Ep 4: The Four Asset Classes that Belong to Every Physician

What are your life's most valuable resources?  Are you undervaluing or overvaluing any of these asset classes?  We'll go over them in detail in this episode.

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Transcript

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Hi, welcome back to the show today i will be talking about the four asset classes that belong to every single physician what is an asset? According to Investopedia, an asset is a resource with economic value that an individual. Corporation or country owns or controls with the expectation that it will provide a future benefit. I want to present you with a different way of looking at your life assets. What are the four asset classes? Number one. Money. Number two. Time. Number three. Energy. Number four. Talent. As you consider each of these asset classes. Remember that each asset class can be filled, can be depleted. They can also be invested. And when you consider how to value each one, It may also help you. Better design your life plan. So the first asset class is money. This is what we usually consider as assets. And I'm going to include in this category. All material things. This will include cash. Investments index funds, stocks, bonds. Even illiquid assets like real estate. Money is a form of currency. It's an exchange of value. This is the only asset class. Out of the four. That gets a numerical value assignment. Very precisely. We can talk about a coffee being worth$4 and 96 cents. After taxes. It sounds so precise. However are these numerical value assignments in the illusion? What if this asset class of money. Didn't have meaningful numbers. An example of this is when a currency experiences hyperinflation. The citizens of a country could buy a cup of coffee. At four. Dollars. And now would have to buy the same cup of coffee a year later. At$44, if there was a 1000. Percent hyperinflation rate. How would that feel? Even if we didn't have hyperinflation. I want you to think about is that precision? Real or is it an illusion? There are many sayings that money can't buy love money. Can't buy happiness. But if you ask most people, they will happily. Have a lot of money. Money can buy goods products. Money can buy land money can buy a house or many houses. Money can buy food. Money can buy services, money can buy experiences. Money can also be invested. To allow it to grow at a compound rate. Money can be leveraged. To make even more money. By taking risk. In a short period of time. Money flows in and out of life. Money can also be gifted and donated. And there can be a, a real joy that comes from giving away money. One example is you may hear a terrible story. In. The news of a family where. A mother suddenly dies now this young family is left without a mother and trying to pay the bills. Then a friend organizes a crowdfunding page. And you donate$50. To that family. You may have this irresistible joy as you're donating this money. Thinking. How much that$50. Can mean to this family. In need to this family in the most. Vulnerable time. Of their lives. So that's the first asset class money. The second asset class. Is time. Time is also finite. Time. Is flowing without our control. And time. Is an abstract concept. But we try to represent it. Numerically. A clock is a good example. Of our human attempt at representing time. The clock has a second hand, a minute hand, an hour hand. And. If you're just daydreaming and staring at the clock, you see the seconds moving. And if you look long enough, you can see the minute hand moving. And as you go through the day, When you check the clock, you notice that the hours are moving. There's also a calendar. Which is a representation of a longer period of time. Where you can check off. The days that passed or the weeks that passed. And before, you know what, the month is over. And before, you know what the year is over and you need a new calendar. Time is also represented in astronomy. The moon revolving around the earth is approximately a month. The earth revolving around the sun is approximately a year. You ever hear the expression? It's a child's birthday and now they have five trips around the sun. That gives us an idea of. That abstract idea of time. And. How much time has passed by. And then we also look in our surroundings. For representation of the passing of time. One is. The position of the sun. First it's dark. And then the sun rises. And as you. Appreciate the sunrise. You can literally see the sun goes through a trajectory in the sky. And at the end of the day, about 10 or 12 hours later, we have a sunset. And after the sun sets. We may see a moon rise or maybe a moon set. And as we look at these. Objects in the sky. It also gives us an idea of the passage of time. Another way we. Grasp the passage of time is watching kids grow up. They grow up so fast. You think about. A newborn in the first month of life. And an infant at 12 months old. All the growth that they did. In that 12 month period. And you've been as. The child grows older. You see them getting taller? They reach new milestones. Where they're able to speak one word. A few words, sentences, paragraphs. And as they grow. In height. They're able to reach new things in the house. They can reach the sink. They can. Get food from the kitchen counter. Watching. Children grow up. Is one. Other signal for the passage of time. For adults. It's watching. Them age. You see. Wrinkles in the skin lines that slowly show up. And hear that. Starts to turn gray. And a little while later. An older adult might develop some frailty. Their muscles may start deteriorating. They lose muscle mass. Their brain may start teach you your rating or their short-term memory starts to go. They may lose their balance. So that doing things that they usually take for granted, like walking outside to take out the garbage or getting up to go to the bathroom when waking up in the middle of the night. Now becomes a lot more difficult with the risk of