I read a post a while back on a forum for medical students, and the post was in a thread about what a medical student who is about to go into residency should be reading before his first year of residency begins. Someone suggested one thing, someone else another, and one person said that it was more important to maintain his lifelines.
I was interested as to what that meant, and the poster (an experienced physician) explained that residency and professional obligations in general can sometimes make someone feel as though they're drowning, and explained that it is necessary to maintain lifelines on which a doctor can pull when they feel overwhelmed by their responsibilities and their timetable. Following this vein, here are my lifelines, and how I maintain them:
Family and friends - I like keeping in touch with people I know all the time, and it has actually helped considerably. Adding perspective to what I'm doing, my life in general, has helped me move forward. Unfortunately, talking on the phone with each person who is important to me for two hours at a time is no longer feasible, so to maintain this lifeline, I decided to start this blog. The blog is mostly for them, but I seem to have garnered a very small North American and European following. I'm not complaining.
Fitness - I have been inconsistent at best with this aspect of my life, and must make considerable effort to improve on it in the next two months before residency. I know I'm going to Europe, and I know I'll have plenty to do before July 1st (rent/buy housing, buy a car, get clothes if necessary, etc) but I have to be in the best shape of my life before residency begins and I think cycling, boxing and weightlifting will be my solution to that. I just need to wake up strong in mind every day. A strong body begins with a strong mind. I'm going to work out for 45 minutes a day when I'm in residency, at the crack of dawn or slightly beforehand.
Cooking - Again, inconsistency is an understatement where this is concerned. I'll get better at it. I already love eating, how difficult could it possibly be to rekindle my love for cooking? I have a day off every week during residency, in that day I should be able to get everything done that needs to be done.
Reading - Extra-curricular reading is not commonplace with me, but I've slowly been amping it up. More developments in this area will occur as I become better at time management, and I will be doing lots of it during my time following my board exams. If I read before I go to bed during residency, I'll feel more sleepy, I'll manage to make it part of my routine, and I think I will have accomplished some higher level of well-roundedness.
Music - I used to play guitar, not well enough to play on a stage, but that has always been a dream of mine. The plan is to re-learn music theory, from scratch, and then re-learn sight reading with guitar by going through this enormous book I bought (Leavitt's Complete Guitar Method 1, 2 and 3). Progress has been made, small steps each day but progress nonetheless. If I can practice guitar for an hour a day during residency, I think I'll be performing for my friends by the end of the first year.
Tomorrow I'm going to wake up strong, and by the end of the day hopefully I'll finish strong, and then I'll say so here. That way, everyone will know that I wasn't just blowing hot air in this post. Hopefully not anyway.
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