Goals

Pauline Chen, MD  had an interesting piece in the New York Times a couple weeks ago about residency training.  She recounts a story of how she lost control and snapped in grocery store line under the stress of her training.  Experiences like this are not uncommon, she explains, and are often the result of burnout caused by the imbalance of personal and professional life that residency often demands.  She speaks with Dr. Neda Ratanawongsa, lead author of a recent study on resident burnout from Johns Hopkins.

“The [residents] who are happier,” Dr. Ratanawongsa observed, “are the ones who have held on to one or two things and have said, ‘I’m not just another resident. I play the guitar, I run races, or I go home to family.’ They don’t do these things to the same extent as they did before residency, but they do them enough to maintain a sense of self.”

Robert Centor, MD offered his advice over at DB’s Medical Rants:

While in training, I always had 3 priorities for my off time.  I played basketball most every off day – even post call.  As an addicted basketball player during that time, I knew that i need the sweat.

I always read fiction.  For some reason I did not feel guilty that I did not just read medicine.

I always listened to music.  Music made me happy then, and makes me happy now.

And my major priority was my wife, and during residency my daughter.

All of this talk of burnout and balance has gotten me a little worried myself.  Our chief residents advised us during orientation that if we could survive this year just with our personal relationships intact, we should consider it a success.

Though I have just barely begun to experience the stress of training, it is clear to me that establishing priorities for my personal life is going to be key to maintaining some happiness.  Setting a few concrete goals seems to be a reasonable way of establishing those priorities (and someone has told me many times that writing down your goals goes a long way towards achieving them).  Here are my goals:

1. Staying close with loved ones.
- I will call my family at least once a week.
- I will talk to my girlfriend in some form at least every other day.
- I will talk to old friends at least once a month (blog comments count!)

2. Fitness/health
- I will do some form of exercise at least 3 times a week, even if only a short jog.
- I will cook at least two meals a week

3. Personal enjoyment/entertainment
- I will  read at least 4 books for pure pleasure this  year
- I will watch Lost, The Office, and 30 Rock
- I will watch one or two movies  each month
- I will write something on this blog at least once every two weeks (hopefully more frequently)

4. Recreation

- I will do something fun outdoors at least once a month
- I will try one or two new recreational activities each year

I will be creating a Goals page to track these goals and keep myself accountable.  Wish me luck!