Day 203: Dr. Vidushi Babber
“I’ve always pushed myself to do something. I’ve always thought whatever people would think is impossible or you can’t do it, I would say ‘No, I can do it.’ And it’s not impossible – it’s ‘I’m possible.’”
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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Dr. Babber, for being part of the Project, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?
Dr. Vidushi Babber: Hey, Toni, this is Dr. Vidushi Babber. I am a practicing psychiatrist and a Medical Director at a community mental health center, and I am slowly finding myself in media, in radio and television, to help inspire people.
Toni: Fantastic! Well thank you for that great lead-in to the first question. When you think of that word inspiration, who do you think you inspire, and how does that happen?
Dr. Babber: To be very honest, Toni, I like to inspire people everywhere I meet them. If I know they have a dream, something they want to do, something they’d like to achieve, I just become a part of that inspiration. I want to help them get there.
Toni: How do you do that?
Dr. Babber: Well first of all, you need to find a connection with that person, and I have sort of what I call the process of inspiration – the Five I’s of Inspiration.
First of all is to Identify who they are, what they need to accomplish, and identify with them if there’s a certain experience I’ve had with them, or that I can share with them, something that I have done or gone through; and that is what I call identifying with them.
Then, the second thing is Ignite. Now, when I say ignite, anybody that wants to do something, they’ve got to have that fire, that burning, that sort of sensation of feeling that, you know, “I’ve got to get moving.”
Toni: Right.
Dr. Babber: And then, that’s that “I believe in you.” Giving them that message, igniting them.
Then, the third one is what I call Illustrate. Now you have to set the example – how did I do it, and now how you can do it.
The fourth I is Initiate. Here’s when you have to help them get started, support them, offer them the advice, the encouragement, be very thoughtful about how they’re about to do it, care for them, and then continue that encouraging and being friendly and getting them to try their best.
The fifth I call is Imagine. Here, you have to remember that the process just doesn’t stop after the first four I’s. It’s actually going to continue. You need to get them to imagine what else they could do in life. If they’ve gotten to this point, what more can they do? So get them to imagine how else they could also inspire other people.
Toni: I absolutely love that. I think that is so cool, the Five I’s of inspiration!
Dr. Babber: It’s very easy. You know, I was actually thinking about, you know, inspiration is something I enjoy doing and helping people achieve, just achieve their dreams, and so this is a process. It’s not just a feeling you have and you get up and go do it. It really is a process, and that’s where I came up with these five I’s – Identify, Ignite, Illustrate, Initiate, and Imagine.
Toni: Fantastic. How do you think using this process, okay, will help someone to explore their own potential?
Dr. Babber: Well, the thing is, first of all, like I said, the first thing is identify. They have to look within themselves. They have to find out what it is that they want to achieve. A lot of times people aren’t inspired so easily; it’s because you don’t have a goal, you don’t have a passion, you don’t know what it is that gets you up in the morning and gets you motivated. So that’s really where you have to teach them to look within yourself. What is it that you are trying to achieve? What has that burning in there that gets you up and going?
And I think to inspire someone … a quote I have is, “Light the fire of desire to aspire.” People don’t get moving when they see the light; they get moving when they feel the heat. If you think about it, we all know we have to get somewhere, but if there’s something not pushing us to get there, we’re not going.
Toni: Whether that’s internal or external.
Dr. Babber: Right.
Toni: Absolutely. So you are that fire; you can be that fire to either spark them externally, but really more importantly is that spark that, I don’t know, fires them up on the inside.
Dr. Babber: Right, and it’s going to be more effective if they generate that fire from within. I mean, you can try and try and try to get that fire to light all you want from the outside, but if it’s not coming from the inside, they’re not going to be able to do it, and that’s where you have to come in from the outside and get them to generate it themselves.
Toni: Right, right. Now, Dr. Babber, what inspires you? What do you need to be inspired?
Dr. Babber: Well, the first thing is, I’m a type of person that I always feel that I am my biggest inspiration. I am my biggest cheerleader. If I can’t think I can do it, nobody else is going to be able to believe it either. So that’s something I think I’ve had since childhood. I’ve always pushed myself to do something. I’ve always thought whatever people would think is impossible or you can’t do it, I would say “No, I can do it.” And it’s not “impossible” – it’s “I’m possible.”
Toni: And you’ve always been that way?
Dr. Babber: Always.
Toni: Wow, what a good …
Dr. Babber: I think it’s not that … I can’t always say … you know, this is something of course I had to learn myself, too, so I think at a very young age, I was maybe put in certain positions where people have challenged me or they’ve told me I couldn’t do it in certain ways at certain ages, and I’ve always … I think that was my fire that I actually had externally come, and that became an internal fire to say “No, I can do it. If I believe in myself, I can do it, and I can prove that I can do it, despite what you’ve told me.” That has become now habit.
Toni: Do you ever face resistance, or do you ever feel as though you’ve gone out of your comfort zone a bit?
Dr. Babber: Always!
