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Welcome to the Clinician Researcher podcast, where academic clinicians learn the skills

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to build their own research program, whether or not they have a mentor.

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As clinicians, we spend a decade or more as trainees learning to take care of patients.

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When we finally start our careers, we want to build research programs, but then we find

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that our years of clinical training did not adequately prepare us to lead our research

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program.

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Through no fault of our own, we struggle to find mentors, and when we can't, we quit.

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However, clinicians hold the keys to the greatest research breakthroughs.

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For this reason, the Clinician Researcher podcast exists to give academic clinicians

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the tools to build their own research program, whether or not they have a mentor.

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Now introducing your host, Toyosi Onwuemene.

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I'm your host, Toyosi Onwuemene, and it is a pleasure to be speaking with you today.

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I am especially excited about today's topic, which is about choosing a research project

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to work on.

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Now, if you're a seasoned researcher, you already know you have a whole slew of ideas

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that you want to put into practice, that you want to execute, but if you're not, if you

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are like, I don't know which research project to work on, there's so many before me, there's

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so many I could work on, then this episode is for you.

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If you are seasoned and you have no trouble, you should definitely just forward this on

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to your mentees, but if you need to know how to choose, I'm going to just share some insights

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with you.

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Now, why do I do this?

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I am a clinician scientist myself, and I lead a research team.

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We have a health services research program, and I also coach people to succeed in research.

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Now, what's the difference between mentoring and coaching?

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Well, I have a group of mentees who are part of my research program, and I help them kind

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of move forward in the way I've moved forward.

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So I've successfully submitted manuscripts.

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Now they are learning how to do that.

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I've successfully submitted grants.

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They're learning how to do that.

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But as a coach, I can help more people, and what I do is I don't necessarily do the work

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for people or show people how to do things, but I help them think about how to best get

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the most out of their experience so that they can get what they want.

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And so that's helping people kind of think strategically, that's helping people get connected

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with what they want, and that's helping people really make an investment in themselves so

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that they can be the best that they can be in moving forward in their careers, because

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your career is only as good as you.

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So your fund of knowledge is great, but only to the extent to which you develop yourself,

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are you really able to accelerate and take advantage of the opportunities around you.

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And so that's what I do as a coach.

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If you're looking for a coach, reach out to me, send me a DM.

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I would love to work with you because it is important that we are all really playing our

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best game because we win, our families win, and our institutions win as well.

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And then clearly our mentees win as well.

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So anyway, so if you're thinking, how do I consider choosing a research project, I hope

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that you won't be like me, because when I started, I just had so many options and there

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were so many options and there were so many faculty members saying, hey, come work with

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me and hey, I'll help you move forward in this way and hey, I'm going to mentor you.

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And it's great when you have all of those options, but then which one do you choose?

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And so if you were like me and you're like, I'll just do everything and hope for the best

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and I'll go with the one that works.

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As I know, that's not the way to think about it.

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And I'm going to tell you about five things to think about as you move forward and as

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you're moving forward in your research career and choosing what projects to work on.

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So the first thing that I will say is that you should start with why.

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So this is the title of a book written by Simon Sinek and I think it's a book worth

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reading, but it's important to think about why are you doing this?

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Many times when we first of all started in our careers, we were doing these research

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things transactionally.

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A lot of the academic scholarly things we did were transactions, like if I do it, I

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get credit for doing it and then I'm able to change in or cash in the credit for my

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next level.

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So I'm a medical student, I do research, okay, I can go on to residency.

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I am a resident, I do research, great, I can cash in the credit so I can go on to fellowship.

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And so there's a lot of that going on.

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But when you finally get to a place where you're kind of like really thinking about

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launching your own career, it's not a transaction anymore.

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It's what you want to do.

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And so you're not exchanging what you're doing for the next level.

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What you're doing is the next level.

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It is the journey.

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And so research is not a destination, it's a journey.

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It's a journey that allows you to make an incredible and lasting contribution.