falling. And breaking a hip. Then there were also signs at the end of life. A person could lose their lucidity. The consciousness is drifting in and out of the world. They may even exhibit Cheyne, Stokes, respirations. As their organs shut down. And so this also is a sign of the passage of time. What's. Interesting about time. Is that. Our attempt to represent it. Numerically. Are only relative numbers. We can't give absolute numbers to time because each of us. We don't know when our end time is. What if we did know. The second of our death. In the future. And what if we were able to create a countdown timer to the moment of our death. With that make time. More concrete for you. Would that give you a newer appreciation? Oh, Time. As. Your limited resource. In absence of this countdown timer most of us are. Living our days. With some relative representation of the passage of time. And sometimes we may not even be aware of it. But yet time passes whether we will it or not. So I do want you to think of time as. A fundamental asset class. You can exchange time for other assets. You can exchange. Time. For money. You can exchange time for services, you can gift and donate your time. When you volunteer. To build houses as part of habitat for humanity. Whether you intentionally choose. Or accidentally spend your time. Time is passing. We are constantly losing time. Time is a finite resource for every single one of us. So I want you to think about that the next time. Someone asks you a question that is essentially asking for your time. What default answer do you usually give? Do you usually say yes or do you usually say no? And is that different from if someone asked you. For your money. How do you view. Money has an asset class. And how do you view time as an asset class? Do you view them differently because of our numerical representation? Do you view them differently? Because one. Is abstract and the other is more concrete. Which one is more valuable to you. Are they both equally valuable? Which one are you overvaluing in? Which one are you undervaluing? The third asset class is energy. According to the dictionary energy. Is the strength and vitality required for sustained physical or mental activity. So energy. Has a physical component an energy has a mental component. Where does this strength and vitality come from? We often talk about health and wellness. So are you taking care of your health? What foods and drinks are you putting into your body? Are you exercising? What are you doing every day? To build your strength. Two. Build your vitality. And what are you doing every day? That deprives your strength and deprives your vitality. Do you value? Your strength and vitality. Do you feel pretty good about. Your current state. Or do you feel. Like. You're losing a grip on your own strength and vitality. If that's the case, can you gain it back? What are you doing to gain it back? Is this. A valuable asset class for you. Do you view it as an infinite resource? Do you take it for granted? So I am a sleep physician. And when. We talk about energy. We also should talk about sleep. Are you investing in your sleep? Which indirectly investing your energy. How many hours are you sleeping? How many hours. Do you need. For sleeping every day. Are you making that a priority? When you wake up in the morning. Do you feel. That your strength and vitality are restored. I also want you to think about what gives you energy? How do you recharge your energy? If you're an introvert. That. Likely means spending time by yourself so you can recharge your battery. Are you doing that? Are you giving yourself this space and the permission to recharge your own battery? If you're an extrovert. This likely means. You make some time to socialize. As you get energized from your interaction with others. Are you making that a priority? Do you know whether you're an introvert or an extrovert or somewhere in between. If you don't. You may want to spend some time observing this about yourself. Do you get recharged after you're alone? Or do you get recharged after you spend time with others? These are all clues. To help, you know, what charges your battery. I want you to remember. That your energy. Is a valuable. Resource. This is a valuable asset class. And. If you don't. Become aware of it. You can be depleted in this asset. That is one description of burnout. Without energy, you can not move forward. Without energy, you will eventually die. Do you give away your energy freely? I also want you to think when you open your phone. Intending to do one thing, like read. A book on your Kindle app. And instead. You open your email or social media? And then. Get distracted. Is that action taking. Away. From your energy or is it giving you energy? I remember. You have a finite amount of energy each day. Do you guard your energy as hard as you guard your money? So the last asset class is your talent. Physicians. I want you to remember that each of you. Have incredible talent. There are about 1 million doctors. In our country. And the us population is estimated at 328 million. So. If you do the math as a physician, you already have. Unique and valuable talents that 99.7 of the population lacks. You remember? You were a physician. And that is a talent that belongs to only 0.3% of the us population. You have an amazing resource. So those of you who are in clinical medicine are applying your talent as a physician and impacting patients every day. Those of you. Who are working outside of clinical medicine, maybe using your talent as a physician in other industries in ways that are also bringing so much value to this world. So I want you to remember that. You have a knowledge base and skill that only belongs to 0.3% of the population. Don't ever forget. That you are talented. I heard a doctor. Tell me. That he thinks it would be sad. If a psychiatrist died. And did not share with the world, all the knowledge he had from his years, decades of experience. Helping human beings, face pain and overcoming their obstacles Of the