How to Create an Action Plan to Minimize Uncertainty During a Career Change for Doctors

Is fear of the unknown keeping you trapped in the wrong career? You aren’t fulfilled in your current work, but the idea of walking away from the familiar path feels paralyzing. For so many years, medicine has been the map of your life, without it- you worry that you’d be lost and directionless.

In this podcast episode, I walk you through my step-by-step process for designing your very own roadmap to a more aligned career.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• how to set career goals that are aligned with your values and desires
• why it doesn’t matter if the goal itself is “realistic”
• the secret to effective brainstorming
• The exact process I use with clients to reverse engineer your goals so you an take intentional, strategic action

I’m so excited for you to listen in!

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Life After Medicine explores doctors' journey of finding purpose beyond their medical careers, addressing physician burnout, career changes, opportunities in non-clinical jobs for physicians and remote jobs within the healthcare system without being burned out, using medical training.

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Life After Medicine explores doctors' journey of finding purpose beyond their medical careers, addressing physician burnout, career changes, opportunities in non-clinical jobs for physicians and remote jobs within the healthcare system without being burned out, using medical training.

Transcript

2:25

So I remember senior year of college. In the springtime. All my friends in the business school and the marketing, they were worried about jobs and totally freaking out about what they were going to do after graduation. And they were interviewing deciding if they should do teach for America or. Should I apply here or there, and there was just so much uncertainty and so much panic and just a sense of Oh, gosh, I don't know what I'm going to do. And I remember. Looking around at them and feeling so relieved that I didn't have to deal with any of that. I didn't have to worry about what I was going to do. I didn't have to think about. What was next for me? I was so relieved because I had been accepted into med school in October. Of senior year. So I was already good to go. The next, basically 10 years of my life were all lined up and I didn't have to sit with that feeling of uncertainty. That huge question mark of what's around the corner. And the funny thing is joke is on me now because my I needed certainty so much. That I was willing to give up. Actual joy and actual desire in exchange for certainty. I used to feel so panicked at the idea of uncertainty within my career that I needed this set plan. And this is how a lot of us operate within Madison, because when you go through medical training of any kind. The career path itself becomes the map for your life, right? It provides you guidance on where you are and where you're going. You have a sense of. I'm in medical school and then I'm going on to residency and then I'll go do fellowship and then I'll be an attending. And you plan your. Like birthing children around it. You plan a weddings around it. You play in all of these different aspects of your life around. The career. And so the career is the thing that guiding you and giving you direction. And. And even just thinking it's you plot it out your age. I remember being like, okay, I'll graduate med school by 25. I will be an attending. I was just going to do residency. So then I'll be an attending before I'm 30. And then I can start worrying about the rest of my life. For me, I was delaying making other life decisions. And I was really letting the career path. I become the map for my life. And without it. We feel lost and disoriented. And like we're just wandering around in the desert without any landmarks. And this is one of the big pieces. This fear of the unknown is fear of being without a map. This need for control and clarity and certainty. Is something that can keep us stuck in a career. Past its expiration date. So this is one of the things. That keeps us trapped. In the wrong career. Is. Not. Fear of the unknown fear of uncertainty around. I have this known entity, this path. Of medical training medicine, whatever it is, I have this path and it's this known entity. And even if I don't love it, Even if it's painful. They're suffering, it's suffering. I know. And there's this idea of, the devil, you know, versus the devil you don't. And even when we're feeling like this is the wrong career, this is not right for me. There's something more, even when we're feeling dread, as we go into work every day. That's so like how I used to feel. I used to just have so much dread the moment my alarm went off. I would feel a sense of, oh no. Please. I don't want to do it. But even when we have that, even when we come home at the end of the day, just feeling like this empty shell, not having the energy to enjoy our lives, even when. We feel. That our unhappiness from our career is bleeding over into our personal life. And it's keeping us from showing up as the best version of ourselves for our loved ones. Even when all of those things are true, we still tend to feel trapped in the wrong career. Because we worry about the unknown. Because we're so afraid of the unknown that. We don't want to make any changes because we don't want to give up this map. But here is this huge misconception that all of us have. So I'm going to talk you through what the misconception is, and then I'm going to help you teach you a skill to