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Navigating Your Path - S1E1: Starting My Journey · Navigating Your Path

• 0:06
  Duane Newton: Hi, welcome to Navigating Your Path.
• 0:08
  Duane Newton: I'm your host Duane Newton, and I'm really thrilled that you're joining me for this inaugural episode.
• 0:14
  Duane Newton: If you're anything like me, I know you feel like you received excellent clinical and scientific training, and that prepared you for so much of what you need to do as a leader in our field.
• 0:28
  Duane Newton: But I also know that there was a lot that we didn't learn that wasn't part of our official training, knowledge and skills that were really necessary for us to feel comfortable and to be successful in our leadership roles.
• 0:43
  Duane Newton: In my over 20 year career in the field, I've had to pick up a lot of that knowledge and those skills on my own along the way, some of it through my own trial and error, and some of it through seeing how other people approached things, finding what resonated with me and what didn't resonate.
• 1:05
  Duane Newton: It's a tough process to go through and it's really tough to go through alone, and that's one of the reasons why I wanted to start this podcast.
• 1:14
  Duane Newton: I wanna have conversations about these issues and experiences in a space that feels safe and comfortable for people to talk.
• 1:22
  Duane Newton: The topics that I wanna discuss, both from my experiences and through the experiences of others will help show that you aren't alone.
• 1:32
  Duane Newton: That we're all dealing with the same kinds of struggles, and I think we can all learn from each other to hopefully make our jobs and our lives a little bit easier.
• 1:43
  Duane Newton: Maybe pick up some things that we haven't really thought about or learn some new approaches to try to tackle the tough situations that we're dealing with.
• 1:53
  Duane Newton: It could be a situation like struggling with a problem employee or trying to get your team on the same page to get them to move in the direction that you'd like to take.
• 2:04
  Duane Newton: Maybe it's trying to figure out how do I talk to my boss?
• 2:08
  Duane Newton: How do I really get my message across to other people in the organization?
• 2:13
  Duane Newton: Maybe you're struggling to figure out if you're even in the right place.
• 2:17
  Duane Newton: Is this job that you're doing really something that resonates and is fulfilling for you?
• 2:24
  Duane Newton: I know those are all really tough questions and I certainly have faced them.
• 2:29
  Duane Newton: I know a lot of other people have faced them or are facing them now.
• 2:33
  Duane Newton: My goal through the podcast is to have conversations that will help inspire and maybe guide you to be able to answer those questions for yourself.
• 2:44
  Duane Newton: I think that before we can start to tackle some of these difficult topics, topics that will help us to be more effective leaders, it's really important to take a step back and think about how we're showing up as people, as individuals in our roles.
• 3:01
  Duane Newton: I don't think you can be a leader in any kind of environment unless you have some awareness of what's important to you, what your values are, how you're showing up on a daily basis.
• 3:12
  Duane Newton: I think that awareness helps inform you where your strengths and maybe some of your opportunities for improvement are.
• 3:22
  Duane Newton: But I also think it provides some enlightenment as to how others are showing up and how they might approach the same situations you're facing.
• 3:32
  Duane Newton: Having that kind of awareness of yourself and others, I think will start to open your eyes as to how to be more effective in the way that you lead and the way that you communicate with others.
• 3:44
  Duane Newton: Also, how you make decisions on what's important for you as you move down your path.
• 3:50
  Duane Newton: These are realizations though that I personally came to the hard way.
• 3:57
  Duane Newton: So I'd like to start by telling you some of the story about how I got to where I am now and several important lessons that I learned along the way.
• 4:06
  Duane Newton: Lessons that helped me to realize that I wasn't showing up as my authentic self.
• 4:14
  Duane Newton: When I started my journey as a scientist and ultimately became a clinical lab director, I was doing all the things that I thought I was supposed to do to be successful.
• 4:25
  Duane Newton: I got my PhD from the University of Dayton.
• 4:27
  Duane Newton: I did an academic postdoc in infectious disease research at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Memphis.
• 4:35
  Duane Newton: Then I applied for and was accepted into the CPEP Fellowship at the University of Rochester, where I trained to be a clinical laboratory director my dream role.
• 4:48
  Duane Newton: I took my first leadership role at the public health lab for the state of Michigan, running their virology section for a couple of years, and then ultimately was recruited to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and was the clinical microbiology lab director there.
