Category Archives: Personal

Imprecision in Thought: Capstone “I Didn’t Make This Up, Kid”

Christopher J. Colombo MD, CEC, CMC, CPP Introduction There’s something about the calendar turning toward July 4th that makes this feel a little less abstract. Maybe it’s being a bicentennial baby. Maybe it’s twenty years in uniform. Maybe it’s just the cumulative effect of watching the quality of our public conversations degrade while the volume...

Imprecision in Thought Part 4 Comfort, Complexity, and the Stories We Tell Ourselves

Christopher J. Colombo MD, CEC, CMC, CPP Introduction In the last post, we walked through how thinking breaks—how overusing shortcuts, collapsing distinctions, and grabbing onto explanations that are a little too clean pulls us away from reality while giving us the comforting sense that we’ve finally made sense of it. None of that is particularly...

Imprecision in Thought Part 3 Not the Same Thing: Where Thinking Actually Breaks

Christopher J. Colombo MD, CEC, CMC, CPP Introduction In part 2 of this series, we talked about the discipline required to avoid becoming the problem you’re trying to fix—slowing down, defining terms, showing your work, and resisting the very natural urge to react before you actually understand what you’re reacting to. All of that matters....

Imprecision in Thought — Part 2 The Discipline of Not Being Part of the Problem

Christopher J. Colombo MD, CEC, CMC, CPP Introduction In the last post, we talked about that moment when something sounds wrong—the face scrunch, the irritation, the immediate certainty that what you’re reading or hearing doesn’t hold up. The problem doesn’t stop with what you’re reacting to. It includes what you’re about to become if you...

And Now For Something Completely Different…

Christopher J. Colombo MD, CEC, CMC, CPP Introduction From time to time on this blog I will exercise “author’s prerogative” and deviate from what would otherwise be the expected/scheduled post topic. This post was planned to be the 3rd installment of the burnout series and for a variety of reasons, I didn’t particularly feel like...

The Beauty in the Dust: Growth in Imperfection

Christopher J. Colombo MD, CEC, CMC, CPP Thresholds That Truly Change Us I’ve crossed plenty of thresholds in my life. Graduations, promotions, marriage, a few plaques on the wall. All those moments came and went, all important in their own way. Despite the cultural significance, and that many of these events are dear to many...

Living Richly: Music, Travel, Discomfort, and Growth in Tuscany – Psychological Richness Part 3

Christopher J. Colombo MD, CEC, CMC, CPP Introduction Greetings and Salutations! Welcome to the third installment in the psychological richness series. In Part 1, I introduced Shigehiro Oishi’s concept of a psychologically rich life—one filled with interesting, perspective-changing experiences. In Part 2, I put on my skeptic hat and reengaged the theory: praised what works, critiqued what doesn’t,...

Time does not heal… it is what you do in time that heals.

“That was a long time ago, but it’s wrong what they say about the past, I’ve learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.” ~Khaled Hosseini “Don’t turn away. Keep your...