Last year, my mother went to the ENT doctor because of some discomfort she was facing. He prescribed her some strong steroids. Unsure about taking them, she consulted another doctor who told her that the steroids weren’t required.
Her situation improved without steroids.
Why does the concept of a second diagnosis exist? It’s to get a different opinion from someone who sees the problem with a new set of eyes. While we don’t hesitate to take a second opinion when it comes to medical issues, it isn’t the same when it comes to other aspects. A few cases in point:
Someone tells you you can’t present to save your life. You believe them and convince yourself that you’re a bad presenter
Someone tells you you won’t be very successful and you scale down your efforts because they aren’t going to add up anyway.
Someone tells you that you aren’t good enough and you slink away, afraid to face criticism again.
At certain points in our lives, we have all been told we can’t draw, run, understand maths, become leaders, achieve success on our own terms. The list is endless. In some cases, if this advice comes from people who wish well for us, it can stop us from putting all our efforts into something we aren’t cut out for and into something where our chances of succeeding are greater.
While speaking to a very close friend of mine sometime back, the first thing they told me after listening to me was ‘someone has been telling you a lot of stuff that isn’t really true.’
That was a light bulb moment for me.
In 2006, pacer Zaheer Khan, who struggled with his match fitness, had reached a cross roads. It didn’t help that at the helm of things was coach Greg Chappell, who was trying to end his career. This excellent article by cricket writer Sharda Ugra explains the situation with the following words -
‘In Pakistan 2006, former coach Greg Chappell had privately declared Zaheer ‘finished’, words that reached him’
Banished to county cricket in the UK, he found his passion for the game again and his career got a second wind, one where he became the bowling mainstay and led the team to many memorable victories.
What might have happened had Zaheer Khan resigned himself to Chappell’s horrendous diagnosis?
A sensible and valid second opinion can help you stop reinforcing a diagnosis that wasn’t right in the first place.
