My father had many good character traits. One of them was
that of patience and calmness under pressure.
Dad was a medical doctor and a surgeon.
Over the years, I have heard many nurses and patients comment on how
great Dad was. Nurses appreciated the
way that he always treated them with kindness and he never yelled at them. He never got upset even in a crisis. Patients were always grateful for his skill,
and his kind and calm manner.
When I was sixteen, my Dad allowed me to drive his car. A few years earlier, my older brothers had
talked him into buying a 69 Corvette.
This was the car that he allowed me to drive. He must have had a high degree of confidence
and trust in me, to allow me that privilege.
I often wonder if I was worthy of that level of trust.
One day, as part of my summer job, I had to deliver two
coolers from one location to another. Corvettes only have two seats, so the
coolers went on the seat next to me.
They barely fit. It was at the
end of the day, I was driving west, the sun was in my eyes. Just as I started out, the top cooler slid
over onto me. As I was pushing it back,
I ran into the back of a parked truck. I
was worried that Dad would be upset or angry, but he was only concerned that I
was alright. I am sure that he was
upset, but he never showed it.
Dad showed me a book that had been given to him upon
graduation from Medical School. It was a
book of articles specifically written for medical doctors. The lead article is titled Aequanimitas and
describes key qualities important for a successful doctor and for us.
”In the first place,
in the physician or surgeon no quality takes rank with imperturbability…Imperturbability means coolness and presence of
mind under all circumstances, calmness amid storm, clearness of judgment in
moments of grave peril, immobility, impassiveness, or, to use and old and
expressive word, phlegm. It is the
quality which is most appreciated by the laity though often misunderstood by
them; and the physician who has the misfortune to be without it, who betrays
indecision and worry, and who shows that he is flustered and flurried in
ordinary emergencies loses rapidly the confidence of his patients.”[i]
(bold and italics added)
To summarize, it is the quality of calmness in a
crisis. The article further recommends
that doctors keep outward actions, expressions, etc. in complete control:
“The first essential
is to have your nerves well in hand.
Even under the most serious circumstances, the physician or surgeon who
allows “his outward action to demonstrate the native act and figure of his
heart in complement extern,” who shows in his face the slightest alteration,
expressive of anxiety or fear, has not his medullary centers under the highest
control, and is liable to disaster at any moment.”
The poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling also reviews this
characteristic of imperturbability along with other key personal traits.
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream -- and not make dreams your master;
If you can think -- and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings -- nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And -- which is more -- you'll be a Man, my son![ii]
I particularly like the statement, “And yet don't look too
good, nor talk too wise;” This implies
that we should strive for greatness, but also act humble and don’t talk or act like
we think we are better than anyone else.
One of my favorite examples of leadership is Ammon. Ammon was a great and wise young man who went
on a mission into enemy territory. He
was taken before the king, Lamoni, who would decide his fate. When the king asked Ammon what his intentions
were, Ammon said, “…Yea, I desire to dwell among this people for a time; yea,
and perhaps until the day I die.”[1] Ammon
kept his cool and impressed the king been because he offered his daughter as a
wife for Ammon. Ammon declined, but
instead volunteered to be the king’s servant.
This was an interested decision to be a servant instead of the king’s
son-in-law.
From these examples we learn that characteristics like
calmness, strength, wisdom, and a level head are important characteristics of
success. We also know that Ammon’s
spiritual strength and relationship to God was ultimately his greatest asset.
Christ was a good example of many of these
characteristics. Think of all of the
trouble, he had to endure – deceit, falsely accused, betrayal, suffering,
abandonment, and still he kept his calm, loving demeanor. One example is in the
garden of Gethsemane just after he had prayed and suffered, he was betrayed by
his apostle Judas. In defending Jesus, Peter
drew his sword and smote the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. Jesus said, “Put up thy sword into the sheath.”[3]
Without being angry or perturbed, Jesus quietly healed the servant’s ear, and
then submitted himself to the soldiers to be taken away.
If we further develop the quality of imperturbability,
calmness under pressure, with wisdom and strength and if we will follow the
Savior’s example, these things will lead us to a greater success and happiness
in all aspects of our lives.
[i] Aequanimitas,
William Osler, an address to the 1889 graduating class of the University of
Pennsylvania Medical School.
[ii] IF, Rudyard
Kipling , 1895, Brother Square Toes chapter of Rewards and Fairies,