Read time: 3 minutes
So you signed up for this newsletter, but the idea of “work-life balance” as seen in society today isn’t resonating with you:
Maybe you have a friend that proselytizes their part-time work that allows them to train for 6 marathons a year, while simultaneously managing a burgeoning real estate portfolio, but you can’t relate.
Or
Everyone on social media seems to be pushing a money-making scheme or telling you how you should live your life – cold plunges and all!
There is balance in medicine, but the good examples are few and far between.
Why though?
What’s wrong with the idea of a work-life balance movement in medicine?
Most clinicians (doctors, nurses, etc.) didn’t get to where they are by taking gratuitous risks or by making large leaps of faith, generally speaking.
The vast majority of us got here because we wanted a path to a career.
A career that would be stable, profitable, and laudable.
Speaking from experience for the physicians: it takes considerable time (the majority of your 20’s), money (1/2 a million dollars or so), and effort to make it to the proverbial promised land.
Furthermore, medicine is a “calling“! You are evil if you even consider thinking about yourself over the demands of patient care!
And now some guy wants to preach to you about “work-life balance”?
Bahhhh
This is the crux of the issue.
Most clinicians have spent so much time focused on moving forward on the path of medicine that they have indoctrinated themselves into a certain expectation about how they can and, moreover, should spend their time.
Most just keep going; it’s rare for someone in their 30’s and early 40’s to actively throttle back after having redlined for a decade to make it this far.
Moreover, almost everyone you know has been through the same indoctrination by their over-worked and out-of-shape mentors.
Most of whom likely share the same false belief: how terrible to waste your talents, your education, your expertise – by not working to your fullest.
The problem with the work-life balance in medicine is that we feel guilty to abandon a calling and/or we don’t know what proud examples of work-life balance look like for people like us.
You know, the type of people who still work some tough hours, but don’t install saunas in their backyards or evangelize the healing powers of apple cider vinegar on Instagram stories.
Stop looking for external validation
For better or for worse, most of us are not ultra-creative thinkers.
We went into medicine to follow a path.
Unfortunately, all of our role-models and mentors up to this point fit into a very specific box: hard workers, who don’t complain, but miss family events, sleep poorly, while taking on non-clinical responsibilities without compensation.
I know dozens of people like that and I’m sure you might too.
So we can’t rely on our mentors, or over-worked peers, to look to as examples to model after.
And we can’t emulate the fit-influencers or hybrid-athletes online, and so we will have to do things ourselves.
The only person you can truly rely on
If you are hoping to find a template on how to live your own life, you won’t find it here.
My version of work-life balance has morphed during the time I’ve worked as an independent contractor: from every other week assignments a short flight from home to working 2 days each week a 20 minute drive away.
But the reason you are reading this right now is that you have some inkling, some itch to scratch – that maybe you could live a better life, have healthier habits, sleep better, spend more time with family – if only you had a more time or flexibility in your schedule.
The onus is on you to deliberately think about the life you are capable of imagining for yourself.
Just having the time to reflect might be hard to achieve given your schedule and personal commitments!
But you have to find a way to do it.
Taking a leap of faith to break out of the mold of modern medicine requires a lot of guts.
It’s not for everyone. In fact it’s probably not for many.
Be honest with yourself and your family.
And if you’re having trouble reflecting on what you might do with a better, more flexible schedule, then maybe it’s because you don’t even have time to consider improving your life.
Whenever you’re ready, here are 2 ways I can help:
1) Let’s talk through what choosing your own path through medicine looks like. Over the phone, confidential, free:
https://calendly.com/tonyvullo/20min
2) Free Guides and Resources to Help You Reclaim Your Time and Autonomy:
Help Patients. Work Less.
Do More of Everything Else.