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But to be honest, the journey never ends.

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It's not a journey anyway.

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You get to the contribution and you're like, that was it, my final contribution.

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There's always more that can be contributed.

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So you're going to get to a point in your career where you're going to say, I've contributed

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enough, I'm now going to move on to the next thing.

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And maybe that's retirement, maybe that's another research program, maybe that's an

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administrative role.

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You get to decide because there really is no end.

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And so it's important to enjoy the journey.

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It's important to enjoy the journey.

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Yes, accolades will come.

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You'll get really great research papers out of it.

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You'll get great abstracts.

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You'll be called to present in different places.

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All that will happen in due time.

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It will happen in due time.

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But what's really important when all those things, all those shiny things are not around

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you, that you're still engaged and you're still energized by the work you do.

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And you love the discoveries that you're making.

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For that reason, it's important to start with why.

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Make sure this is work you want to do.

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Make sure this is a population that you really want to invest in.

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You want them to win.

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And so make that investment.

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Now, it doesn't mean you should only do one single solitary project in that field.

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But if you have a sense of the greater area to which you want to contribute, it frees

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you up to take off little pieces of that and continue to move projects that are kind of

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like centered around a theme forward.

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And so yes, one project may fail, but they're all centered around a theme.

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So they build upon each other.

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They allow you to move things forward so that, okay, this one may fail, but I can now take

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all the things I learned from this one and put it in the other one.

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Starting with why allows you to have a sense of purpose about your work.

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It allows you to focus and have energy for the work you do.

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When the rejections come, and they inevitably will, it allows you to pick yourself up and

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move forward because your why is so clear.

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And so if for whatever reason you're disconnected from your why, you're not able to really have

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a clear sense of your purpose, it's there.

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You're just not able to really reveal it.

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Working with a coach can be helpful to help you figure it out.

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It's a safe space for you to really think through why are you here?

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Why did you come?

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What is a thing to which you can contribute that would really energize you?

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And working with a coach can be helpful to help you do that.

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So I'm always saying, hey, if you don't have a coach, shout out to me and I'd love to work

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with you.

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So that's it.

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Start with why.

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Number two is the power of laser focus.

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I will tell you that as clinicians, we love many shiny things.

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We're like TTP, oh, oh, exciting, TMA, whoa, whoa, exciting, single cell, wow, I love single

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cell, thrombosis, oh my goodness, it's all thrombosis.

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As clinicians, we love clinical things.

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We are medicine or med peds, docs at heart, and we're just interested in so many things.

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But the problem with shiny object syndrome is that your energy is diffuse.

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It's just, you're just doing so many things so you can't gain traction in any one area.

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And in reality, if you're going to succeed, if you're going to succeed wildly, if you're

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going to succeed and use the least amount of energy doing it, you're going to learn

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how to be super focused.

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It doesn't mean you only do one project and take it to its bitter end.

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And if it failed, it's like, well, I lost seven years of my life.

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Doesn't mean that.

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But it does mean that you choose a narrow area of focus that you are contributing in.

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And to be honest, there's so much that we don't know.

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So that even a narrow area of focus can even be made more narrow.

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But essentially, I think if I think about it as a clinician, choose one disease area

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of focus, choose one particular thing that you're interested in, and start chipping

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away at that.

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And don't just chip at one spot.

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Find a second spot and start chipping away at the second spot.

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Find the third spot.

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Start chipping away at that.

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And as long as it's all in the same thing, it all is propelling you forward.

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So yes, you submitted a grant in the first area which you're chipping away at.

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And then when it comes to the third area, there's still a lot of basic foundational

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structure that you can carry over to the other area.

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And so it helps you really gain traction as you're moving forward.

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And so it's important to be laser focused.

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The other thing to think about, number three, is the value of time spent thinking about

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your project.

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When you are working on the same thing day in and day out, even when you're sleeping,

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your mind is working.

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It's thinking about the project.

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It's unraveling things.

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It's kind of dealing with thorny issues.

