{"id":4593,"date":"2023-05-30T16:18:30","date_gmt":"2023-05-30T20:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.veterinaryeducationtoday.ca\/?p=4593"},"modified":"2023-08-02T09:52:52","modified_gmt":"2023-08-02T13:52:52","slug":"finding-your-not-work-life-balance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.veterinaryeducationtoday.ca\/finding-your-not-work-life-balance\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding YOUR NOT Work\/Life Balance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Key Words: YOUR<\/em> and NOT<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n For over a decade now there has been a lot of talk around Work\/Life Balance. What does it look like and more importantly how to achieve it. As a veterinarian in practice for 27 years, a past practice owner, a mom, a daughter, a leader, a community member, contributor, a pet parent \u2026 and mostly as a human being I was fooled into believing that Balance was the goal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Does that make me foolish?? (well\u2026\ud83d\ude09) No<\/strong> \u2013 it makes me human, and \u2026 what I believe to be a fairly typical veterinary professional that is used to following rules and protocols, a diligent student, and high achieving professional that tends to be a perfectionist. While I won\u2019t go into details here, for the first 17ish years (to my credit) that was doable \u2013 and then, as challenges mounted, it wasn\u2019t doable anymore. Upon reflection, I\u2019m not sure why I thought it would ever be in the first place. Wait, that\u2019s the point. I did not stop to think about it. I was not consciously choosing anything. I had a goal disguised as a belief that this was the way we do things at all costs. AND \u2013 I am 100% aware that seems like what we are told to do, and how we are trained to do it. Push Through. Keep Your Balance. That mindset is part<\/em><\/strong> of the problem in our profession, and it\u2019s only now that I\u2019ve been able to put some pieces together that I think might be helpful. This is what I know so far (cue: Pink-What I know so far!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2017, I started the business The Veterinary Coach \u2013 and this topic of Balance was actually \u2018my Why\u2019 and was the reason for my logo (left below<\/em>), and original tagline \u2013 Coaching Veterinary Professionals for Balance. Shortly after that, I found this image (right below<\/em>), which spoke loudly to me about what Balance felt<\/em> like in Veterinary Medicine-which is incredibly hard, if not impossible. One might say Magic actually \u2026 (oh wait that\u2019s another blog<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Regardless \u2013 you will notice that the goal was still perfect balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n