Wellness Spotlight: Michael Chin
Michael Chin is a physician-scientist, practicing cardiologist, NIH-funded research scientist, entrepreneur, educator and administrator. He has multiple roles within the Tufts community, and currently serves as the Interim Dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the Director of the Medical Scientist Training Program, Research Director for the Tufts Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Center and Investigator in the Molecular Cardiology Research Institute.
What do you do in the mornings to set your intentions for the day?
The first thing I do is try to wake up refreshed, which means going to sleep early enough the night before and trying to go to sleep with a settled mind, which means that I try to resolve anything that I have been thinking hard about before going to bed. Many issues cannot be resolved quickly or easily, but I often can settle myself by deciding to put issues aside until the next day and not perseverating about it. After waking up, I always have coffee and a light breakfast while I review the day’s calendar.
How do you balance the different aspects/dimensions of your life (school, family, physical health, mental health, personal life, etc.)?
Achievement of true balance is unlikely for those of us with demanding jobs, such as being a scientist in academia. I read an insightful piece in which very busy and highly accomplished individuals were asked this same question, and the answer that resonated with me was that one should focus on reducing imbalance as much as possible, rather than achieving true balance. For me, a strategy that works is something that I call rotational multitasking, where I look at the many professional and personal tasks/demands before me and prioritize them in terms of difficulty, time constraints and my mental preparedness for each of them and then start working on the one that rises to the top until I get stuck, then I switch to the next one until I get stuck, and somewhere along the line I subconsciously figure out how to get beyond where I was stuck on the previous task and return to it. It’s also important to recognize when the rotation between tasks must stop due to mental and/or physical fatigue, to allow for unstructured and fun activities.
What have you found to be helpful when coping with difficult situations?
The framework that works best for me is to tap the knowledge base of available resources, including from my personal network of highly accomplished friends and advisors, to try to come up with solutions based on best practices developed by those who have dealt successfully with similar situations. The other key piece is taken from resilience training, where individual self-talk is important in achieving goals. I often tell myself that difficult problems have no easy solutions but keep trying and keep looking for an optimal path forward.
How do you de-stress? What is your go to when time is limited?
Norman Cousins was a proponent of the theory that laughter is the best medicine, and I often find refuge in hilarious but true stories. Search for the “exploding whale carcass” for example. I also find it calming to take walks, enjoying the opportunity to observe various interesting aspects of architecture, birds, mammals, plants, water patterns, cloud patterns, stars, people, etc. Having a moment to pause and reflect with my wife over a glass of wine also works well for me.
What do you do for fun and how do you fit it into your busy day?
I am an avid reader and try to keep up on current events and enjoy reading human interest articles. I usually read a little in the morning then a lot in the evening after dinner. I try to incorporate physical activities in my day by walking and taking the stairs as much as my joints will allow. I try to eat food that I enjoy and that is novel for me but that is still heart healthy (or not, occasionally).
What do you do to relax and unwind at the end of a long day/week?
One of my favorite weekend activities is to take a walk on the beach, no matter what season. I have seen so many interesting things, such as right whales, ocean sunfish, seals, a cold stunned endangered Kemp’s Ridley Sea turtle (that we rescued), migrating seabirds, nesting piping plovers and chicks, crabs, clams, menhaden, ospreys, snails, sunsets, moonrises, entire rainbows, double rainbows, constellations, shooting stars, striped bass feeding blitzes. During fishing season, I will often bring a fishing rod and catch a few striped bass before releasing them.
Anything else you would like to share or what advice would you give to your future self?
One of my favorite informational tidbits is from Laurie Santos, the Happiness Lab Professor at Yale, who argues that our conceptual model is wrong: achievement does not lead to happiness, rather it is the other way around, that happiness leads to achievement. I try to remember this and hope that it resonates with others.