Insight

Nov 10, 2024, 03:40

Sachin H. Jain: One should be careful and reflective about what they idealise and seek to become

Sachin H. Jain, President and CEO of SCAN Group, posted on LinkedIn:

“Years ago, I heard my aunt speak about traveling with an admired colleague:

‘He doesn’t waste even a moment. He pulls out his laptop and is working. And when he isn’t working he’s on the phone working on business. It’s amazing how productive he is.’

I remember registering ‘not wasting a moment’ as an important professional quality when she described him.

And I thought at the time, ‘I should try to be like that.’

A few days ago, I found myself sitting in the back of an Uber on the way to a meeting ‘not wasting a moment.’

From the time that I sat in the car to the time that I arrived at my destination, I worked furiously on a number of pending projects, responding to emails and making calls.

I barely paused to pick up from iPad or acknowledge my Uber driver.

In a brief moment of self-realization, I saw that I had become someone who does not ‘waste a moment.’

I had become the 2024 version of my aunt’s admired colleague.

And while I had quietly acknowledged that I had achieved my goal and was emulating and living this ‘ideal’ that I had set out years ago to emulate—I also had a small sinking feeling.

I also realized my happiest times are no longer when I’m programming and making progress on my task list.

They are when I’m unscheduled.

Doing things I want because I want to do then, not because I feel a compulsion to get them done.

And even some of my most creative and valuable professional times don’t arise from when I’m “not wasting time.’

They arise from when I’m giving myself time and space to think, to connect, to breathe.

All of which coalesced as the singular thought that I share this morning: one should be careful and reflective about what they idealize and seek to become.

After all, you might actually become it.”

Sachin H. Jain is the President and CEO of SCAN Group and Health Plan and an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. He also serves as a Board Member at The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, an Academic Hospitalist (WOC) at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and a Board Member at America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). He is also a board member of Omada Health.