life transforming therapies that were provided. it would be sad if they died with all this. Amazing. Knowledge and experience. And did not share this with the world. So all that. Talent just dies. With him. All that expertise. All those beautiful life lessons could have affected so much more. When I heard. That. I thought. Wow. Yes. That doctor is not sharing his talent with enough people. That doctor. Is dying with the regret. Of not investing enough in his talent. So that it can impact enough people he knows needed that talent. And Of course. As a physician. You also have talents. Outside of medicine. That brings you vitality. That brings your meaning. Are you. Creative. Are you musical? Are you a filmmaker? Are you a storyteller? Are you a writer? A speaker. Are you an innovator? Are you a community organizer? Are you a change maker? Are you an educator? A coach. A mentor. What talents do you have that you can draw out? To bring more meaning into your life. Or maybe these talents are already bubbling out of you. And you will be sad if you didn't share enough of this with the world before you die. Right now, you may only hear a very quiet voice telling you what that is. If that's the case. I want you to lean into that voice. How required it is. I want you to listen to that voice. Don't underestimate your talent. Don't push away your talent. Harnessing your talent. Investing in your talent. May bring a lot of meaning into your life. So. That's it. Fellow physicians. It's as simple as that. You have four asset classes. That belong to you. When you think of your net worth. You don't have to be defined. By just the monetary number. Remember. That you have these other assets. That are part of your life. For assets. That belong. To every single physician. Money. Time. Energy. And talent. So out of these four assets. Which asset do you guard the most? Which asset do you default to answering? Yes. When someone asked you for it. Which is the asset you default to answering? No. When someone asks you for it. If someone asks. Can you give me a thousand dollars? Most of us would probably answer no. If someone asks. Can you do a fundraiser? For your kids' school. That's going to take four hours. On your only day off. What do you answer to that? If someone asks. Can you take on this qui project? For the department. And by taking on this project, you're not able to dedicate time. To your writing the book that you've always wanted to write. Or to mentoring. A. Child from an underprivileged background. Because you've always wanted to make a difference. Even outside of your family. What is your default answer? What should be your default answer until you have more time to think about whether you want to give away that asset. Of course. There are ways to exchange. In and out of different asset classes. A patent, for example, translates. Talent and innovation into money. Housekeeping services. Trans. For money. And to save time. Traveling to a spa. He transfers money. Into restoring energy, restoring vitality. Likewise, when you invest in one asset class, you can also grow another asset class. When you invest in one asset class. You could also deplete another asset class. So there are many moving parts. And I just want you to really. Examine your own asset classes. And how you move in and out of them throughout the day. And when other people make requests for your assets, how you respond. And how that response is different depending on the asset class. Is that how you really want to respond or is that how you're conditioned to respond? I want to use another example. If you could collect a hundred dollars. All you had to do was drive one hour back and forth to the store. To collect it. Would you do it? You be giving up two hours. Of driving in the car for a hundred dollars worth of currency. You may be giving up an opportunity to exercise, to maintain your health. To maintain your physical strength and vitality. For a hundred dollars worth of currency. You may even be giving up. Two hours of the last 24 hours you have left to live when you go to claim that a hundred dollars. Just because money has an automatic numerical system. Assigned to it. Doesn't mean it is the most valuable. Now I'm not suggesting to become a monk and live a life free of money and material possessions. there is also power in investing that a hundred dollars and letting compound interest work in your favor over long periods of time. But what is a good balance of the four asset classes look like for you? What is the abundant life? Is it a$10 million portfolio? Is it three months a year where you can completely dictate how you spend your time. Is it. Feeling a renewed vitality and strength that your body and mind had not experienced for decades after decades of feeling sick and tired. Is it discovering your talent as a speaker and showing up at a Ted talk where you can change 1 million lives in 18 minutes. At the end of your life. Will you regret not investing in one of these four asset classes? You also want to consider how you feel about transferring ownership. Your talent. Belongs to you. Until you sign a non-compete and now. You can't apply your talent in your home location for a year or more after you separate from your employer. When you sign a contract as an employee. Your time now belongs to your employer. 40 hours a week except for allotted vacation. So fellow dare to dream physicians. I hope by thinking about and examining your four asset classes, it will help you value. All the aspects of your life. Before unique resources you can draw on to create your most abundant life. Your money, your time, your energy and your talent. Guard your assets because you believe in their value. Not just the value of money, but the value of your time, your energy, your talent. Also be generous with your assets intentionally generous. Just as you would. Donate money. With joy just as you would give away money to someone in need. You can also give away your time. Your energy, your talent. With a joyful and generous spirit.