The Celebration of Busy Needs to End: How Overwork is Stealing Your Success
How it took a nearly deadly error to convince one surgeon that his most important patient was himself.
Your well-being is the foundation of everything else in life.
I subscribed to the theory that overwork and exhaustion showed my value until I learned that the opposite was true.
You think that taking breaks and going on vacation is the reward for your hard work and success. But the opposite is true; your health allows you to do meaningful work and succeed. Take that health for granted, and you will lose your ability to work hard and succeed.
Regular rest is the key to high performance not the reward for it.
My Story
Overwork and little or no rest were expected throughout my surgical residency. I trained in the “bad old days” before restrictions on resident work hours required time away. We worked seven days a week, including holidays. Regular calls meant that every third to fourth day was a 36-hour shift.
I’m not convinced this is the best way to train a newly minted doctor into a surgeon, but I do know that it teaches you how to function on very little sleep or at least how to trick yourself…
