Today on episode 57 I’m pleased to welcome Dawn Baker, a board-certified anesthesiologist, wife, mother, climber, coach, and now the author of a new book about the perils of, as she puts it, an intense need to achieve. And Dawn has walked the walk. After years of hard-driving pursuit of linear improvement in both career and climbing, she suffered crushing fatigue and malaise, and ultimately faced a major health crisis during her residency. If that wasn’t enough, she was then plagued with infertility problems. The result was expensive and demoralizing rounds of in-vitro fertilization, an approach that ultimately proved successful and led to the birth of her daughter.
The need for achievement and success is so pervasive in our culture. And this interview is not just for downtown or medical center careerists. This is as much a discussion of climbing and our hobbies, which can so often derail into something quite different from our original healthy and recreational pursuits.
Today, Dawn’s life with her husband and daughter is so different. Through evaluation of her core values, married with a strong financial position, she now works “very part time,” and has moved with her family to a homestead in the high plateaus of southern Utah. But in choosing to step away, or lean out, as Dawn says, we risk our position and standing in the social hierarchy. This is much a discussion of status as it is of lifestyle.
Topics Discussed with Dawn Baker:
- Dawn’s career arc from engineer to anesthesiology
- The hedonic treadmill of achievement in life and sport
- Dawn’s major health crisis and infertility
- The alarming rise in infertility and the realities of in vitro fertilization (IVF)
- The manifestations of a driven personality in climbing
- How attempting to be debt free accidentally led to financial independence
- Methods for minimizing debt and avoiding conspicuous consumption
- What kind of financial base is needed to lean out?
- Burnout: What is it, who suffers, and has it really gotten worse (or are we getting soft)?
- Key aspects and questions we must answer to lean out
- Can everyone do this? What are the big-picture implications to economies when growing numbers of young professionals want to work less? Do we need to “do our time” first?
- The real struggle to temper ambition and the need for achievement
- Status: facing a dubious world when we choose to lean out
- The homesteading life
- So much more!
Get in Touch with Dawn Baker
leanoutbook.com (Book site. See direct link for book below)
Lean Out: A Professional Woman’s Guide to Finding Authentic Work-Life Balance (direct link for book on Amazon)
Related Content
Deloitte Workplace Burnout Survey
Books
When Breath Becomes Air (Paul Kalanithi) — Chad recommendation
The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy (Thomas J. Stanley, William D. Danko)
A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose (Eckhart Tolle)
From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life (Arthur C. Brooks)
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