Toni: So how do you do that? Now see, that’s interesting too, because you are saying that you have this wonderful sense of self … I don’t know, confidence, and self-belief, and here you know, I’m listening to you and I’m going “Wow, that is so cool – she really, really believes in herself and that’s so refreshing” – but then the question is, do you ever have resistance or comfort zone in your life – all the time. How do those two reconcile each other?
Dr. Babber: Well, you know, if I was to say I’m comfortable doing everything I’ve done up till this point, that’s wrong for me to say that, because it’s not. Anytime you want to do something other than the ordinary or what people think is the norm, you’re going out of their comfort zone within society.
I mean, it’s almost like people are always striving to blend in, and I’ve always strived to blend out. Maybe I’ve just been like that over the years, but it is going out of my comfort zone because you have family, you have friends, you have your social circle, you have the world, you have, you know, your workplace – you’ve got all these people that do it a certain way.
And so you’re up against everybody’s thought of how you should be doing it, how you should be living your life or how you should be doing this; so right there you’re dealing with your own, you know … the comfort right there is the support system you have, and then to go … to actually step out of that.
Fortunately, I’ve had the support of my family that saw me getting out of my comfort zone, and supporting me in that position even, too, but there are other people out there that don’t have that kind of support when they do get out of that comfort zone, and that’s where they get the resistance. My resistance basically has come from more, you know, the social circle and workplace and the world thinking “Why is she doing that? How is she doing it?” Fortunately, my family has been my biggest support in letting me do things outside of my comfort zone instead of holding me back.
Toni: What a gift they’ve given you.
Dr. Babber: Yes.
Toni: Now, when you find yourself on a day that maybe – not saying that you do – but maybe every once in a while you have a day where it’s like “Gosh, I could use a little inspiration here” – what do you tend to reach for?
Dr. Babber: I think I go back to the basics of why I’m doing something. What was it in the first place that I started this project or I started going down on this road? Let’s go back to why I began this in the first place.
Toni: Okay, and then that would be a process, okay, that you’re thinking “I need a little inspiration here and I’m going to go back to why this excited me in the first place,” and I get that, and that is fantastic, but are there personal things that you reach for? Are there things that kind of lift you up?
Dr. Babber: There is actually one quote that I recently have adapted into my vocabulary in the sense that I tell everybody and anybody about it, and you get to hear it now! Now I share it with all my patients, and you should see the results in just sharing a quote like that and what it can do to a person. I’m sure you’ve heard it, and a lot of people have heard it. It’s “The will of God will never take you where the grace of God will not protect you.” That itself, just reading that anytime inspires me.
Toni: Absolutely. Thank you for sharing that. When you are looking to grow and to learn and to explore your own potential, what do you do?
Dr. Babber: Well, I think in order to grow, first of all you have to identify your strengths and your weaknesses. You start with that. What is it that I can use that are my strengths to help me grow, and what are my weaknesses that I can improve on that can help me grow? So then you have to identify what your limitations and what your obstacles are, and the solution to them to help you grow. You also have to study people that, you know, have accomplished what you want to accomplish or you strive to accomplish, and sort of study their lives and see how they do it. My biggest role models are always motivational speakers. They just … they’re the ones that stand on the stage and they have that fire, and you can see it.
Toni: Absolutely. You know, what you’ve described to me though are a bit of your five I’s.
Dr. Babber: Yes.
Toni: And so you do that for yourself?
Dr. Babber: Of course! You have to practice what you preach.
Toni: Absolutely. So how do you see the correlation between what you do now and what you’re doing in your practice? And I know that you say you’re getting out there more and more in interviews and so forth – how does that all then correlate to what you’re doing for others?
Dr. Babber: Well, I’ve been a big fan of educating people ever since the beginning. I just felt like … and this is really a true story because when I was 13 years old, I was standing in front of the TV and Peter Jennings was on, and he was just, you know, giving everybody the news, what’s happening around the world and stuff. And I sat there looking at him going “You know what? I want to be like Peter Jennings too and help the world, you know, get that knowledge out, but I would like to be on camera teaching people something about their health, educating them.” And so then what happened, years later I’m actually doing that on radio and television. I had a radio show several years ago called Winning With Wellness, and then a couple years later, I now have my TV show, a health show called PRN, where it’s educating not only the public, but also physicians on health.
Toni: So you’ve really come full circle on this, haven’t you?
Dr. Babber: Yes, yes, hopefully. I mean, the circle’s still not complete; I’ve got a lot more to do.
Toni: Absolutely, absolutely. What a fantastic story that you have, and with your practice, what you’re doing, getting the word out there and growing that in bigger and broader ways, almost on a global market now. And you can hear the passion, you can hear how inspired you are with the work that you do. It has been an absolute pleasure to talk to you today, and we will have a way that people can see how to get a hold of you and maybe, I don’t know, listen to your radio program. Do you have a current radio program now?
Dr. Babber: Not at this time. I’ve got my hands full with the TV show, and I’m starting to do short segments, video clips, on … it’s going to be called Physicians Need to Know, and we start filming this month.
Toni: Congratulations, fantastic! Thank you so much for being part of the Get Inspired! Project.
Dr. Babber: Thank you so much, Toni, for the opportunity, and I wish you much luck and success.
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For more information about Dr. Vidushi Babber: www.DrBabber.com
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