motivated by the clarity she has about being in shape. Although it was out of her comfort zone, she has started to see the benefits in her personal life and family interactions.
Connect with Dr. Weili on her "Dare to Dream Physician" weekly podcast which is also open to non-physicians. For one-on-one life planning with Dr. Weili, sign up on her website. Also, connect with her on social media.
Key Quotes:
"A lot of times especially with work we never actually take the time to figure out what's important to us"
"It's so easy to get entangled with someone else's 'why?'"
Connect:
Find | Dr. Weili Gray
Podcast – Dare to Dream Physician
Website – www.daretodreamphysician.com
LinkedIn – Dare to Dream Physician
Facebook - Dare to Dream Physician
Instagram - Dare to Dream Physician
