Summary Responses – Striking a Balance
— Deborah Weber
The Committee for Early Career Psychologists (CECP) wants to ensure that issues relevant to ECPs such as recent thread on the Early Career Listserv about “Striking a Balance” are addressed. Thank you to all of you who have responded expressing your ideas, suggestions, and personal struggles in this area. Having this conversation with each other created a forum that was beneficial to us all and there were many wonderful suggestions. Please feel free to encourage your colleagues to sign up for the listserv at http://listserve.apa.org/cgi-bin/wa.exe?SUBED1=earlycareer&A=1
The summary is below:
Issues Faced by ECPs
- Transition from graduate school to professional life
- Establishing your career
- Balancing Needs of Career & Family
- Deciding when to start a family
- Establishing and nurturing relationships
- Health/Managing Stress
- Financial Issues
- Time Management
- Licensure
- Lack of role models
- Preventing Burnout
Striking The Balance
- It is a work in progress that requires constant monitoring and adjustment
- Set boundaries (is it OK to say No, do less, and protect family time)
- Take time to enjoy life and engage in a range activities you personally enjoy and find fulfilling (plan and schedule if necessary)
- Self-Care/Exercise/Nurture Self – it requires constant effort to meet your own needs
- Take time off for yourself at least once a week/month
- Work hard during the week and play hard on the weekend
- Work to live instead of living to work and have a life outside of work
- Set a budget/work less/spend less
- You don’t have to defend only working 40 hours a week. Recognize when your energy level is higher and do what works for you.
- Set your own hrs and schedule (i.e. Work from home one day a week)
- It is never 50/50 – prioritize what is most important to you at this point in your life
- Develop a plan/set goals and stick to them (number of pubs a yr, grants, presentations, etc)
- Decide what type of work environment will support your goals and priorities in life (tenure track, non-tenure track, private practice, full-time, part-time, child supportive)
- Take our own advice/practice what we preach to our pts – the work will always be there
- Sometimes our choices are not necessarily what will advance our careers the fastest
- Allow yourself to make decisions that fit YOUR priorities (i.e. family, etc)
- Have a support system, be a good role model, and pass on the learning and support that was offered you to others
We all feel such a need to show that we are dedicated and committed, that it’s hard to acknowledge that it is healthy to have other priorities as well, and important to take time for those.
Do not feel under pressure to do/accomplish/achieve more than is right for you. Life is long (hopefully) and you don’t have to try to do everything now.
Stop competing and comparing yourself to others. It’s easy to see what others are doing and feel inadequate or feel pressure that we should be doing more. But, we don’t know what impact that lifestyle is having or will have in the future on that individual.
We each clearly need to decide what’s important to us in life, just how hard we’re willing to work, and what makes us happy. We also must not only accept the limited resources available to us such as time and energy, but we must see ourselves as a finite resource. If we use ourselves up without regular replenishment activities there’ll be nothing left for us, our loved ones, and our clients/patients.
The very nature of our work may be emotionally isolating and demanding. The need to attend to and address our own emotional needs is essential. Participate in therapy
Think about it in terms of your own values, purpose, and life journey. Does your current behavior reflect all your values, or just some of them? No one, when elderly, looks back on their life and says “Gee, I wish I had spent more time at the office.”
Suggested Articles:
Intern Self-Care: An Exploratory Study Into Strategy Use and Effectiveness. By Turner, Joseph A.; Edwards, Lisa M.; Eicken, Iverson M.; Yokoyama, Kayoko; Castro, Jennifer R.; Tran, Amber Ngoc-Thuy; Haggins, Kristee L. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. 36(6), Dec 2005, 674-680.
A 10-Step Plan for Better Postdoc Training http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/18834
Additionally, here is a link that will provide you access to the archival discussions from the list: http://listserve.apa.org/archives/earlycareer.html
Deborah Weber can be reached at: DWeber@cnmc.org
