Sure, you came to us for the memes and dark humor. I accept that. You accept that. We all accept that.

Not long after we decided to share our idiotic, self deprecating humor with the masses, we began getting messages asking about career growth, personal growth, fitness, how to leave EMS, how to get into more niche EMS roles, you name it, we got it. 

By no means do I consider either one of us to be experts on any of the above topics, however we both have managed to network and grow ourselves into all sorts of unique opportunities. The blur between personal growth and professional growth tends to be proportional - meaning that as you grow as a person, the skills, attributes, and personal ideology will spill over into other facets of life, such as your professional life. 

So where do we start? I suppose that's the biggest question, if you don't need our advice, don't take it. We simply felt that typing up an article of sorts is more effective and time efficient, when compared to answering these questions individually in our inbox. I always ask "what is your goal?". Defining your end goal, whether that's an RN, a PA, a career firefighter, getting cool guy contracts, or being a doctor, will greatly help the path you should take.

Getting your personal life in order, if I'm being objective here, is what needs to follow. I don't mean your personal life you display to the world on social media, as we all know that is garbage. I mean the way you live and how you conduct yourself. If you follow our brand, you likely work in some type of patient care position. If you were your own patient, how SHOULD you treat them? How do you treat them? Are you regularly exercising? Eating healthy? Taking pride in your hygiene and appearance? Are you letting dishes and clothes stack up? We often joke about CaviWipe bathes, those jokes are not to be taken literally. 

While we can't summarize what personal growth means to us in one article, we can try to align the lenses that we use to find solutions to the problems that we have faced previously. Taking the above seriously, will apply to some of the four bullet points we have always championed. (Those four being Experiences, Credentials, Physical Fitness, and Network) 

This first write up was admittedly off the cuff, but should serve as an introduction to our intention as we explore those four topics in further discussion going forward. We have always heard 'you are the average of the 5 people you surround yourself with', however if you don't start by taking care of yourself, you likely won't find yourself associating with those that do the same. 

-DC