A renowned international board certified plastic surgeon for over 20 years, this Harvard Medical School and Oxford graduate now practicing in New York City, is the go-to plastic surgeon for A-list celebrities and is a regular guest expert on Secret Weapons of Beauty on Fablife, a daily lifestyle talk show. Not only is he an expert on medical procedures to enhance and harmonize the face and body in a natural manner, he is most proud of the more than 2000 pro-bono plastic and reconstructive procedures he’s done around the world, volunteering his time and talent to third world cities and countries including Ecuador, Haiti, Burundi, Tanzania, and Republic of the Congo. He believes in supporting a total mind, body, spirit approach when working with his patients, understanding that physical appearance plays an important role in instilling self-confidence and inner peace amongst his patients.
His name is Christopher L. Johnson. He grew up as the eighth child in a family with nine kids. He grew up as a black, gay, boy, from a family with little financial means in Oklahoma, where segregation was a way of life for the first decade of his life, yet he has accomplished every dream he has ever set out for. He became a doctor, has travelled the world helping people, and one of his proudest accomplishments, he became a father, redefining for himself what a family looks like, and through his celebrity status, redefining family for others too. He is the father to six year old Alexandra Natalia, and now, in addition to changing the lives of others, he hopes to be an example to Alexandra that she can be, do, and have anything she wants by busting through perceived limits set by the outside world, redefining life in her own terms.
I recently spent some time chiseling away at the contours of the well lived life of Christopher L. Johnson. Here are his 4 lessons on sculpting your destiny and living your life redefined.
Stop Living By Their Rules: Johnson knew at a young age that he wanted to have a family and to raise children. His perception of family was a husband, a wife, and children. As a gay man, Johnson ended up marrying a woman who was a close friend. Together they agreed that they would have children and raise a family. Johnson paid for fertility treatments to ensure their likelihood of having a child. The fertility treatments didn’t work and the stress of the lengthy emotional process broke the marriage apart. He was devastated that a family and children were not on the horizon. He felt like the life he dreamed of was just out of his grasp. Johnson, propelled by sadness, slowly started taking back the reigns of control. He sought out surrogacy options around the country. Soon thereafter he found an egg donor and surrogate in India. He flew to India to donate sperm. A year after his first plans at having a family failed, his divorce was finalized, and through the donations of a selfless egg donor, a loving surrogate, and his own determination, Alexandra Natalia was born in India. Just like that, Johnson had the family he had always wanted. Johnson says that in living your life redefined, it is important to step back and determine why you are following rules set by other people. When Johnson stopped defining a family as a husband, wife, and kids, he was empowered to create the family he always wanted. Johnson did say that he thinks it’s important for kids to have both a mom and a dad, but in his case, there have been a few amazing women who have stepped up to give Alexandra the extra dose of nurturing that women can offer. Although these women are not Alexandra’s mom in a traditional sense, Johnson says they are very much motherly in every other way.
Being Good Isn’t Good Enough: One of the hardest lessons that Johnson has learned in more than two decades as a plastic surgeon, is that just because you are well trained and really good at what you do, doesn’t mean everyone will like and respect you. While living in California working at a community hospital, Johnson ran into an issue where a group of nurses complained about working with him. They didn’t like that he was gay. Johnson says that he had always assumed that because he had earned his way to his position, studying at Oxford and then Harvard University, people would give him a fair shake, regardless of skin color or sexual orientation, but he has learned over the years that this is not necessarily true. He says that it is an important lesson for anyone to learn in life. Your training, your degrees, and your level of competence will only get you so far. At the end of the day, some people just aren’t going to like you for whatever reason. Johnson says that the bright side is that there will be people who deselect themselves from your life, and it’s a good thing. He says that rather than spending time trying to educate short-sighted or ill-advised people, let them flush themselves out of your life, so that you can spend time nurturing relationships of the relevant people, the people who matter most on your journey.
Study Forgiveness: Having experienced senseless betrayal and animosity by others at different points in his lifetime for qualities like his skin color or sexual orientation, Johnson says that he has devoted much time and study in learning to forgive. He says that there were many years in which he carried anger and hate around in his heart, which prevented him from living a full life. He says that there is no virtue in holding onto hurt. Your negative emotions have little effect on the people toward whom you carry the ill feelings, but they wear down your own body, mind, and soul. It is for this reason that Johnson became a student of forgiveness. He says he studied forgiveness as intensely as he studied to become a plastic surgeon. One book which has profoundly changed Johnson’s own life is Immaculée Ilibagiza’s book Left to Tell, where she chronicles her own life, surviving the Rwandan genocide, having witnessed the murder of family members as she hid in a closet and watched through a crack in the door. Johnson says that this book explains how and why Immaculee forgave those who inflicted such cruel and perverse hatred on her people, and the role that faith and prayer played in her journey. Johnson says this is still one of his favorite guides on forgiveness because the book and her story were an important tool for him in learning to forgive those who inflicted pain on him. Johnson says that for many, redefining life is not possible without first learning to forgive, and so dedicating time to the devotion of this virtue can be life altering.
Remember Why You Started: “I wanted to make a difference in the world. I wanted to heal people.” That’s why Johnson originally set out on a journey to become a doctor many years ago. Yet, he says that several years into his career he found himself at an impasse. He says that he woke up one day and realized that his career as a plastic surgeon had resulted in him building an occupation on helping rich and famous people look more beautiful, and that was so far removed from his original mission that he could no longer enjoy his job. That’s when he became part of an organization called Project Change Bermuda, a global organization that offers reconstructive surgery in third world countries. Since becoming part of the organization, Johnson has performed over 2000 pro-bono procedures. He says that it is the kind of work that feeds his soul, and the result of this work has enabled him to once again embrace the love he has for medicine. Johnson says it is because of the work he does around the world that he now once again really enjoys working with his Park Avenue clients and celebrity clientele, because not only does he get to impact the lives of the rich and famous, but he is also making a difference in the lives of those who don’t have access to the best medical care. Johnson says that if you ever come to an impasse in your own career, just go back to the original premise of why you started, then figure out a way to fulfill that original mission, and soon you will find your spark again.
Like a modern day Michelangelo, he has sculpted the faces, the bodies, and the minds of both the rich and famous as well as the poor and destitute. He has faced adversity, hate, and poverty in his own life, and has used them as the scalpel to shape a better life for his patients, his daughter, and himself. He’s more than a doctor, he’s a visionary. He’s more than a father, he’s a family. He is Christopher L. Johnson and he’s living life redefined.