This chapter sheds light on the loneliness, social isolation, and exhaustion faced by doctors, challenging society's misconceptions about their happiness. It emphasizes the importance of addressing doctors' well-being to enhance the quality of their lives and the care they provide. Additionally, it explores the complexities of happiness, emphasizing the interplay of emotions, the pursuit of meaning, and the neuroscience behind emotional experiences.
We spend — on average — 90,000 hours of our life working. So it’s no wonder we want our jobs to bring us happiness. Yet, all too often, work doesn’t make us happy. Why is that? And is there anything we can do about it?
In this episode, we discuss just that.
You’ll hear from social scientist and New York Times bestselling author, Arthur Brooks (Harvard). Arthur talks with Dean of Harvard Medical School, Bernard S. Chang, about happiness, vocation, faith, and physician burnout. They discuss Arthur’s empirical research on happiness, explore the role of transcendence in a happier life, and how to best set expectations about the role of work in our lives.
This Forum was held at Harvard Medical School in February of 2024. Thank you to the Forum planning team at Harvard Medical School for making this event possible.
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