Hey friends,
I got my rota for my job as a Junior Doctor this week. It's brutal. I'll be working a lot of hours, nights and 13 hour on-call shifts.
Following the rota, I got another interesting email. An application to go less-than-full-time.
I've always wanted a good work-life balance. I've wanted to pursue my passion of online teaching alongside medicine. Could this be perfect for me? I could drop my hours from 60 hours per week, to 40—providing time to keep writing this newsletter and creating my videos.
It's an unconventional choice—given that this pathway is usually only chosen by people having to contend with children, not YouTube😂—but I don't think I'll regret it.
This week, as I navigate the application for less-than-full-time, I hope you can contemplate how to balance your work with your passions. If you want to read into this more, this article is a nice starting point.
Have a great week,
Jack
🔊 Resonators
Without Roe v Wade, We NEED a Male Birth Control Pill (Video)
The decision to overturn Roe v Wade in America has huge implications for everybody. The importance of it can't be overstated.
This raised an interesting question for Johnny Harris: Why are there so many more female contraceptives than male?
If you're interested in learning more about how contraceptives affect female hormones, hear about their side effects, and delve into how 'the pill' was conceived—I recommend watching this video.
Douglas Murray - What Christopher Hitchens Taught him About Regret (Podcast)
Both action and inaction will garner regret. My innate perspective on regret has always been this: the right action/decision will cause me to have no regret.
Christopher Hitchens had a very different view. You will have regrets either way, and you should base your choice on which regret you couldn't bear to live with.
In my job as a doctor next year, I'll have to decide whether to escalate decisions to seniors. There are two sides to this. I don't want to escalate care of a patient that doesn't need it—the consultant won't be impressed about being called to see a patient that's well. On the other hand, I don't want to leave a patient unseen who's very unwell.
Which would I regret more? Getting shouted at by a consultant for unnecessarily calling them down, or not escalating the care of a deteriorating patient. No brainer.
The most interesting part of what you are doing is your journey. (Tweet)
I'm not even mildly interested in bodybuilding. Yet, I've been watching 30 minute videos about Christian Guzman's journey to compete in bodybuilding.
Why, you ask?
I'm invested in the story. I've watched his 8 week transformation. Watched the commitment he's put in. Now, I have to see the result.
As I move into my job as a Junior Doctor, I'm going to document the journey more. To tell stories of the trials, tribulations and lessons from the process. Have you thought about documenting your journey? I'm sure there's a community of people that would be interested to hear the story.