Dear Med School Graduate

You did it. You finished medical school.

This time of year I get a little nostalgic for the days of my youth. That freshly minted MD in my hand. The excitement of what came next. Planning a wedding, planning a life, planning a career. It is a magical time.

With the wisdom of age, there are a few things I might go back and say to my younger self. Knowing the dangers of burnout and disconnection as a burnout coach. And knowing that I didn't really know what "good" felt like until I had made some of these changes in my life. 

Before you jump into residency, here are 7 things I would do this summer to set yourself up for success.

1. Get a good sleep routine.

Develop a wind-down protocol that actually works for you. Set your bedroom up for sleep: blackout curtains, earplugs, whatever it takes, because you will be sleeping at odd hours. Collect a little data about what works and what doesn't. Don't turn it into another thing to be perfect at. Your ability to maintain adequate sleep will be one of the biggest determining factors in how you do over the next few years. Residency will challenge it constantly. Build some capacity now.

2. Bank social capital.

Residency is busy. Time for friends and family will inevitably get squeezed. The people who truly love you will understand, and you can take the opportunity right now to bank some face time and goodwill. Visit your parents. Call your friends, or better yet get a weekend together. If you have a spouse or kids, take a real vacation. Fill the well.

3. Build personal systems before you need them.

Have a structure for checking in with yourself honestly. Better yet, set it up so that the people closest to you check in on you regularly. Think through your nutrition plan: what will you eat on call, at 4am, after a 12-hour shift? Having a few fast, nourishing meals in your back pocket is clutch. And figure out your minimum daily movement commitment. Not your ideal workout. Your floor. A 10-minute walk from the far parking lot. Ten pushups before you shower. A quick yoga flow before bed. Something that feels almost too easy right now. That's exactly the point. Get it in your bones that this is something you do every day, and build the habit before residency starts testing you.

4. Identify a helper.

Mister Rogers told us to look for the helpers. One thing that makes residency harder than it needs to be is waiting until you're drowning to figure out who your helpers are. Identify one (or more) now. Who is your go-to when things go sideways? Tell them. Have an actual conversation about what that means. Don't leave it vague.

5. Learn to meditate, or revive a lost practice.

Make it daily. Even two minutes in your car before you walk in will make a difference. If you can get to 20 minutes a day, you will have a real advantage, and it won't require memorizing a single algorithm or logging a single OR hour. Start now while you have some breathing room.

6. Cultivate a sense of self that has nothing to do with being a doctor.

I don't mean think about this. I mean live in it. Give yourself a real dose of outside-medicine humanity this summer, and then commit, maybe with someone's help, to staying in touch with that part of yourself throughout residency. This one might sound soft. It isn't. It might just save your life.

7. Have fun.

You graduated from medical school. Let yourself enjoy the win before you start worrying about the next thing.