Anderson Spickard: The Hope That Perseveres

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About the Episode

Dr. Anderson Spickard, dean of the Thomas Frist Jr. College of Medicine, shares his methods of finding hope through life’s trials and how the support he receives from others provokes him to inspire and train the next generation of medical professionals.

Staying Present. Remaining Genuine. Finding Hope through Trials.

Dr. Anderson Spickard, dean of The Thomas Frist Jr. College of Medicine, joined Dr. Greg Jones to discuss how he discovered hope through loss and tragedy and explains his methods of persevering through pain to focus on his goal to train young medical professionals.

“The agency of being a doctor is very similar to coming to Belmont – knowing that you're part of something bigger than yourself and that you are loved deeply by a Lord who made you,” Anderson shared. “I have the freedom not to be perfect at all times which engages me to try to make a difference.”

This episode covers…

• How remaining in the present moment and focusing on what’s in front of you will help build focus, discipline and skill.
  
  
• How practicing authenticity and being genuine about one’s pain relieves personal burden and helps others feel less alone.
  
  
• The power of practicing hope over optimism when faced with significant trials, and how your own hope can inspire and help others.

Focusing on “The Now”

Sharing some of the people and experiences which help him develop and sustain a hopeful spirit, Anderson commended his wife, Margaret, on her ability to make the most of the present moment and determination to help their son learn to read, as well as her heart for helping others.

“She was able to garner other people’s interest around this topic to create opportunities for other families to bring their children to learn how to read,” Anderson noted. “This relentless person who saw something and got busy – focused on the future but relentless in the present.”

Between loving and caring for his family and fostering his career, Anderson elaborated on how he makes the most of every day while taking on significant roles in leadership and education, and the reward of being a part of something extraordinary.

“My story is I'm just doing the next thing that's in front of me,” he reflected. “It just seems like a regular day, but there have been building blocks, commitments and decisions that have accumulated to converge to this moment.”

While sharing his hope for the future trainees and medical professionals in the years to come, Anderson urged these professionals to remain focused, centered and knowledgeable enough to act as a gateway for helping others.

“I hope that we can augment our future trainees' ability to be self-aware, read their own signs, diagnose themselves, fill in the blank, step away, make that referral for someone else to take care of it and understand their limitations,” Anderson hoped.

Authenticity Over All

Illustrating what it looks like to be a medical professional who has suffered significant  amounts of medical trauma, Anderson reflected on how the people around him lifted him up during difficult times. He also shared how honesty about his pain was a means to uncovering hope.

“In my field, I've had the privilege of being in that room with all the people who had real tears. But I didn't know who was being helped. Did I help them or did they help me?” he confided. “I'm the victim of being acquainted with pain in this world in general, as we all are, and in a particular angle as a provider.”

Elaborating on the power of honesty and vulnerability, Anderson illustrated the vitality of genuineness among human beings and how honesty can bring people together on an existential level.

“This idea of pretending just makes me tired. With everything going on in the world, aren't we all just tired?” he asked. “Aren't we just dying for genuineness and being directly confrontive with what's really real? Like the limitation of our existence and our deep, deep need for better quality of our current existence?”

Further reflecting on the people in his life who have demonstrated authenticity, Anderson lists his close friend and former podcast guest Bill Haslam, regarding how genuine friendships can help individuals thrive.

“Bill Haslam has an amazing ability to listen and to create environments where everyone feels safe. So it's easy to start being honest. To land that and to be able to percolate that as friends while he was in office here was a real pleasure.”

Finding Light in the Dark

While on the topic of hope, Anderson shared the title of an article in which his son was mentioned in Abe's Garden Community Newsletter, which provided him and his wife joy and hope.

“Purposeful Volunteering. It's exactly what we want to be about and we want our son to be about,” Anderson praised. “We have this hope that he would do more and integrate even further, but we had an experience just this week, which keeps you centered to know that you may not be so off target or that your ideas or your work is not leading to anything.”

Remembering the loss of his other son and father to cancer, and reflecting on his own medical battle, Anderson described the strength and perseverance it takes to remain hopeful, even in life’s most tragic circumstances.

“I'm learning to live with this hole in my heart that is shaping me because we know it will never go away; it just becomes a part of our story,” he shared.

As an agent of hope, Anderson uses his talents and experiences to pour into other young professionals in the medical world and describes how giving to others sparks hope in his own life.

“In medical education, we are excited and absolutely purposed to train up the next generation,” Anderson expressed. “Last I checked, none of us gets out of here alive and I get very excited about gifting to others like I was gifted from those patients, from my parents.”

On the topic of pouring into others, Anderson believes the love and support he received from mentors and loved ones inspired him to give back and to make giving a part of his legacy.

“I am a recipient of incredible mentors, really pioneers. I am one generation away from that influence, and then I see the opportunity to do it for others,” he conveyed. “So the legacy I want is to see that it takes and it goes, and I just want to get out of the way.”