Disappointing Physician Income & the Arrival Fallacy

<p dir="ltr">The arrival fallacy is a concept that’s very prevalent in medicine. Coined by Tal Ben-Shahar, it refers to the illusion of happiness that we think we’ll experience when we arrive at a completed goal or achievement (spoiler: it doesn’t work like that). </p> <p dir="ltr">In medicine in particular, this is reinforced with lots of delayed gratification and long training periods with limited free time and low pay. </p> <p dir="ltr">We think that finally achieving the next level (whether it’s residency, fellowship, or attending, receiving a bonus, a raise, etc.) will instantly make our lives better, because we’ll have more money and more control over our schedule. </p> <p dir="ltr">We constantly look for “the light at the end of the tunnel” to get ourselves through years of grueling assignments and shifts. But a lot of the time we reach these specific benchmarks – or, we “arrive” – and it’s not at all how we thought it would be. </p> <p dir="ltr">Gertrude Stein was right when she said, “There’s no there, there.”</p> <p dir="ltr">How does the arrival fallacy come into play when we reach attending status and start pulling in a whole new pay grade? Let’s examine that…</p> <p>Looking for a comprehensive financial platform for doctors, by doctors that will help you to secure your financial future?  Make sure to check out <strong id= "docs-internal-guid-c781506e-7fff-c275-ef42-584e912e13fb"><a href= "https://helloattend.com">HelloAttend.com</a></strong></p>