{"id":6,"date":"2011-09-17T21:21:03","date_gmt":"2011-09-18T04:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/perspectives\/?p=6"},"modified":"2011-09-17T21:34:33","modified_gmt":"2011-09-18T04:34:33","slug":"inertia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/perspectives\/2011\/09\/17\/inertia\/","title":{"rendered":"Inertia"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Leaders must wake people out of inertia. They must get people excited about something they’ve never seen before, something that does not yet exist.”\u00a0 <\/em>~Rosabeth Moss Kanter<\/a><\/p>\n

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The single most difficult thing about starting a blog (or anything for that matter) is inertia. Overcoming the resistance to change or doing something new requires an immense about of energy and bravery. The people I most respect are those who do not allow fear to prevent them from trying or creating something new.<\/p>\n

As you may know, I am taking a course in Social Media and Health at the University of British Columbia and one\u00a0course requirement is to start a blog. That said, my goal for this blog isn’t just to fulfill a course requirement, rather, I want to use it as a foundation to build upon and grow. Currently I am a week behind\u00a0our required posting schedule. This is due to a\u00a0few issues: 1) I became obsessive about the minute\u00a0details of the blog (i.e., what it looks like, what the title should be) and 2) I have been interviewing for the last week\u00a0and will be starting a new job in 1 month.<\/p>\n

I understand that my obsessions with the details of the blog was a convenient way to avoid actually having to do the work, if I spent my time on that then I didn’t have any energy for the rest. I see this avoidance as a form of inertia – I very effectively convinced myself that I was moving along and making progress and adopting change when really I was spinning in the same spot.<\/p>\n

The interviewing was time consuming but what prevented my posting was the anxiety and fear that the interviewing induced. I have been working in my current job for 3.5 years. I am exceptionally comfortable and safe in it, I could do it with my eyes closed and that is a huge problem. I knew that I had to look for\u00a0new work in order to challenge myself and grow both personally and professionally, however, the\u00a0idea of looking for a new job and actually getting one are two very different things. Here too I experienced immense inertia in the form of fear. When I found out on Thursday night that I got the job I wasn’t happy, I was afraid. My fear of change was paralyzing me but I also knew that the fear was good because\u00a0it meant that I was challenging myself and moving forward. In the end it was that\u00a0knowledge (and great emotional support from friends) that eventually pushed me to say yes.<\/p>\n

So what the heck does this have to do with social media and health???<\/p>\n

Generally, I think\u00a0of health care as an innovative field.\u00a0A lot of money is poured into research to develop new technologies, treatments, and methods\u00a0to improve patient care.\u00a0\u00a0However, when it comes to social media I\u00a0feel that health care organizations can sometimes be laggards; they cannot seem to overcome inertia in order to adopt change.<\/p>\n

I recently read a great article by KevinMD.com discussing the 7\u00a0media mistakes made in health care<\/a>. It is the first\u00a03 mistakes that I feel best relate to my current post.<\/p>\n