help, to correct for it because the thing is. We don't ever have to be without a map. We don't have it or have to be without a roadmap. The idea of leaving traditional clinical medicine, if that's what you want to do or making any sort of change in your career that does not have to equal. Just walking around without a map blindfolded in the desert being lost and aimless, that never has to be the case. Making a change. Never has to mean. That we feel directionless. Yes, there may be a temporary period of time as we're figuring out what we want to do, where we have a bit of a feeling of unsettled. Like we feel a little unsettled. We feel a little bit like things are in flux. That is totally normal. But as we're going through the process of making a change and we're taking action. That never has to be locked, feeling lost, feeling aimless, or being without a map, we can learn how to create our own map. Guys we can do this. This is something I teach my clients is something I did for myself. We don't have to just take someone else's map and be like it sucks, but I got to follow it because I need a map. We don't have to do that. It's 20, 23. We can create our own map. We can develop a new plan for our lives. That's more in alignment with who we want to be and where we want to go. And we can. Really connect honestly, When we're connected to our purpose. When we are. Moving towards the thing that we really want to be doing. We don't feel lost in directionless. You're going to feel a greater sense of clarity, a greater sense of direction than ever before. And so it's not that leaving medicine makes you feel lost and directionless. It's not that the idea of going into the unknown is what's scary. It's that. Being without a purpose. Makes you feel lost in directionless? So it's not that leaving medicine. Makes you feel lost in direction list. Being without a purpose. Is what makes you lost and directionless. So you get to connect to your purpose and then you have direction. And then it's not that. Leaving medicine means you have to go into the unknown. Without a plan without a roadmap. Leaving medicine means you get to create your own plan and create your own roadmap. And yes, there's going to be unknowns, but there's also going to be so many things that you do know. And you can titrate. Your capacity for unknown, right? You can gradually increase your ability to work in the unknown. As you move through this. So what I'm going to talk about today? I want to give you a really practical, like what I'm so excited about today, this is going to be so practical. And this is a little preview of what we cover within my upcoming program. Authentic career alignment. There's I know I've talked a little bit about this so far, but there's three key steps that we work through. Within my authentic career alignment program, there's the inner work of connecting to yourself, figuring out what you want, clarifying your desires. There is the making space step where you're releasing all of the doubts and the fears and the limiting beliefs. That keep you from really moving forward that keep you stuck. And then there's the take action step. Where you are building your own roadmap and plotting this intentional decisive action towards what it is that you want towards a career that gives you freedom and fulfillment. And the mixed face step and the take action step they're very intertwined. Cause we, we tend to have to keep going back and forth. So it's more like a cycle. And so what I'm going to go through today. Is really the process of building your own roadmap to success, which is predominantly in the take action step. And this is a huge part of what we're going to be doing together within authentic career alignment. We I'm starting a new. Kind of addition to my program. Which are called career design labs. And this is something that we do once every month we meet and we do these career design labs. Which are strictly focused on action, taking on, figuring out where you're going. What's going to move the needle, how to get started troubleshooting. If you're not doing it accountability. It's these career design labs that are going to help catapult you towards exactly what you want to do. And so I'm going to go through a little. Little bit of the process here now. So you can get a sense for what this looks like. And the cool thing is this is also a process that I initially did with my self. I did this with myself to figure out how to build my six figure coaching business. I did this with one of my first clients who has a travel blog to help her start monetizing her blog. It is a really powerful way to get clear on your goals and then a river it's really essentially the process of reverse engineering, your goals. To start working towards. What it is you want. And so what I want you to really understand before I get into the nuts and bolts of this process, what I want you to understand is that. This process. Is how you build your own roadmap. So you do not have to keep relying on. The roadmap of medicine, the roadmap of any other career that has just been handed to you. You can create your own roadmap. And you can move towards a career that gives you freedom and fulfillment. While being highly practical and creating your own roadmap and the process. So it's you never have to wonder around loss and directionless. You don't have to fear the unknown because you can make as much of it known as possible. And so I'll walk you through this process and just know that. There's only so much we can do together in this podcast episode, but this is something we're going to do. Workshop style. Within authentic career