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Keeping up with life’s responsibilities and deadlines.
This is one of the biggest problems that every self-proclaimed overachiever deals with daily. When you have to balance multiple roles - as a provider, a friend, and a family member - it can be easy to find yourself accomplishing great things in one aspect of your life at the expense of the others.
I often go through periods of extreme motivation, during which I magically complete infinitely large tasks and accomplish multiple large goals all at once. Although my “motivated momentum” can last months; it is often immediately followed by short periods of absolute fatigue and demotivation.
I know that I am not alone in this struggle. Can you relate?
I have found that listening to my body, embracing these brief “demotivated-periods”, and taking the time to truly rest, unwind and recover have been just what I needed to rediscover my inspiration. As a physician, a wife, a daughter, a sister and a friend, I, like everyone else, am blessed with multiple responsibilities and deadlines. I take pride in tackling and accomplishing my goals. I also, more importantly, take pride in taking a guilt-free step back to recuperate before jumping back into the hustle and bustle of life. Sometimes it might be a little weekend get-away to visit a friend, a short vacation out of the country, a dinner date with my mother, a little retail therapy, or simply just sleeping in the entire weekend.
Does this mean I completely abandon all of my responsibilities during my “demotivated-periods”? Absolutely NOT! I simply focus on my one or two most important responsibilities (e.g being a good Physician to my patients and a reliable sister to my siblings), while holding off my other roles, in order to free up time for rest.
My unique approach to tackling life’s responsibilities has successfully carried me through four years of college, four years of medical school, and years years of residency thus far. Quite frankly, there is no real secret to the over-achiever’s success. We are not super women nor super men. We are simply normal people with white coats and stethoscopes who aren’t afraid to take a little break once in a while.
About the author:
Janeiro Achibiri, MD is a Medelita HIP Ambassador and a Radiology Resident Physician at Harvard School of Medicine. As a young and vibrant woman in medicine, she enjoys mentoring aspiring healthcare professionals through blogging, vlogging, and sharing her incredible journey into medicine.
