In this episode, hosts Andy, Drew, and Tanner are joined by, friends of the show, Geoff Comp, DO, and Matt Delaney, MD to discuss the next steps after achieving the goals on your list.
Geoff starts the conversation by bringing forward a very thought-provoking question. Now that he is about five years out of residency and has accomplished many of his short and long-term goals, he begins to wonder what comes next.
Here’s a summary of what the guys had to say:
- Give yourself space to be happy and proud of yourself for what you have already accomplished.
- Reflect on what has been fun and what has made you smile. Try to incorporate more of that into your life.
- It’s ok not to have a continuous list of new goals. We’ve been living our lives in 4- year blocks since undergrad. It’s ok to settle in now. Life doesn’t have to be a sprint.
- Have a Northstar! Identify the things in your life that are real, meaningful, and true for you. Try to always keep this at the forefront of your mind.
- Surround yourself with the people who truly want you to do well.
- It can be scary not to have a long list of predetermined goals and tasks ahead of you, but it can also be exciting to discover what is important and fun for you.
- Take some time to disconnect and reset, whether that’s a day, week, month, or year.
- The pedal-to-the-metal pace that we start our careers with in residency is not sustainable. It is ok to come off the throttle.
- Try a New Year’s Review where you go through your calendar for the past year, identify anything that you participated in that did not bring you joy, and consider bowing out from those things.
- Life is too short to do extra stuff you don’t want to do.
Post by Patricia Capone, DO PGY3
About Our Guests:
Assistant Program Director, Creighton University School of Medicine/Maricopa Medical Center (Phoenix) Emergency Medicine Residency
Associate Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham
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