alignment, where we're really going to break each of these pieces down, you're going to have a workbook around it. You're going to, and then we're going to meet every month as you have these accountability. Like these accountability meetings where we identify your three move, the needle action. So you'll get a feel for what it is we're going to do. So what I'm going to walk you through today is what we do within the first career design lab. So first thing we do when we're building our roadmap to success is we have to start with the finish line in mind. What is the goal? What is the thing? That you want to accomplish? For me when I was first doing this, my goal was. Build a six-figure online business and I knew it involved coaching and blogging, but I wasn't totally sure exactly what it was going to look like. Now a lot of people can get caught up right here. So I'll just tell you a couple of things to prevent that from happening. So number one, when you would go through authentic career alignment and that whole process. You're gonna have your goal. You're gonna know what that thing is that you want to accomplish. If you're sitting here saying I don't know what I want. I don't know what that is. That's exactly what we do when we go through the inner work process of the program. So if this is something that you're struggling with, if you feel like I don't have the goal. I don't know what I want, then that means you definitely could benefit from coming in, joining the program and really. Digging into the inner work, the things that are going to help you with that are going through the values, going through the zone of genius, getting your purpose, archetype, and then putting it all together, which is what I teach within the program. But even if you have what you want. So some of you do have what you want, right? Some of you have identified this goal, this thing that you want, but you're going to have these blocks these sticking points around. Yeah. But is that realistic enough? I'm not sure if I can actually do this. Would this even really make money? And I want to say. These are important things to clear, important things to address, but these sorts of questions are not important in this moment of goal planning. This is not a place for doubting yourself. This is not a place for second guessing yourself. Any of those thoughts that are like, yeah, but this is a stupid goal like that does not have a place here because another thing we've done within the program is. We've gotten you to a place where you're financially taken care of. For at least a year, meaning you either have savings and you're going on a sabbatical and. And, you're planning for this. Or you have a bridge job, which is allowing you to financially support yourself during this time. So we're not worried about short term income. We're not worried about. Your basic needs being taken care of right away.'cause that's all sad or maybe you've reduced your clinical hours so that you are still. Not making enough to make ends meet, but you are. Not basically, you're not in a place where you're in a financially dire situation, because that is really important because you can't dream, you can't brainstorm. You can't. Plan. You know those about those big things you really want if you're in a place of scarcity or fear. So that part is important. So we do address. The reality of it. We address that by getting you the bridge job by giving you that financial ease, that all of those things. But then when it's time to identify your goal, we're not here for doubts. We're not here for a second. Guessing we're here to set a goal. We're here to figure out what it is that you want. So it's not important that you have all these questions around. Oh, but is this realistic? That's not, what's important. What's important is that the goal feels good. That it's aligned with your values. That there's energy in life. There. And if that's the case. Then you owe it to yourself to give it a shot. And what I'll say next to is Because you might have this sense of okay. But yeah, I don't want to waste time trying to reach this goal. That's not even realistic. But that's not even the point. In some ways. Sure. We want to devise a plan. That's going to help you get there. But it's so much less important. That you actually reached the goal. The purpose is not to get the goal, which might sound totally counter intuitive, but it's so real. The purpose of all of this is that the goal. And the vision. Serve as this beacon of light. This do north on the map. This guidepost to lead you. And you want to make decisions that move you closer towards it. You want to stretch yourself and you want to do things that help you get there, and maybe you arrive there. Or maybe you arrive somewhere. You never could have even imagined. And that's not actually what matters. The destination is not what matters. What matters is that you're moving on a journey that feels so aligned for you. What matters is that you're moving towards this vision that you have, that you're making decisions that move you closer to the vision. So the goal is your vision, your due north. It's what helps you start to chart the path? But we don't have to be so attached to it. That we shut down any components of but that's not realistic, but that's not going to happen. No. What matters is. Does it feel good? Does it feel aligned? Does it feel exciting and energizing? If, so that is the right goal. And we are going to work on charting a path towards that. And then who knows where it's going to freaking lead you because. Oh, I had no clue when I was starting out and I was like, I'm going to be a travel