Figuring out how to do things that I want to do but don’t know how to do.
As a child, I was drawn to storytelling while listening to women’s stories in my mother’s beauty parlor and later trained in filmmaking at New York University. As an adolescent, when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I could never settle on one thing much to the concern of those who had my best interests at heart. When I became aware that filmmaking would allow me to incorporate my varied interests into one discipline, I declared myself a filmmaker. My family thought – thank goodness, she’s finally found something — and then followed up with more concern — what is filmmaking? It’s a big playground where the ideas in my mind and heart find enough space to breathe.
Confirmation that I’m a rabbit hole person. I enjoy going very deeply into subject explorations. It’s as though I am constantly building my own chose your own adventure story. As a result, I have come up with techniques to bring me back into the main storyline.
Being curious with a tenacious spirit and an ability to visualize how to work with a challenge. I call on this combination when faced with barriers.
We chatted with Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith to get to know one of our CTRL+ALT+DEL speakers.
I am currently working on my next book. I love all the new information I learn while researching and having the opportunity to frame the research with stories to help bring it to life.
I am a board-certified internal medicine physician. I have been practicing medicine now for over 20 years. Healthcare has changed a lot in that time. One of my favorite parts of my job was the ability to help teach patient how to be pro-active in their health care.
Now with the time restraints on office visit, there isn’t adequate time for patient education. This is why I started writing. I could begin the conversation with a patient and could supply additional details via a handout. Writing handout evolved into writing blog posts and now into three traditionally published books (Set Free to Live Free, Come Empty, and Sacred Rest). Each book opened the door to speaking engagements which has lead me to many stages including TEDx.
I’m passionate about helping people recover their life. It wasn’t long ago when I found myself burned-out and overwhelmed by the life I had created. I had a life that looked good on the outside with all the trimmings of success but that same life wasn’t one I enjoyed living. I had to make some hard choices about what success means to me and about what my best life looks like. From those choices came my life work at IChooseMyBestLife.com where I help other overwhelmed type-A high achievers get their life back on track. I get to engage in my passion with my personal coaching clients and when I’m creating new content for my online courses. I love breaking down complicated concepts to making them easy for anyone to understand and begin applying to their life.
I am currently reading Imperfect Courage: Live a life of Purpose by Leaving Comfort and Going Scared by Jessica Honegger. The book that has made the biggest impact on my life has been Reposition Yourself: Living Life Without Limits by T.D. Jakes.
I would encourage anyone wanting to learn more about overcoming burnout, sleep-deprivation, and a chronic rest deficiency to take my free assessment at RestQuiz.com to determine what area of their life is having the greatest negative impact on their ability to stay energized, happy, and productive.
My favorite TED Talk is 12 Truths I Learned From Life and Writing by Anne Lamott.
My CTRL+ALT+DEL moment is best described in the opening chapter of my book Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity.
“There should be a “Get Out of Your Responsibilities” card you can play on those days when life is just too difficult, days when everything within you wants a moment simply to be still. That thought flittered through my mind as I lay stretched out on the foyer floor. I never knew how hauntingly healing cold wooden planks could be for the body. I never realized the many facets of peace and rest available when you lay yourself down on purpose. Peace comes in many forms. On this day it came in a ten-minute reprieve in the middle of the chaos that had become my life. There was no time to break away and do it right.
No time for any long, drawn-out me-time ritualistic activities. No mani-pedi.
No hot tea and biscuits. No caramel macchiato. No Dead Sea salt–infused bath.
No, on this day, time would not allow me to bury my exhaustion in any of my normal vices. So, I did what any sane burned-out human would do after picking up the kids from daycare. I set them in front of the TV with a snack, and I lay on the floor. I stretched out my back against the boards, palms down, and closed my eyes. In that moment of focused ceasing, I felt the beginning of peace stir within my body.” (Excerpt courtesy of Hachette Book Group)
The epiphany I had was that I had no idea what qualifies as rest. I learned the most underused chemical-free, safe, effective medical treatment we have available is spelled R-E-S-T. I spent the next years of my life researching types of rest, reviewing the current research, and seeing how different rest strategies work in real-life. We all need CTRL+ALT+DEL moments to refresh our perspective, revitalize our passions, and help us to remember our purpose. These moments set us back on course to living our best life.
What is your passion?
As corny as it sounds, my passion is finding solutions and helping people or a situation. I seem driven to find answers to the unsolvable or difficult. My wife works it very well by prefacing whatever she wants done with, ” I know this probably isn’t possible” or “I doubt if you can, but…” or the ever effective, ” I know there’s no way but what if we could ……” I immediately go into how to get it done mode. I think it goes back to my mother being an algebra, geometry and trig teacher. In the day before the answers to word problems were included in the back of the book, she would take what would seem to be the most impossible advanced algebra “word problem” and work at it, think about it, and ponder it until she found the solution. She even put pad and paper beside her bed because sometimes the solution would come to her in the night (she said her brain wouldn’t let it go) and she would get up and write it down. I learned that often there is a solution even if not apparent at first and persistence may be more important than intelligence or education.
How did you decide to pursue your current career?
As you could guess from the first answer, I found myself in the solid waste business because in 1990 there were new federal regulations looming over the solid waste business that would drastically change the cost to build and operate landfills, close a great many landfills, and cause most localities to reevaluate how they handled and disposed of garbage. In my local community there was a great discussion regarding closing our landfill versus keeping it open, how to collect and pay for significant increases in cost, and how best to recycle. There were also multiple pushes to bring large regional landfills to the more rural areas which could negatively impact that communities quality of life. The chairman of the Board of Commissioners asked me to look for the best solution, which led to the formation of a task force which looked at all possible solutions. I wound up chairing the task force, led the development of a long range plan, and was then asked to develop and implement the plan. I agreed to help for 6 months. The solution was multifaceted and even multi-jurisdictional requiring a series of layered steps, community wide coordination, and the industry seemed to be begging for innovation and better solutions. Twenty nine very rewarding years later we are still developing better solutions. I am in this career because it is challenging, rewarding, and ripe for innovation.
What did you learn about yourself during the process of preparing your talk?
I learned that telling a complex story in 12 minutes can be daunting, frustrating, and requires brevity almost beyond my capability.
What drives you in challenging times?
I am driven by the unsolved problem, the fact that the solution is probably there but just not evident, and that looking at it with fresh (or refreshed) eyes with thinking outside the box is oftentimes essential. Challenging doesn’t mean impossible! Challenging means buckle down and look at it from a different point of view, and remembering that just because it hasn’t been done or thought of yet, doesn’t mean it’s not possible. One of my favorite sayings on my office wall is “We will either find a way, or Make one!”. My other driving remembrance is something I heard four decades ago. It was from a speech that talked about pressing on and persevering. “On the ‘Plains of Hesitation’ bleach the bones of countless millions, who on the threshold of victory sat down to wait, – and waiting they died”! Maybe they “sat down and gave up” or “quit”, but the thought of stopping when you may be on the threshold of victory, is a driving force.
