Lessons Learned From My Hiatus

Greetings from The Motivated M.D.! 

For many who follow the blog regularly, you likely have noticed that I haven’t published a blog post in quite some time (a month or two).  This was a massive change of pace for me as for the longest time I was keeping my cadence of weekly content. 

However, many changes have been happening in my personal life and some time and space felt necessary and welcomed.  Now, with my creative side itching to write again, I wanted to sit down and share where I have been, what I have been doing, and my plans moving forward with this website.  Here are lessons learned from my hiatus. 

Where Have I Been?

So, lets start by addressing my absence.  There is no one thing I can point to explain my hiatus in it entirety.  Instead, it has been a confluence of multiple responsibilities and changes that have left my time nearly nonexistent. 

For starters, I am just a few days away from welcoming my third child.  I already have a three-year-old and a soon-to-be two-year-old toddler.  For many of my readers with young children at home, having two toddlers in the house is already busy enough.  Yet, adding a newborn into the mix will require my wife’s and my utmost attention and sanity.  True we have a fulltime nanny, but we still both work full-time clinically and still wish to have a steady hand in our children’s lives.  Because of this, carving out the time for family remains a top priority, and as our family grows, more and more time is needed to make that goal a reality.

Second, we have had some unexpected transitions at my job, and this has left me to cover extra clinical obligations with some consistency.  This has further eaten into my time. 

Last, but not least, I genuinely felt as if I was running out of ways to provide useful and entertaining financial content.  Publishing post after post, week after week, while juggling my clinical burdens, family life, personal goals, my health… it just became too much. 

When Passion Loses to Productivity

I noticed the more I wrote that my feelings towards the work I was publishing was changing.  My passion for writing personal finance content was losing way to productivity and the compulsion to keep up with my competitors.  I no longer found it enjoyable to write post after post.  Commonly I felt like I was just reiterating what so many others in the physician finance niche were saying while feeling like I had somehow already addressed the topic. 

Keeping a personal finance blog is a tricky thing.  For starters, many come onto the scene and expect that their work with be impactful.  This may be true, but there are only so many ways to say the same thing over and over.  Save this much, withdrawal at this rate, diversify your portfolio, guard against disaster, et cetera, et cetera…

Though I absolutely love writing about my personal finance journey, I also felt like I had shared much of the information necessary for physicians to easily amass wealth and avoid overly risky investments.  Further, finding the correct balance between pursuing my writing passion while still managing the business side of a blog was challenging as well. 

Though I have no expectation that this blog alone will lead me to financial prosperity, there is always a hope that when you create something it may inevitably turn a profit, assuming it offers real value to the consumer.  However, despite starting this blog in late 2021, I still feel that much remains in order to make it the successful enterprise I intended.  This has forced me to take a deep breath, be objective about where the website is and the quality of the content I publish, and determine how to best move forward. 

Adjusting to Life’s Cadence

Another reason I have taken a hiatus is that I needed time to reflect on the realities of my publication cadence.  As I alluded to above, life gets busy.  The chapter of life I am in with a growing family, young and impressionable children, and an early career is taxing.  Finding the time, even if it can be enjoyable, to read and write has proven to be tough. 

As such, I have found myself focused on wanting to write only when I have something to say, not necessarily to keep a certain publication cadence.  There are many other physician finance blogs that publish content daily.  They often have teams of staff writers who can produce and edit content on an endless amount of topics, and sometimes these topics resonate with me… but not all the time. 

I have found, for me personally, there is no sense in creating content if it doesn’t speak to me.  Further, if it doesn’t speak to me, then it is not likely to speak to you either.  Because of this, I am challenging myself to continue to write and publish on this blog, but only when I have something meaningful to say, or find I am passionate and empowered to share a thought. 

What does this look like in practice?  It likely means I am no longer planning to publish a post each week.  Does this mean I am publishing every other week?  Or once a month?  Who knows…  Even I don’t have an answer yet.  If I have something to share, I will share it.  If it means I need to share that message over a few blog posts, then perhaps that will be a busier month.  However, other times, when life gets busy, I may exercise my freedom to ‘pump the brakes’ and return when it feels appropriate. 

Anyone Can Do It

Lastly, I have a relatively unoriginal theory about personal finance. 

Anyone can do it. 

I don’t mean it in the sense that no matter who you are or your educational background you can reach all your wildest financial goals.  For physicians, however, type A, motivated, educated, and hard-working individuals, I do fully believe that anyone can reach financial independence and achieve all their financial goals with a relatively small educational investment.

This may be a bold statement, but I believe it to be true.  Though many websites have endless content on personal finance that is applicable in varying degrees, 90% of what you need to be successful comes from just a few brief topics.  The other 10% is where nuance lies for physicians (i.e. managing significant educational debt, navigating physician mortgages, owning your own practice, etc.).  But if you just learn the common-sense 90%… the other 10% is not necessary. 

I believe this to be so true that I am working to finalize my book that tackles what I believe to be the essentials.  Many others have done it with varying degrees of success, but I think that everything you need to know to reach realistic financial goals for our profession can be said in less than 100 pages.  It is because of this I do still intend to finish my book. 

Plans Moving Forward

So, with all of that said, where do we go from here? 

First, I want to make sure I am transparent with my viewership that I am not going anywhere.  I will continue to own and operate this website.  The new caveat is that I am no longer going to hold myself to an unreasonable publication cadence.  I will write when I have something to say.  If I feel like someone has said it better than I could, I will reference that article.  Why reinvent the wheel?

I do also want to finish my book.  I have written nine chapters, and only have roughly 15 chapters planned, so I am nearly 2/3rds of the way done.  I want to see where this goes and I want to create a helpful work that is short, efficient, digestible, and helps any and all healthcare professionals master the basics of personal finance in a single read.  How you choose to self-educate beyond that is up to you! 

We all have different personal and financial goals, it is that final 10% where the nuance lies.  But if you master, what I consider to be, the ‘basics’ then really no matter how you choose to navigate your finances, you will be poised for success. 

Lessons Learned From My Hiatus

Ahh, honestly my recent hiatus has been incredible.  Sometimes the rat race that is content creation, publishing, running a business, and thinking of novel ideas is exhausting.  Trying to work that in to a dual-full-time physician household with two toddlers and a newborn on the way seemed downright comical. 

As I have written about before, I refuse to compromise on the things that bring me joy and benefit from regular investment.  These include my marriage, my family, my career, and my physical and mental health.  If at any point I feel one of those ‘pillars of happiness’ is suffering at the expense of something not on that list, then it needs to take a backseat.  This website had become that because, after all, it remains a one man show still.  I have no assistant; I have no co-authors.  Just yours truly.

I love what I have created here and I continue to have big aspirations about where it can go, how it can grow, and what it can offer the financially curious.  However, if I am going to practice what I preach, then finances and side gigs should never detract from my ability to be happy and healthy.  Taking a break was my way of rediscovering my priorities, and knowing that, if my audience really wants this blog to be successful, then I have to be in a mindset of success too.  Taking a break from time-to-time can help us achieve just that. 

And hey, if you do genuinely feel you have benefitted in some way from the content published here, please, please, please spread the word! I would really appreciate it. Catch you on the next post. As always…

Stay Motivated!

The Motivated M.D.

Standard Disclaimer: None of the information on this website is meant as individualized financial or medical advice.  These posts may contain affiliate links.