blogging life, coach, spiritual travel life coach. I didn't totally understand what was happening. I didn't know exactly what I was going to do. I never, in a million years would have been like, I'm going to quit residency. So that I can coach people in the medical field about how to leave their careers. That was literally never on my radar. And that was never something I would have planned to do. But as I created this big goal, and as I started. Moving towards it and doing these intentional decisive actions to move me towards it. The goals and the things started to shift and like it just, everything starts to shift and change and it's all flexible and it works, but it still works out. It's so beautiful. So the way we create this roadmap, the purpose of this roadmap is to provide you direction. Is to cast this vision. And so as we're setting this goal, I know I spent a lot of time on this part because I know there were so many people that get hung up. The goal is your vision. It's your due north. That's what helps you start to chart the path? So you have. Your goal, right? You have your destination and that's great. And that is important. We need. Something that we're moving towards. I at least I need something I'm moving towards. Otherwise I feel lost and aimless, and we don't want that. And then we need to look at. Where are we starting from? What? Like, where are we at right now? Let me look into your starting point. We do this deep analysis and I'll give you some of the questions right now, but know that we're going to be going so much deeper within the authentic career alignment program. So as we're looking at the starting point, we're looking at. What do you, what assets do you have right now? What resources do you have? Resources could be who, it could be certifications that you have degrees, that you have skills that you have habits. What habits do you currently have that are going to help you with your journey? Maybe you've created a habit already of. Writing every day and that's something that's going to help you because you're going to create a blog. Or maybe you have a habit of. Running every day or doing some sort of movement and not something that is going to help you because that's what you want to like coach people with. Maybe you have a habit of weightlifting or bodybuilding or maybe your habit is reading. And as you're reading, you're learning all of these things about personal growth and that's going to ultimately come into. Inform what you do. So you want to start with. What are the, what are all the things that you have? That may help you with your journey. And then as, and this is something else that as we, if you go through the program, you'll know. The assets, resources, like you'll know that your zone of genius you'll know your archetype and you'll know these things that are like uniquely you. That you really get to double down on. All right. So then you want to ask, how can you expand on these, maximize these and use these for exponential growth. And then you want to get into what habits do you have that might derail you. We want to look at that. We want to look at. What are the things that you do that could sabotage this whole thing? Do you tend to quit? When things get scary. Do you tend to run in high? Do you tend to procrastinate? Do you tend to. Not really want to put yourself out there or you're so afraid to fail or so afraid to waste time that you don't get started. Are you for Cresta planner? None of these are like bad or wrong. It's just let's look and look at this. What habits might derail you and how can we be intentional? Plan around these habits. Maybe you can get accountability partners. Maybe you can. Get someone to like maybe just a regular partner to help you with this business. Maybe because for me, I know I'm somebody who is ADHD. I need someone who's a little more, neuro-typical helping me with the day-to-day stuff and the business. So how can you be intentional and plan around these habits? And sometimes just being aware of them is really important. So that's us. Those are some of the things that we do to really take a good look at your starting point. So that we can know where you want to go. And where you are at currently. And then what we're going to do is start to brainstorm. The path. So we're gonna start to brainstorm the path and within authentic or alignment, I have this whole video on how to brainstorm and it's so fun because brainstorming is actually. Something that is deeply within my zone of genius, because. Brainstorming is not just coming up with ideas. That's part of it, but there's so much more to the whole process of brainstorming. And another piece of it is. The mental and emotional state you're in. As you engage in brainstorming. And this influence is deeply the results that you get. So in order to have a successful brainstorming session, which we would classify as. A session where lots of viable ideas are generated. In order to have that you need to be in a resourceful state. And a resourceful state means you're in a state where you feel empowered, you feel confident. You feel hopeful? You. Feel competent, you feel driven, you feel motivated, right? These are all parts of a resourceful state. And so that is the first and foremost thing that you have to be in. Before you get there. And that's something I help my clients with as well that we do within the program is I teach you guys how to get yourself into a resourceful state through. Through journaling through affirmations, through music, through. Sometimes I coach people get to get into resourceful state. All of these pieces. Are really helpful through