Q: Dr. M, I am happy to tell you I am going to celebrate my one year anniversary of getting my own office this weekend. My year anniversary of opening my doors for business is April. I do have a question for you, I need some words of wisdom or at least some advice. How do you balance the personal life in all of this? I have my close friends and that is not a problem, but trying to keep a relationship is. One or the other suffers. How does one do it? A: Thanks for the e-mail and great news about your one year anniversary. As far as your question there is but one answer .. you must find a way to switch off the business and turn on the pleasure. I mean there is a time to work and a time to play. A relationship .. at least a serious one .. includes a sharing and a strong feeling of support. If you found the right one .. this will be a natural fit and little maintenance is necessary. Since there is very little absolutes in the world .. one must tweak the relationship with give and takes and with more togetherness there will be more cohesiveness. So .. keep your friendships strong and give it your all when in the business mold but find the switch to leave it in the office so you can find the time and energy to foster other interests such as finding the right one. Also .. the person you wish to spend time with must appreciate what you have studied and believe in. If there is little compromise here .. then there is more than a tweaking going on and therefore the best advice is to move on. One final thought .. if you have a history of bad personal relationships then the person in the mirror may who to work on first. Go with the flow and ease up on expectations and let a relationship simmer while it heats up. Being overly anxious and critical may be more then necessary and wasteful energy. Give this some thought Have a Great Day Dr. M