How to Maintain Your Wellbeing When Training Culture Tells You Sacrifice Is Normal
A Story About Learning Sustainable Practice Before Collapse Forces the Lesson
Yasmin had built her approach to surgical training on the belief that dedication meant doing whatever it took.
In the months since beginning her residency at the training hospital she had worked every available hour — taking shifts other residents refused, studying during breaks meant for rest, proving through sheer presence and endurance that she belonged in one of the most demanding professions there is.
Relentless commitment wasn't new to her. In fact, it had always been part of what made her exceptional.
But gradually something began to change.
The training was still producing results. But the cost of sustaining those results was quietly increasing.
How to Maintain Your Wellbeing When Training Culture Tells You Sacrifice Is Normal tells Yasmin's story — a journey from surgical resident running on four hours sleep to someone whose body began making decisions for her because she had stopped making them herself.
Along the way, she discovers something many professionals in demanding training programmes struggle to accept: completing your training requires a practitioner who can actually function.
Sometimes the most important thing you can do for the career you are building is protect the person who is building it.
What you'll learn:
- Why pushing through exhaustion in professional training is sometimes the opposite of dedication
- How to recognise the signals that intensity has crossed from demanding into dangerous
- What it means to complete your training on practices that sustain both your development and the person doing the developing
What's included:
- Yasmin's complete story
- A framework for recognising unsustainable training patterns before they cause collapse
- Reflection questions to help you assess whether your current approach protects or depletes the practitioner your profession depends on
The Reading Room — Where stories spark insight and learning begins. Read, reflect, and let the power of stories shape your perspective.
The Writer's Table — The power of the written word to clarify thought and purpose. A writing assignment that makes the lesson personal to your own experience.
The Workshop — Takes your thinking deeper, developing the technique into a systematic approach you can apply across your professional life.
The Rehearsal Space — This is where you put it all into practice — the power of embracing challenges and pushing boundaries.
The Good Mental Health and Wellbeing Story Lessons explore the connection between how we work and how we feel — recognising that professional challenges and personal wellbeing are never as separate as we tell ourselves they are. Each lesson follows a protagonist whose working life is quietly undermining their health, energy, or sense of self — and who discovers that the changes needed are both smaller and more fundamental than they expected.
About School of WorkLife
School of WorkLife creates story-based learning resources that help people think more clearly about the challenges, conversations, and decisions that shape a working life.
Each story is drawn from real WorkLife situations and developed into practical learning experiences that combine narrative, reflection, and structured application.
This lesson is part of The Good Mental Health and Wellbeing Story Lessons — a collection focused on the relationship between how we work and how we feel, and the everyday practices that protect both.
Author’s Note
The stories I write are based on real WorkLife challenges, obstacles and successes. Persons and companies portrayed in the stories are not based on real people or entities. Carmel O’ Reilly.