On Work & Life 'Balance'- words of wisdom from CMDA dinner

Some good tips I learned today -- you can never really achieve a work & life "balance", things are going to come up that you just have to deal with, and there are periods where you just have to focus on a few things for a while.

Wow, I have been praying about balance for a whole year since med school started, and maybe I have been praying about the wrong thing? Maybe I should have asked God to show me instead, what I should prioritize during this period of my life, and to focus on those things..

Some random bits of info discussed during dinner today with several Christian faculties:
- Life is not going to get less busy
- Learn to prioritize now, because you can't have it all. If you try to be very successful in work AND always be there for your family, you will find yourself not been able to achieve either, and feel guilty about it.  Sometimes you have to make sacrifices, and decide whether work or family is more important to you..  an interesting survey of Harvard Business grads talked about this
And another that mentions about physician academic success & impact on family 
- It's ok to set some boundaries for work (i.e. getting off work on time for family events), you may feel guilty about not following up with your patient the whole time but sometimes you just got to hand over the patient to other caretakers and trust they'll do a good job
- Enlist others support, find others who are going through similar struggles as you to keep each other accountable, be part of a community that can support you
- Take some time off to rest, to enjoy things you like and spend time with God.  You'll find yourself to be actually more efficient (for Dr. M, his grades got better after he started to do this).  This can be a sabbath day, or meal times, or a certain time of day to just set an alarm and remind yourself of God's presence.
-  Don't compare yourself to others, don't look at what you don't have, look at what God has blessed you with and be thankful
-  There are different seasons in life, enjoy the time you have now and don't be anxious about the future.  (i.e. instead of been anxious about singleness, think of this time as God's gift for you to do something else, whether it's serving in missions, ministry, or your job)
-  The quicker you fail and the more you fail, the more likely chance that you will succeed.
-  Don't hesitate to reach out to those who are further along the journey if you are feeling lost, burnt out, wondering if this is all worth it, etc..

And lastly, whenever you have doubts about whether coming to med school is the right decision or not (i wondered about this many times...),  remember this:  the medical field needs more Christian doctors to be beacons of light, to care for patients physically and spiritually.  So don't give up, God put you here for a reason.