I received this commercial message email from Nightingale,
“—
No matter if you have multiple degrees lining your office walls or if you have none … you have a gift. It’s the gift of a mind that is capable of truly remarkable endeavors. Miraculous even.

You see, your IQ doesn’t define you. Your salary doesn’t define you. Likewise, your level of fitness, your current career position, and your number of friends don’t define who you are either.

Rather, greatness does exist within you. Incredible ability is there, just waiting to be tapped. You’re on the cusp of realizing fantastic achievements. And it’s all within your mind … and it’s all within your reach!

So the question has never been ‘Do you have the skills, the talent, and the ability to be great?’ The question is … ‘How will you begin to reveal your greatness RIGHT NOW?’
— ”

What followed is asking you to buy something from them. What interests me is “multiple degrees lining your office walls.” It brings up what I often see in doctor’s office. Very often, I ask myself, “Why do you hang them up there? Just for people to see how old you are when they see your college graduation year is 1969 or how young and inexperienced you are when your date is 2009? We all know that degrees mean no more than your past effort and your major. It is our daily behavior and interactions with people that most thoroughly reveal us.

I learn that health care is one of the most undefined hierarchical fields all because of “multiple degrees lining your office walls,” with doctors’ parading most — four-year college degree, four-year medical school degree, three-year resident certificate, three-year fellowship certificate, board exam certification, and so on… A person with a RN title can act like 100% snobby highbrow. I have some RN being kind enough to enlighten me with a high-pitch voice, “Education is very important. You should at least have high school degree.” Indeed, without bragging around, I am considered a high school dropout. Worse than this, that person’s behavior betrays her as even less schooled than a middle-schooler.

Health care field is also the place where passive-aggressiveness is most practiced. Being there and having experienced it, now I know why. What’s my point of knowing it all? Forget your environment if it is negative, find the gift and the greatness within you, without spending a dime if you can. Enjoy this last beautiful May Saturday.