We recently interviewed Dr. Lisa Herbert, M.D., FAAFP about her newly published book: Take Back Your Life: A Working Mom’s Guide to Work-Life Balance. Dr. Herbert is a Board Certified Family Physician, a certified personal and executive coach and a physician consultant for VITAL WorkLife.
VITAL WorkLife: How did you become interested in the plight of working mom's?
Dr. Herbert: As a busy physician, wife and mother I understand a working mom's biggest challenge is finding the time to care for both her family and herself. A healthy medical marriage can be very challenging. That's why after experiencing burnout due to these same demands, I wrote a guide to help women find more time for themselves and their loved ones, strengthen their relationships, beat exhaustion and ask for what they need at work and at home.
VITAL WorkLife: Tell us more about this guide.
Dr. Herbert: It’s called “Take Back Your Life: A Working Mom's Guide to Work-Life Balance.” It’s intended to help readers discover the lifestyle they desire, because women can have a career and personal life that work beautifully together!
VITAL WorkLife: This sounds great, how can working mom's accomplish this?
Dr. Herbert: In this book I urge working mothers to make a conscious effort to put energy towards creating harmony between their personal and professional lives.
VITAL WorkLife: Harmony between our personal and professional lives would be awesome; do you have specific tips how this can happen?
Herbert: To avoid burnout, gain control over your health, and to live a life that creates harmony, I suggest you do the following:
1. Be willing to be flexible and open to change.
Our personal and professional lives go through various stages. To make these encounters easier to manage, it’s best to learn to be flexible. It’s doesn’t help to try to be in control of situations all the time. Trying to be in control can bring about unwanted stress. It’s crucial to know what’s important and have realistic expectations about your challenges. Stop wrestling with change and start embracing life and all that it brings us!
2. Adopt a healthy lifestyle.
Without a healthy foundation, it becomes impossible to keep up with the demands of work and family responsibilities. A healthy lifestyle is achieved by aligning the mental, spiritual and physical connection. To achieve this with your health, write down issues you have and ways you can correct them. This becomes your health plan. A document you can refer back to at any time. Then, take action on your health plan.
3. Build a network that supports you.
A working mother wears so many hats – she is so many different things to so many different people. It is important for mothers to have a support system of people who can nurture and support her both personally and professionally. Don’t get isolated or become lonely. Schedule a girl’s night out with your best friends. Help a co-worker in need. Offer to be part of a carpool in your neighborhood to help get the kids to activities. Do what you must to keep your connection to others strong.
VITAL WorkLife: Those are great suggestions. Any additional information?
Dr. Herbert: Yes, as a lot of people are visual learners, more information can be found in this video introducing my book.
Additional Reading:
- A Healthy Medical Marriage
- 3 Ways Healthcare Leadership Can Build a Healthy Team-based Culture
- How Healthcare Leaders Can Help Foster Physician Resilience to Stress
- 10 Healthy New Year’s Resolutions for You and Your Family
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