Lean Out Podcast

Solocast: My Summer of Lake

• Dawn Baker • Season 3 • Episode 23

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In this solocast episode, Dawn Baker talks about how she intends to schedule balance this summer. She talks about intentional memory making and why it's important.

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Welcome to the lean out podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Don baker. Are you looking for a new approach to finding authentic and sustainable work-life balance? You've come to the right. Place. For inspiration. information. and a community. community. of like-minded. Professionals. Let's get to the show. Hello. Hello. Thanks for being here. How's your summer going? There's something about summer that makes me want to have a fun goal, and I mean a goal that involves having fun. I remember always trying to make goals like this as a kid in school, something like, I'm going to win this entire Super Mario Brothers game this summer, or I'm going to go to the waterpark at least 10 times. And then you get older and summers become about summer research positions and summer internships, things that you need to beef up your resume with or your professional school application. And then of course you start working. And most of us work all year round without having summers off. At this point in our lives, if we want to infuse a sense of fun into the summer, we have got to be intentional about it. So today I thought I would do a short solo cast episode about my intention for this summer in a recent Happier with Gretchen Rubin podcast, Gretchen and her co-hosts Sister Liz talked about what their summer themes were going to be. I've listened to the show for years now, and every May they tend to have a discussion on this topic, and their themes are usually something like reading books by a certain author, listening to a particular genre of music like Liz's. Summer theme this summer is yacht rock also going to an art museum every day or things like that. For me this summer is going to be the summer of Lake I. Our mountain homestead is about seven or eight miles down the road from a beautiful alpine lake, and it's one that people from surrounding areas and even other nearby states make as a destination every summer. There are three campgrounds on the edge of this lake. Also a primitive but quaint lodge that has its own little community cabins and mountain biking trails. I mean, what's not to love? It's of course got really cold water because it's at 10,000 feet, but it's unbelievably clear. It's surrounded by an aspen and pine forest, and it's literally right there. We've been living here, however, for a few summers now, and we don't take advantage of the lake like we should. Granted there are bad weather days that come into play, but there always seems to be some sort of project or work thing, or just the laziness of not wanting to deal with the logistics that pull us away from going to the lake. I absolutely love standup paddle boarding, and we have all the equipment, but we don't always have the motivation. I'd say that typically we average less than five visits each season. But this summer I'm going to make it different. I'm not gonna promise that I will go every single week, but I'm rearranging my schedule so that I can get there, even if it's just for a short paddle. I'm going to try to go either on Sunday or Monday mornings. The morning times work best because the water is, of course, the calmest, so it's on me to make time during busy mornings. Sunday mornings, we have a particular ritual of doing a FaceTime session with each set of grandparents, so I'll have to organize myself to get ready to go to the lake so that right after we do that, we can leave. Or if it's on Mondays, I often schedule interviews for this show, but I have blocked off a bunch of time on Monday mornings, and I'll absorb the interview times on different days during the week. By the way, I alluded to this whole lake thing in my recent interview with Dr. Una, which if you miss that, it is a great episode. I will link it in the show notes for you. She said one of her key tips is to schedule in your balance, your self-care and things like hanging out with your family. That should seem obvious. You know, I hate the word should. So my takeaway from that is we shouldn't judge ourselves for doing this. If you need to put little joyful moments in your calendar, kind of like couples, sometimes even schedule intimacy into their calendar, there is nothing wrong with that. We live in a fast-paced world with many, many distractions, things that anyone can get distracted by and lose track of what's really important to them. I also recently heard this episode of the Ed Millet Show, where he talked about things that he learned from focusing on QTR. He's like me. He's in his fifties, a few years older than I am. He's had some health issues himself. His father recently passed away and his kids are grown and out of the house. So what's QTR? It stands for quality time remaining. Think about it. How many more years do you actually have on this earth? How many more summers with your kids? How many more visits with your aging parents? It's not the easiest thing to think about, but it is a harsh reality, and hopefully it will prompt you to think about how you can spend your quality time. I just recently did a solo episode about grief and loss. In case you miss that, I will also link it in the show notes for me. That experience makes me get really fired up about making the most of what's left of my life. It's the stoic concept of Memento Maori. It means, remember, we all must die. It's so crazy that we're often in such a hurry to do things that aren't really that important in the grand scheme of things. Something like replying to an email or a text. Yet we live as if we have lots of time to get to the stuff that really matters, like spending time with the people you love or traveling to a certain destination or doing things that just simply bring you a great amount of joy. QTR is about intentional memory making, not necessarily checking off bucket list items and capturing it for the gram, but making memories in the everyday moments. And Ed told this story during the show about a person who had worked and worked and never went on a vacation, then planned a big trip to Europe for right after his retirement and never got to take it because he died a week before the trip. There was a physician in the department where I used to work. He was very good, very well liked, just an amazing person, and a highly decorated physician. His wife was an OR nurse at the same hospital, and she used to say, I just wish you would retire. They had enough money. They were in their late sixties and for years she talked openly about badgering him on retiring. Oh, and also by the way, they were very active and a fit couple, so he finally retired and within one year he died of leukemia. It was insane. We don't have control over things like if we're gonna get leukemia, but we do have control over the present and how we choose to spend it. So I'm going to try to spend more time at the lake this summer. In medicine, we spend many years in a mode of delayed gratification. I'm imagining that most people listening to this are out of their professional training already, and I'd like to remind you that you don't have to do that anymore. You are in charge now. If you're thinking about cutting back or getting rid of a draining aspect of your work, like a certain role, do it. Don't wait. If the thing that holds you back from making intentional changes in your life is confidence, I've got you there too. My new confidence course will teach you in four main modules how you can cultivate your own inner authentic confidence that transcends the competence related skills that you've learned in your profession. Literally, almost every client that hires me for coaching says that one of their goals for our sessions is to increase confidence. So that's why I created this course. You don't have to coach with me. Of course, I would love to help you in that way, But you don't have to do coaching in order to learn how to be more confident. Anyone can learn that skill. for listeners of the podcast, I have a new coupon code for you. It's pod POD, and that will get you$100 off all course options. So back to this summer, I wanna ask you what do you wanna focus on? What could be your summer theme? What QTR moments are you going to create? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment on the blog post for this episode@practicebalance.com, or send me a message on Instagram at practice balance. I'll talk to you again soon. Thanks for listening to the lean out podcast. If you find these conversations inspiring and useful, please forward them to a friend and also leave a review on iTunes or Spotify so that other people can find them easier. If you want to get in touch with me, you can find me at my website, practice balanced.com, where you can subscribe to my newsletter and get updates regularly about new podcast episodes, blog posts, speaking, engagements, and coaching services. You can also support my work by buying my book, lean out a professional woman's guide to finding authentic work-life balance for yourself, a friend, family member, or coworker. Have a great day and we'll see you next time