The phrase “reach for the stars” is said to come from a poem written by Virgil called the Aeneid. This Latin poem was written sometime between 29 and 19 BC. The simple meaning behind it was to “set your goals in life high in order to achieve success.” It’s an inspiring quote. However, we often overlook the word “stars” and set our sights on one “big” North Star. We then design a single path to reach that goal and forget to appreciate the collection of stars we acquire along the way that make up our very own beautiful constellation.
Our guest, Professor Sharon Goldfeld, is a pediatrician and public health physician at the Royal Children’s Hospital’s Centre for Community Child Health and Theme Director for Population Health at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, who shares her career journey and how she visualizes each of her accomplishments as stars she collected along the way to her North Star, building an amazing constellation of stars that fueled her career success. She explains how she harnessed the “burn” or “power” from each star to help her achieve her North Star.