With the start of a new academic year, I have been thinking a lot about school.  From pre-school through residency I spent over a quarter of a century being formally educated.

Most of that time was spent sitting in classrooms and lecture halls.  In residency, it got a bit more interactive with actual patient care under the supervision of senior physicians, but it was still training.

No matter the method though, the common element of all these types of education was the presence of tests.  Some person taught me information that they thought was important for me to know.  They then checked to make sure I learned it by giving me some sort of examination.

It wasn’t until recently that I realized this set up a paradigm where I came to expect the most crucial things for me to know will be taught to me and assessed for competency.  Conversely, if no one else checked on it, it couldn’t be that big a deal.

In my mind, the only things worth the investment of my resources ended with some objective assessment.  Anything else was an expendable hobby.

For many years, I treated personal wellness as a hobby.  There are no tests, competitions or even recitals in personal vitality.  I worked on it when I had extra time after I did all the truly important stuff that prioritized accomplishments and the well-being of others.

This put me into a dysfunctional pattern of stretching myself to the breaking point before I thought about the lapses in my own well-being.  By that time I was usually so far from well, any improvement was welcome.  I’d accept that small miracle then resume the craziness that started the breakdown cycle again.

As a type A student, I thrived in the world of objective assessments of explicit learning goals.  It’s sad to admit that without someone else spelling it out, it took me decades to determine the essential components for my own wellness. 

Ostensibly I had the healthy lifestyle habits everyone is always touting.  I enthusiastically drank kale smoothies and did burpees.

I was convinced that as long as I exercised regularly and ate lots of green leafy vegetables I was fine on the wellness front.  That allowed me to ignore the issues I truly needed to work on to be well.

My focus should have been on having my schedule reflect my priorities and maintaining appropriate personal boundaries.  Not respecting my own time was robbing me of my sense of well-being more than any skipped workout ever did.

Unfortunately it didn’t seem congruent to me to develop those types of skills if I was committed to a life of service.  Running myself ragged taking care of medical patients and then personal training clients seemed much more benevolent.

Doing something for my own benefit just seemed selfish.  It didn’t occur to me that consistently maintaining my personal well-being was advantageous to everyone around me as well as myself.  Eventually, this revelation came to me over the course of the ad hoc fellowship in personal wellness that is my life.

Over the years, I’ve obtained a lot of formal education with corresponding degrees and certifications.  I can do a lot of cool stuff from delivering a baby by Cesarean section to teaching someone how safely to do an atomic push-up on the TRX suspension trainer.

However, the skills that serve me best in all situations came from learning how to assess and maintain my personal wellness.  The key is my sense of well-being, and the peace that accompanies it, begins and ends within me.  That’s important knowledge even if it doesn’t come with parchment.

How good are you at being well?  Have you ever taken the time to learn how?

If you would like help developing the skills for maintaining your well-being you didn’t learn in school please click here to request an Essence of Strength complimentary clarity conversation.

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Dr Jattu Senesie is a physician satisfaction specialist, self care advocate, coach, speaker and board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist. She blogs about issues of self care and well-being in an effort to help her fellow altruistic high achievers find satisfaction in their success as early in their careers as possible.