• 5:04
  Duane Newton: Eventually becoming the associate director for all the labs in clinical pathology.
• 5:11
  Duane Newton: Often when I was at professional conferences, I'd be giving a presentation, and in the introduction they'd rattle off all these positions and my history and my accomplishments, even showing a picture of me, my headshot in my shiny white U of M lab coat.
• 5:29
  Duane Newton: Objectively, it may have looked and sound impressive, but it was always a little bit embarrassing for me to hear and listen to people talk about me like that.
• 5:39
  Duane Newton: Maybe when you see and hear it, you feel like that's what you aspire to be.
• 5:44
  Duane Newton: Maybe you think that's kind of pretentious.
• 5:48
  Duane Newton: Maybe you don't think anything at all.
• 5:50
  Duane Newton: Who knows?
• 5:51
  Duane Newton: But I was up there on that stage, so I must have been a big deal.
• 5:55
  Duane Newton: I must have it all figured out, right?
• 6:00
  Duane Newton: Regardless of how you perceived all of those accomplishments and attributes or how you look at that picture of the dude in the white coat, from the outside looking in, I thought that's who I wanted to be when I grew up.
• 6:17
  Duane Newton: But what I will tell you is that guy that I'm referring to in the picture on the inside, he was miserable.
• 6:26
  Duane Newton: I felt miserable.
• 6:28
  Duane Newton: Even though I was doing what I set out to do, and I think I was doing it well, I was miserable.
• 6:34
  Duane Newton: I felt bored, trapped, stuck.
• 6:38
  Duane Newton: I didn't want to be around people.
• 6:40
  Duane Newton: I didn't want to get up in the morning.
• 6:42
  Duane Newton: I felt insecure.
• 6:44
  Duane Newton: I felt like my life lacked a sense of purpose and meaning.
• 6:48
  Duane Newton: Logically, I knew in my head that the work that I was doing was meaningful, but it truly didn't feel that way.
• 6:55
  Duane Newton: I felt like I had so much more to offer and that there had to be more out there for me.
• 7:01
  Duane Newton: I'm really happy to report though that I've gotten to a point in my life where I don't feel miserable anymore.
• 7:08
  Duane Newton: Believe me, it's not all unicorns and gum drops and candy canes, but I am truly happier and more joyful and more content, and more grateful than I've ever been in my life.
• 7:22
  Duane Newton: I've found my purpose and my meaning, and through the stories that I'm going to share, I hope to inspire you to find your purpose too.
• 7:33
  Duane Newton: Before I get into that, that I'd like to begin with a little bit of a backstory on the aha moment that happened to me that helped me to start down the path of finding my purpose.
• 7:45
  Duane Newton: About 12 years or so ago, I was in the audience of a professional development conference being put on by my department listening to a speaker give a presentation about the importance of being in your element.
• 7:58
  Duane Newton: The speaker talked about all these amazing ways that you feel when you're actually in your element.
• 8:04
  Duane Newton: You feel like you're doing something that is completely natural and aligned.
• 8:10
  Duane Newton: Something that resonates so strongly with you that you feel like it's truly who you are.
• 8:17
  Duane Newton: You love what you do, your eyes light up when you talk about it.
• 8:22
  Duane Newton: I was sitting there and I remember thinking What?
• 8:26
  Duane Newton: Do people experience this?
• 8:28
  Duane Newton: Because he wasn't describing me.
• 8:32
  Duane Newton: Then he, he started talking about what it feels like when you're not in your element.
• 8:37
  Duane Newton: That was my aha moment.
• 8:40
  Duane Newton: He said that people who are not in their element describe their jobs as okay for now, or it pays the bills.
• 8:48
  Duane Newton: They don't really enjoy life.
• 8:52
  Duane Newton: Time seems to drag, five minutes, feels like an hour.
• 8:56
  Duane Newton: You feel like it's actually draining everything out of you rather than filling your bucket.
• 9:03
  Duane Newton: I sat there and I was like, oh no, he was describing me.
• 9:09
  Duane Newton: I realized right at that time that I needed to do something.
• 9:13
  Duane Newton: I needed to take action.
• 9:15
  Duane Newton: I had to find a new path.
• 9:17
  Duane Newton: I was going to find where I needed to be to feel like I was in my element, but almost simultaneously fear and anxiety set in.
• 9:27
  Duane Newton: I thought, oh shit.
