Using the Language of Art to Create Work-Life Balance
This article was published in a slightly different format on KevinMD.com
Most physicians cite work-life balance as a top priority. Yet there is little clarity on what exactly work-life balance means.
Some prefer the term work-life integration, as if your work and your so-called personal life should be intertwined. Work-life integration is a common buzzword in managerial circles. For most physicians, however, this way of life is already a reality. Taking call, working late, and keeping up with CME and recertification already mean that much of what might be considered personal time is already filled with work commitments. And so what “work-life integration” often means is that there is really no distinction between the two.
Under this construct, work may be expected to run freely into family and personal time without boundaries. Yet in most cases, the river only flows one way. Bringing your home and personal responsibilities to work may be neither practical nor desirable.
For these reasons, I believe that work-life balance (WLB) is a better goal for physicians. But what does balance even mean? You might be surprised to learn that art theory holds the answer.
Most people think about balance as a seesaw or a set of scales, with each element balancing the other to achieve a perfect equilibrium. This cliché is virtually impossible to achieve and may not even be desirable. Instead, there’s another more nuanced way to look at balance that I believe can help better inform your personal choices.
Before we go any further, it’s valuable to think about WLB as more than simply “work” and “life”. Work is an important part of life, and perhaps even a defining feature of the life you’ve chosen. But “life” isn’t just what’s left over after work. It can be useful to think about life as a array of different elements. Broadly speaking, these may include
Family
Friends
Leisure
Self-Care
Anything else that’s meaningful to you
Equalizing all of these factors our using traditional concepts of balance is just not going to happen.
But if we borrow the concept of balance from art theory, it all starts to make more sense.
In art, balance can be
Symmetric
Asymmetric
Radial
Crystallographic (Mosaic)
Let’s take a little detour into art theory so I can show you what this means.
Symmetric
Think of the typical balanced scale, or a mirrored pair.
This is the traditional way that we think of balance.
Asymmetric
The perception of weight across the composition may be balanced, but each element has a different size or mass.
This form of balance tends to create more interesting and dynamic images.
Radial balance
This type of balance uses a central focal point
Rays, spirals, or ripples radiate outward
Fragment, Peru c. 1000-1476 AD, Kate S. Buckingham Endowment, Art Institute of Chicago
Crystallographic (Mosaic) balance
A large number of elements share equal weight
There is no single focal point
For physicians, an asymmetric concept of balance can be especially useful. Think about the way you might create a rock garden. With asymmetric balance, you have wide latitude to play with different scale and elements. Compared to the symmetric form of balance, where both sides hold equal weight, asymmetric balance falls apart when the elements are too similar.
In asymmetric balance there is usually a dominant element, with the other components playing a supportive or bridging role. Often two smaller elements work harmoniously to balance a larger one. In an asymmetric painting like Van Gogh’s Starry Night, there may be some tension, but the image still feels complete.
Starry Night, Vincent van Gogh, 1889. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Asymmetric balance can be interesting to play with. Moving one element often means that the others must also be moved in order to maintain a sense of harmony. This new configuration might strike a different chord and create different relationships between the pieces.
When thinking about your own WLB, asymmetric balance may be a good starting point to consider. As your priorities shift over time, your vision of balance may also change. The asymmetric model is a way to conceptualize a personal definition of balance that works for you.
If you’re looking for practical tips to help you take action on WLB check out my recent article, which also appeared on Doximity. In the article I include nine actionable steps to get you started.
How do you begin to define your own WLB? Sitting down with pen and paper and sketching it out in words or pictures is a great way to get clarity on your own ideas and to create your vision for the future.
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