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And so the more time you are spent focused in an area of work, the more mileage you're

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able to get out of it because your mind is constantly processing.

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It's bringing ideas to the fore.

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It's workshopping them.

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And sometimes you just get these eureka type moments and it looks like serendipity, but

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the reality is that your mind has been working on it because this is just something you keep

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bringing to your mind day after day as you engage the project, as you engage different

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aspects of the project.

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So remember that there is really value to time invested in a project.

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And that's why you don't want to just do every project that comes your way.

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You want to be strategic about the projects that you choose.

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Number four is recognizing the power of compound interest.

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Okay, so it's not compound interest because we're not really talking about investments,

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but we really are talking about investments.

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We're not talking about investments of money, but we're talking about investments of time,

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energy, focus.

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And really over time, all of that effort starts to compound.

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And so there may be a long lag time where it looks like there's barely any growth, where

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it looks like there's barely any movement.

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And then all of a sudden it just explodes and things start to work and opportunities

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start to come.

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They come as you are investing time and energy.

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And really all of that time, energy and effort, it compounds over time.

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And it may take a long time to start compounding, but when it does, it really, really starts

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to move.

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And a lot of that is because you've been investing in one area.

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Yes, you're diversifying your portfolio in that area, but you're moving forward every

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time.

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And when things start to move, they really, really, really move because there's the power

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of just your continued investment in that area and it really helps to accelerate you

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in your work over time.

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Don't lose heart as you're waiting for that acceleration to come.

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It's why you got to be enjoying the journey.

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It's why you start with why so you're in the place that you really want to be when things

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are not going like they're supposed to.

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So think about the power of just compounding your efforts and your investments in one area

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of focus.

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The fifth thing you want to think about is the importance of sustainability.

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Look, you are in an academic career, I hope, for the long haul.

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And so I'm thinking 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, possibly 40 years.

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You want to enjoy the journey.

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You want to make it sustainable.

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You want to make sure that this job you're doing, you're going to be able to do it decades

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from now.

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You're going to be healthy enough.

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You're not going to be burned out and worn out and just overwhelmed with everything.

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And so as you're thinking about research projects, think about the importance of sustainability.

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So don't just go for the first thing you see.

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Don't just do a knee-jerk reaction and say, I don't want this person to be mad.

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I'll just take it.

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You're building a long career.

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You're building a long-term career.

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You're building a long, long, long-term career.

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And you want to make sure that you're going to be able to sustain your interests over

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the course of your career.

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So I encourage you to think about that as you're thinking about research projects to

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work on.

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Ultimately, you get to make the choice.

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Nobody else can make the choice for you unless you abdicate your choice and have somebody

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else choose for you.

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And I would say that there is no wrong choice.

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There is no right choice.

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But it is wrong if it's not what you want to do and you're doing it because you're afraid,

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afraid that there won't be another opportunity, afraid that there won't be another mentor,

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or afraid that your mentor will abandon you forever and you'll be stuck.

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Don't let fear guide your decision.

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Have a sense of purpose.

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Have a sense of abundance.

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And then trust that as you're choosing, opportunities are going to open up over time so that your

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impact is really maximized and it goes as far as it can.

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I want to invite you, if you've enjoyed this episode, that you would share it with someone

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else.

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Leave us a five-star review.

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Help other people find us.

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And send me feedback.

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I will be looking for your DMs through Facebook or Instagram or even on LinkedIn.

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I am open to hearing from you about how we can better serve you on the podcast.

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It's been a pleasure to talk with you today.

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I look forward to the next time.

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Thanks for listening to this episode of the Clinician Researcher Podcast, where academic

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clinicians learn the skills to build their own research program, whether or not they

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have a mentor.

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If you found the information in this episode to be helpful, don't keep it all to yourself.

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Someone else needs to hear it.

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So take a minute right now and share it.

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As you share this episode, you become part of our mission to help launch a new generation

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of clinician researchers who make transformative discoveries that change the way we do healthcare.