Balance, “to bring or keep in equilibrium” is the definition offered by the Oxford English Dictionary. Perhaps you prefer Merriam-Webster’s definition, “equipoise between contrasting, opposing, or interacting elements”. Either way, the roles we play, our life experiences, and our special interests are elements that constantly intersect to provide structure and balance in our lives. More than just students, we are athletes, artists, dancers, etc. These pieces form a complex, constantly evolving puzzle that defines our identity.
So how does one train to become a physician — arguably a concept detached from our true nature—without discarding the pieces that make us unique?
Enter, the “work-life balance”. Before beginning medical school and my clinical rotations, the predominant advice offered by my peers was to maintain work-life balance. This is generally well-intended advice, but additional contextual clarity is needed to properly manage expectations throughout training.
Imagine working a nine to five job, arriving home, exercising, having a warm dinner with your family, perhaps chatting with a loved one, and watching Netflix before getting 7-8 hours of sleep. For some people this is a good example of work-life balance. But how realistic is it to think we can maintain this schedule as medical students or physicians? I propose a different schedule. Wake up at 5:30, work on the hospital floor until past sunset, arrive home and study for 3 hours, work on assignments due that week, work on a presentation for next day, eat somewhere in between while flipping through flashcards in an attempt to fall asleep at a reasonable time. Some may describe this schedule as an example of a disequilibrated scale, but I would argue against that.
My view on work-life balance began to change when a mentor once told me to think of work-life balance as a pendulum instead of a scale. I begrudgingly considered pendulums -- they reminded me of physics in college; however, the more I pondered, the more correlations I made. A pendulum uses its own inertia to swing from one side to the opposite with sequential changes in direction characterized by a culmination of maximum potential energy at the most elevated position of each swing. At the lowest position of the swing, a position of equilibrium is found. Let’s call this point “balance”. If we were to randomly stop the bob of the pendulum at any point within its swing, it would overwhelmingly not be found at the equilibrium position. Similarly, if you were to ask a student about their life, chances are, their personal life, educational performance, or mental health is not in perfect balance.
As human beings, our lives tend to swing back and forth like a pendulum. For example, sometimes we devote more time to our significant others, and this may affect our work efficiency. Similarly, we occasionally sacrifice social events to meet work deadlines. Even throughout our training, we encounter topics that are exciting to learn about, but also those that make us cringe upon mention. But every moment in our training has its own purpose. Each experience marks a point along the trajectory of our own pendulum but does not define the equilibrium point of our life. Instead of trying to constantly adjust, by adding or subtracting from our life scale to achieve perfect work-life balance, I believe it is more valuable to understand where you are within your ‘swing’ to have a clear vision of your direction. Realizing that your trajectory is not unidirectional may enhance your appreciation for peaks in training and prepares you to overcome the inevitable troughs within your journey.
Balance is difficult to achieve if we do not set realistic expectations of what it means. However, the definition of balance varies among people and throughout the course of someone’s life. Balance in medicine takes different forms as you progress through stages of professional development. It is of utmost importance that we begin to think about what balance means to us early in training so that we don’t find ourselves burnt out and disillusioned by our miscalculated presumptions. Reflecting on what can be learned at each point in our pendulum swing helps us embrace current experiences and adds yet another piece to the puzzle that makes us who we are.