• 9:29
  Duane Newton: What do I do?
• 9:29
  Duane Newton: How do I do it?
• 9:31
  Duane Newton: I was really scared and physically sick to my stomach.
• 9:35
  Duane Newton: I felt paralyzed by the thought of making any changes.
• 9:40
  Duane Newton: Suddenly, all that path that I'd been on, the one that I thought was perfect and right for me, got really, really foggy and very uncertain.
• 9:49
  Duane Newton: Everything that I'd done up to that point, all of my school, all of my training, all of my jobs, all the choices that I've made personally and professionally had put me in this place.
• 9:59
  Duane Newton: It was all that I knew.
• 10:02
  Duane Newton: Eventually though I was able to move from the paralysis and started to take action.
• 10:08
  Duane Newton: It was a long and bumpy and sometimes messy experience, but I learned a lot about myself and my processes along the way.
• 10:17
  Duane Newton: If you're in that position where you're feeling stuck and disconnected, disappointed in life, maybe even a little bit hopeless, please know that there is hope and I hope that you can learn from my journey.
• 10:34
  Duane Newton: So to wrap up, I'd like to introduce you to some of the changes that I made that I believe are really essential for anyone who's starting a journey towards following that more authentic path and living a more authentic life.
• 10:49
  Duane Newton: We've already talked about some of the ways you might feel if you're on a misaligned path.
• 10:54
  Duane Newton: If you're dreading waking up in the morning or you're feeling like there's more out there for you, then it might be time for a change.
• 11:02
  Duane Newton: I wanna be absolutely clear though that this is not at all a story about me feeling like my choice of majors or my career path was a mistake.
• 11:13
  Duane Newton: I don't want you to think that I feel that clinical microbiology is unimportant or invaluable.
• 11:19
  Duane Newton: That couldn't be further from the truth.
• 11:22
  Duane Newton: This is a story about realizing that I was no longer in the right place for me.
• 11:30
  Duane Newton: I'm calling these changes that I made, the"Five Steps to Becoming Your Authentic Self." I'm not claiming to have it all figured out.
• 11:38
  Duane Newton: But I really believe that these are five critical steps to take that will really help you get aligned to your authentic path.
• 11:47
  Duane Newton: When you decide to make these changes, I can assure you your life will become more fulfilling and you'll feel more joy.
• 11:55
  Duane Newton: So to start, step one, get out of your head and into your heart.
• 12:01
  Duane Newton: Move away from what you think is right for you towards what you feel is right for you.
• 12:08
  Duane Newton: Step two, connect with trusted people.
• 12:11
  Duane Newton: You don't have to figure this out on your own.
• 12:14
  Duane Newton: Step three, trust your intuition.
• 12:18
  Duane Newton: You'll get great perspectives from others and see new possibilities, but your intuition is really what's gonna identify what makes sense for you.
• 12:27
  Duane Newton: Step four.
• 12:29
  Duane Newton: Take risks.
• 12:31
  Duane Newton: You have to get out of your comfort zone in order to learn and grow.
• 12:36
  Duane Newton: And finally, step five, enjoy the journey.
• 12:40
  Duane Newton: Be present.
• 12:42
  Duane Newton: Smell the flowers, soak it all in because life is short.
• 12:48
  Duane Newton: In the next episode, I'll spend some time sharing more of my story, going through the things that happened in my life that helped me to realize how important each of these steps are.
• 12:59
  Duane Newton: I am hoping that through these conversations, I can help you get oriented to your authentic path a little easier, because let's face it, not everyone needs to learn the hard way.
• 13:11
  Duane Newton: Now, don't get me wrong, taking this path is not easy, but it will be worth it.
• 13:18
  Duane Newton: If you'd like to directly connect with me, you can reach out via my podcast email, which is listed in the description of this episode.
• 13:26
  Duane Newton: It also contains the links to the podcast website and YouTube channel where you can check out more of my content.
• 13:33
  Duane Newton: Feel free to reach out if you'd like to share any comments or make some suggestions about topics to discuss.
• 13:39
  Duane Newton: I'd also love to hear if you have suggestions for people for me to interview or even if you'd like to be interviewed by me.
• 13:47
  Duane Newton: You can also contact me if you'd like to learn more about what I do as a professional development coach.
• 13:53
  Duane Newton: I look forward to having you join me next time.
• 13:56
  Duane Newton: Take good care.