Respect your body. We must do what we advise our patients to do, and that includes exercising, as well as cutting out smoking and drinking. The danger for many of us with perfectionist tendencies is that once we begin to exercise, we want to run marathons. What should be a healthful and enjoyable activity turns into yet another testing ground for us to show our excellence. Preserve time away from patients.
Many doctors live lives in which fun is conspicuously absent.
I propose that we have all the time in the world, and that we simply need to prioritize our time. One key is to avoid filling every waking hour of your time seeing patients. You need time away from medicine to nurture your physical, emotional and spiritual growth. Make friends outside of medicine. Many physicians forge most of their friendships with other doctors.