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A8 TheHorse.com/AAEP2017 AAEP Wrap-Up THE HORSE March 2018 YOUR GUIDE TO THE 2017 AAEP CONVENTION SPONSORED BY STEPHANIE L. CHURCH igel Marsh can't stand the phrase "work-life balance." Yet the cel- ebrated TED talk alum is known for helping people worldwide understand how to move toward that often-elusive goal in their own careers and lives. "It's dangerously misleading," he said of the phrase. "It suggests there are only two parts of human existence … it sug- gests they're in opposition; if you do more of one, you have to do less of the other. It implies that work is somehow a bad thing. It suggests we have to spend equal amounts of time on each. I violently dis- agree with all five of those notions." Marsh, who's based in Sydney, Aus- tralia, prefers to call it "finding a way of living a life that you find meaningful." In a profession notorious for its members always being "on," if not on call, finding a balance can be difficult, as evidenced by the nearly 2,000 veterinar- ians soaking in Marsh's every word. "My intention," he said, "… is to try to make a genuine human connection with as many of you as I can, so I can then reframe the issue, so those of you who are struggling with it can take immediate steps to put permanent and progressive improvement into the balance in your lives." The Back Story Like most authors and speakers on a subject, Marsh learned his principles the hard way—experience. His career back- ground is not in equine veterinary medi- cine but, rather, advertising. After early career success, a major promotion, and a transcontinental move with his family, a global merger ended up closing his firm. It was at this point that he realized his life had been totally dominated by work, at the expense of everything else. The event was a catalyst for change. Marsh decided to alter his life entirely, putting his family at the center. Since then he's tested "every version of a working lifestyle," describing them in his memoirs. He offered seven principles he's learned from his own experience and his readers'. 1. Do not turn to technology to help. Every- one is working an extra 1.2 hours/day with smartphones, he said, amount- ing to three weeks a year. Until you've sorted out the fundamentals of balance, technology makes it worse. 2. Pause and reflect. Sit with any gap of free time, and decide if you're going to get serious about change. But you must be ready for reflection, and many people only do the proper reflection when one of "the Big 4" forces them to: death, divorce, disease, or job loss. 3. Don't compare yourselves to others. Work-life balance is an individual is- sue. Think about your hopes, dreams, and circumstances, and go from there. 4. Don't look for a fixed daily routine. Marsh said we tend to judge our perfor- mance daily and get discouraged. He reflects on his performance at month's end, checking that he's given sufficient attention to his intellectual, physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. 5. Start small. "It isn't about the grand gestures and the one-off dramatic changes," he said. "There's a real dan- ger there," because people replace one overly singular focus (e.g., work), with another ("normally, it's fitness"). 6. Other people find change confronting, too. "They want you to be as stressed as they are," he said. 7. Realize that work-life balance is not an intellectual problem that can be solved. "It has to be solved in real life, and real life is messy and relentless," he said. Change the things you can, not the things you know you can't. Young Veterinarians Seeking Balance Marsh noted that a key to ensuring the future wellness of the equine veterinary profession is attracting young vets. Ex- perienced vets need to model balance to younger members of the profession. "How leaders behave matters," he said. "They'll look at the lives you actually have and say, 'Is that what I fancy?' " Most young equine vets put work-life balance at a premium, and other areas of vet practice can beckon with better hours. "We have to enable people to live easier lives," he said. "If this is to change, the older generation have to want the younger generation to have an easier life." He emphasized that it would take a col- laborative effort for vets to reach balance and to help sustain the profession. He quoted a friend: " 'We are enriched by what we can do, even more by what we choose not to do. The secret of being human is learning how to enjoy our limitations. If we could do everything, we wouldn't need other people.' … Needing other people isn't bad … (it) is good. I think you need each other. There's always hope, and there's always help." Read this article in its entirety at TheHorse.com/40042. h COURTESY AAEP Finding Balance Amid the Day-to-Day Rigors of Vet Practice