Finding Harmony: Nurturing Work-Life Balance as a Female Physician

Struggling to find the perfect work-life balance? 

As a physician juggling clinical, administrative responsibilities, and mom duties, I felt constantly off balance. 

The perpetual mom-guilt and physician guilt haunted me whenever I prioritized one over the other. 

But through a coaching exercise, I learned that work-life balance is unique to each individual—no one-size-fits-all approach. 

Join me as we delve into the powerful journey of finding harmony and nurturing work-life balance.

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Transcript

0:04

For a long time, I struggled with finding the perfect work-life balance. As a physician who worked full time. Had clinical and administrative responsibilities. Well also doing as much as possible of mom duties to my two kids. I felt like I was constantly off balance. If I tossed it for more positions and leadership roles at work to advance in my career, I felt like I would change my family. And I kept hearing about this work life balance, and I knew there was no balance in my life. And so I left with the perpetual mom guilt. Every time I volunteered for something. I knew that would advance my career. And then the physician guilt would come in, but I passed up certain opportunities because they would take away time from my family. Until eventually as part of coaching exercise, I sat down and detailed all the areas of my life, where I was happy and the areas of my life that I felt was lacking. And then through coaching, I realized that there was no one size fits all on work-life balance. I learned to figure out what balance meant to me as an individual and not what I thought it should mean. Compared to everyone else around me. Welcome back to the leadership. RX for women physicians. I'm your host. Dr. Asha Padmanabhan. I'm an anesthesiologist in full-time clinical work. And I hold several administrative roles in leadership, possessions. I'm also a master certified physician development coach and a positive intelligence coach. I empower women physicians to embrace their innate leadership potential. And I help them unleash their true capabilities. Through my coaching. I equip them with the essential skills. To achieve professional and personal fulfillment with mastering effective communication to expertly navigating conflicts and excelling in negotiation. Together. We transformed the doubts into unwavering. Self-belief allowing them to step into their true leadership selves and create meaningful impact in their careers and beyond. So we all know how demanding our profession can be. But it's crucial to prioritize our wellbeing and create a balance that allows us to thrive both personally and professionally. And that's what we're diving into a topic that's so close to the hearts of many female physicians. Work-life balance or like I say, finding harmony and nurturing your work-life balance. So work-life balance starts with understanding your priorities. Take a step back and identify what truly matters to you. Is it spending quality time with your family? Is it pursuing hobbies or self care activities? Alongside your clinical career. Is it advancing in your career? When you prioritize, or when you clarify these priorities, then you can align your actions and make intentional choices that bring you closer to the balance you desire. What I learned is that my life is like that childhood playground. Teeter-totter, you know, the one where, uh, There is that plank of wood and one person on one side and the other on the other side, and based on the balance of it, it tells to one way or the other. That's what my life is like at times when the family side has more weighted and important. Then at others, the professional site is more important. And when I realized that I wasn't more able to give attention and be more present in the upside of the teeter-totter. For example, when I know the professional side is going to need priority, whether it is during conferences. Or when I have some intentional, uh, Projects to take care of or complete. Then that is a side that is going to take some priority. And I make it a point during those times to fully engage with my family in the precious time I have with them. So I will be more present. During that time. It's not that I'm more, I'm not present with them at other times, but I'm intentionally more present when I know my time is limited with them. So key point number one, define your priorities. Understand what truly matters to you. And at the understand that at certain times one will be more than the other and be okay with that. Next. Setting boundaries is essential for maintaining work-life balance. As female physicians, we're often pulled in multiple directions with juggling patient care administrative tasks and our own personal commitments. I've certainly found myself in the place where I've said yes to so many things. That now that I don't have time. So lone, does he know when necessary? And delegate tasks. And establish clear boundaries between your work and your personal life. Also be sure to prioritize self care and protect that precious time outside of work. When I'm asked to commit to more projects or more tasks. I consider, uh, several different things. One, how will it fit into my current list? Number two, how important is it to my professional growth? If I consider it very important, what do I need to give up instead? If I take up that project. Will I still be able to do justice to what I'm currently doing. And if I cannot do justice. Then even though my hyper achiever self might want to say yes, I politely declined. This took some time to learn because I was one of those people, which I'm sure many of you are, who wanted to say yes to everything. Because I felt like saying no might upset people or saying no might impact what I wanted to do with my career or my career advancement until I realized that unless I set boundaries. Whatever I said yes to was essentially taking time away from other things that I had said yes to. So key point number two, set boundaries. Lastly work-life balance is not about perfection. It's more finding a sustainable rhythm that works for you. So let go of guilt and cultivate self-compassion when you're not able to do it all. This is so important because I remember. That this has always been a challenge for me. So remember the taking care of yourself allows you to show up as the best version of yourself. Both personally and professionally. And embrace self-care practices that recharge and rejuvenate you and give yourself permission to rest and recharge. As I said, this last one has been particularly hard for me because in my mind, I'm superhuman and I should be able to do everything and be everything to everyone. Do you relate? And when things would inevitably slide, I would beat myself up about it. Until I learned to recognize the voice of the saboteurs in my head, labeled them and intercept them. I then learned to be more self-compassionate when I didn't meet my own impossibly high standards. So point number three, cultivate self-compassion. You're not going to be able to do it all and be everything to everyone. And make sure you understand that. And you're compassionate with yourself about that. Think about what you would say to a deal friend who was doing all the things you're doing and was beating herself up about not being perfect or not doing things in exactly. The way that she wanted to, what would you say to her and see those things to yourself? So finding harmony and nurturing work-life balance requires defining your priorities. Setting boundaries and cultivating self-compassion. And so that then you can create a sense of balance that allows you to thrive in all areas. Thanks so much for joining me today on this exploration of work-life balance. As female physicians, we deserve to find harmony between our professional and our personal lives. Let's prioritize our wellbeing. Let's set boundaries and that's embraced self-compassion to create the balance we desire. If you found value in today's episode. I encourage you to share it with your fellow female physicians who may also be seeking harmony and work-life balance. And don't forget to like this episode and subscribe to this episode. Together, we can navigate the path to a fulfilling and balanced life. And if you'd like to explore working with me as a coach, I will put the link for my calendar for a 15 minute call in the show notes. And I hope to see you there. And I hope to see you on the next episode.