As doctors, we spend a lot of time listening to other people’s hearts but how often do we listen to our own?
We can get carried away on the career conveyor belt, looking up only briefly to see what’s going on around us. Rarely, looking inwards to observe what we are really feeling and what we truly want and need. There’s so much going on, it’s too busy to listen into our hearts.
The relentless hurdle jumping of a medical career becomes normalised.
After making it over one hurdle, we hardly pause to absorb the achievement, before pressing on and jumping the next one. A-Levels, medical school, foundation training, speciality training, consultancy, sub-specialisation, research, leadership, management, mentoring, teaching. Racing. Chasing attainment.
Caught up in the chase, we accept poor working conditions, inadequate pay and being underappreciated as ‘part of the job’.
- We sacrifice time with loved ones.
- We sacrifice time to ourselves.
- We sacrifice time to think.
- We sacrifice sleep, rest and recuperation.
- We sacrifice self-care, self-awareness.
There’s no time to consider how things could be better for yourself, or to challenge the status quo of Medicine.
When you are at work, there is just about enough time to eat or go to the toilet when you are at work.
At home, you are balancing revision, portfolios, admin, housework, bills, cooking, partners, parents, children, friends and you’re grateful for just a few minutes of nothing. A few moments of bad TV.
You’re grateful for a moment just to catch your breath…
One day, you look up and wonder where all the years have gone.
You wonder what life would be like if you had made different choices.
How work would be if you had chosen a different degree, or a different career path.
You start to notice people around you who are passionate about their work. You see people enjoying travel, art, music and sport. You observe that not everyone is starting their working day with dread.
You realise that deep down in your heart, that you are not happy with your career.
Despite Medicine having promise, in the end it hasn’t fulfilled you in the way you had hoped. The reality is that you can’t properly fulfil your purpose of wanting to help people.
You can’t be the doctor you want to be because the system is just too strapped.
You have been putting up with career dissatisfaction for a long time and you are so far down the path, you don’t know where to turn.
You don’t know what else you could do.
- You feel lost
- You feel confused
- You feel sad
- You feel unsure
- You feel scared
- You feel stressed
- You feel stuck
I have been here too. I have felt this too. More than once.
It took time and deep reflection to identify exactly what about present-day doctoring didn’t work for me and what did, and to understand the reasons why. I signed up for coaching and through this, I developed a much better understanding of my values and why they mattered in my career.
I started to make time to listen to my own heart.
In taking time for yourself through coaching, you learn to listen to your own heart and follow what is right for you.
- You feel secure
- You feel focussed
- You feel happy
- You feel certainty
- You feel confident
- You feel calm, balanced
AND
- You create options.
It really is possible to enjoy your work, to look forward to it and be excited at the start of your working day.
It is not always easy to navigate a medical career path. Coaching gives you space to think, talk and reflect. It helps you to understand your priorities and work out a strategy. It helps you reconnect with what matters to you.
You become empowered. You embrace your true potential.
This is part of my journey so far… If it any of it resonates with you, please get in touch.
I provide one-to-one careers coaching for female doctors. I specialise with doctors from South Asian backgrounds. The first call is always free.
Try coaching. Because sometimes you need to listen to your own heart.