Dr Raj Mohan On The Morning Routines and Habits Of Highly Successful People
An Interview With Jake Frankel
The best way to develop a good habit is consistency. One must consistently and consciously carry out the good habit until it becomes automatic. The same goes for bad habits. An individual has to consciously stop the bad habit and over time it becomes natural or easy to do so.
Beginnings are a Genesis. That means that not only are they a start, but they are also the origin of all that follows. This means that the way we start something, the way we start our day, for example, creates a trajectory for all that follows. How do highly successful leaders start their day in a way that creates a positive trajectory for a successful, effective, productive, and efficient day? How do you create habits that make these routines permanent? How do you get inspired to develop the discipline necessary for such a lifestyle? In this new series, called Morning Routines and Habits Of Highly Successful People, we are talking to successful leaders who can share the morning routines and habits that have helped them to achieve success.
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Raja Mohan.
Dr. Raja Mohan is a plastic surgeon in Dallas who focuses on aesthetic and reconstructive surgery of the face, breast and body. He is one of the few surgeons in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex with specialized fellowship training in aesthetic surgery and offers procedures like liposuction, tummy tuck, Brazilian butt lift, breast augmentation and chin liposuction. Treating each patient with the utmost care and concern to achieve the best possible outcome, Dr. Mohan’s philosophy is that every patient is unique and he individualizes a plan for each one.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
My father finished medical school in India and moved to the United States in 1973 to begin his residency training. He came to the U.S. with the equivalent of five hundred dollars. I was born near the tail end of his training when he was finishing his gastroenterology fellowship in New York City. When I was young, we lived in many places throughout the U.S. and my father ultimately settled in a small agriculture town in the Central Valley of California called Porterville. There he started a solo private practice. Growing up in Porterville, where I completed all my schooling before heading off to college, I was very interested in academics and tennis.
What or who inspired you to pursue your career? We’d love to hear the story.
As a child, I was interested in many careers but became fond of medicine because of my father. He taught me facts about the human body and anatomy at the age of 4 and by age 6, I remember learning the names of all the bones in the body. Quickly, I became very fascinated with each of the human organ systems. I used to go on rounds with my father in the hospital and observe what he would do from a very young age as well. He would treat patients with colorectal cancer, and I recall many of them telling me that my father saved their life by identifying cancerous lesions during their colonoscopy. My father was a hero when I heard these stories. He inspired me to pursue a career in medicine.
None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Was there a particular person who you feel gave you the most help or encouragement to be who you are today? Can you share a story about that?
My father encouraged me to be who I am today and helped me become successful. In addition to him, another person who greatly influenced me was one of my primary mentors in plastic surgery, Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez. He is one of the best plastic surgeons in the world and is known for performing groundbreaking face transplants. While I was a resident in training and working in his research lab, he always told me that the key to success is time. The more time you spend learning and training, the better you will be. He shared a lot of wisdom about life and becoming successful.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting mistake that occurred to you in the course of your career? What lesson or take away did you learn from that?
Sometimes opportunities or new advancements can occur from mistakes. In my training, there was a breast reconstruction case in which I was supposed to wrap an implant with a type of material called an acellular dermal matrix. I forgot to wrap the implant, placed it in the breast and closed everything. At the end of the case, my attending (faculty member) asked me if I had put in the wrap. I told him I had forgotten to do that step. I felt horrible. It was too late to go back but surprisingly the patient had no issues and healed beautifully. My attending then felt, in certain patients, it would be appropriate to only place implants and not use a wrap.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Three character traits I believe are important for leadership are integrity, confidence and vision. The first time I truly felt like a leader was in high school on my academic decathlon team. We had lost to the same school in our regional event fifteen years in a row. One year, I told the team we were going to win and put an end to the streak. I was set on accomplishing this goal and charted a study plan for the entire team. We worked extremely hard throughout the year and ultimately won by a large margin. It was one of the first times I took the lead to convince a team we needed to change our ways.
I’m an author and I believe that books have the power to change lives. Do you have a book in your life that impacted you and inspired you to be an effective leader? Can you share a story?
There are so many wonderful books but one that comes to mind when thinking about being an effective leader is “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey. It has been a blueprint for success for me and has many points related to leadership. I really enjoy the section on “Sharpening the Saw,” which means continual improvement throughout one’s life. Having many successes but also having made a lot of mistakes, I try to learn from every experience to be better each day.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
Currently, I moved to a new office space in Dallas where I am setting up a med spa and training staff to provide these services. Also, I am building an office-based surgery center. These are very exciting changes to my practice which will allow me to grow and expand as an entrepreneur.
OK, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the core focus of our interview. This will be intuitive to you but it will be helpful to spell this out directly. Can you help explain to our readers why it is important to have a consistent morning routine?
Through a lot of discipline and hard work, I have set up a consistent morning routine that allows me to be centered and channel my mind and thoughts. I wake up quite early on most days, approximately at 5 a.m., and focus on wellness by working out, journaling and planning my day. Then I start getting ready before going to work. I believe waking up that early allows me to be prepared, focused and calm for the entire day.
Speaking in general, what is the best way to develop good habits? Conversely, how can one stop bad habits?
The best way to develop a good habit is consistency. One must consistently and consciously carry out the good habit until it becomes automatic. The same goes for bad habits. An individual has to consciously stop the bad habit and over time it becomes natural or easy to do so.
Doing something consistently “day in and day out” can be hard. Where did you get your motivation from? What do you use to motivate you now?
My motivation comes from within. I enjoy my craft and have a drive to learn and to do more. At this point, it is more than just achieving a goal, I want to be able to help people and do as much as I can that is beneficial to others while I am living.
What other resources would you suggest to our readers?
Similar to one of my other answers, I believe the best resources are books. Books on leadership or self-improvement are great for anybody interested in being a better leader or manager in a business.
Ok, we are nearly done. You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
This may sound cliche, but I would inspire a movement that focuses on peace among fellow human beings. My goal would be to influence others to be accepting, try their best to avoid hate and keep humanity from committing atrocities toward other human beings. It may be lofty or farfetched, but I really believe it could make the world a better place to live.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we both tag them :-)
I would like to meet Michael Jordan and learn more about how he developed his drive and motivation. Becoming a leader on his team and leading them to victory on multiple occasions, he is one of the greatest athletes ever and to this day is used as the measuring stick for greatness.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Readers can follow my work by visiting my website rajamohanmd.com or through various social media platforms @rajamohanmd.
Thank you for these really excellent insights, and we greatly appreciate the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success.