movement to movement is really helpful. So you have to get yourself into a resourceful state. And then with brainstorming, you have to start with great questions. And I did a post recently where I talked about certain journal prompts that you can use and the wording of the journal prompts was super important. And so that's something I'll talk about here as well. As you have to start with great questions that are worded in ways that are friendly. To your subconscious mind. So when you start with great questions and examples. So instead of saying, we're going to use my example, my goal was. Build a six-figure business. Build a six figure online business. So then. Some of the questions that I could ask. Or what are all the ways. I could make money online. Instead of how could I make money online? When you say, how could I. Your brain might start to think. Even if you're in a resourceful state, your brain might start to think. I don't know. So maybe I can't. So maybe it's not actually possible. And then you couldn't go into a down spiral. Instead. What I encourage you to do. His word, the question. By saying, what are all the ways I can blink? When you say it like that, you start with this precept position. Into your brain. That it is possible. And there's many avenues and ways to do it. And now I just get to think through. And come up with ways that. Are. Pleasurable to me to do it. What are all the things you can think of? To get you closer to your goal. What are all the ways that I can. Make money online. What are all the ways that I can. Create a six-figure business. What are all the ways that I can monetize my blog? Whatever it is, you can start with just one question. You can start with multiple questions, but as you start this brainstorm. You just want to write down anything and everything. No bad ideas. You want to just get it all out there? And you can also look at your starting point your resources, your assets. All of these pieces. You just want to get it all out there onto paper. And once you have all of this out there. We're really starting. The juices are really starting to flow. Next you want to start creating your guideposts? So as you look through this brainstorm, You want to look at of all of these ideas that I just put on paper, some of them might be totally ridiculous. But of all the ideas in the brainstorm, what are the three. Major things. That if you actually achieve them. They would, without question. Get you to your goal. So for example, These are not. These are things to achieve, but it's a little bit different than that. So another way to think about this is you can start with your goal. And you can say, what is the step. That comes just before this. And you can work backwards. For example, if we're just doing mine build a six figure online coaching business, the step that comes just before that. Would potentially be. And we don't know exactly like we are guessing here, but what is a step that could come just before that? A step could be. Signed. My 20th client for 5,000, at$5,000 a package. Okay. So if, so the thing is, again, we want to look at if I achieved this. This would, without question, get me to my goal. So if I assigned five clients or 20 clients at$5,000 within a year, that would without question. Get me to my goal. So signed by 20th client, so then this is just an example because I'm just trying to do it with simple math. So then what would be the step that comes right before that? Maybe it could be signed to my 10th client. At$5,000 a person or it could be. Signed my first client. Out a$5,000 package. So that could be it. So we're going to try to create three guideposts. So the first client. At$5,000 and then what's the step right before that. Could be. Just signed by first paying client. In total. It, depending on where you are, depending on what your starting point is, because what we want to do is split the difference and make it this thing that sort of walks you all the way there. So then if your starting point is. No business, no coaching certification, nothing. And then your first. Guideposts is signed my first paying client. Great. Okay. We can get there. So then all we have to do is think about getting from your starting point to the first guidepost. So the guideposts part is so freaking important and it's something I really helped my clients do. I do find that obviously I have a worksheet and a process to help anyone who joins authentic alignment. And we go through this process together, but it also does really help to be part of a community and to have people with you to help create these guideposts with you. And so the idea is. As you achieve each of these guideposts. As you're doing those, you would, without question, get to your goal. The idea with a guidepost is to help make this more and more manageable. And to take you out of you don't want to have this big daunting, overwhelming goal, and then go into a state of overwhelm and then shut down. So what you want to do is make it more manageable. So then all we have to think about, like I said, is how to get from. The starting point where you're at right now to your very first guidepost. And you could make more guideposts if you wanted to, if your goal is really huge in that fields better, you can definitely make more. I like to just do it with three.'cause I think that's really helpful. You have your starting point, you have your first guide post. And then you're going to do another brainstorming session, right? So you're going to come up with what are all the things that I could do. To get from my starting point to my first guidepost. And you're going to, again, walk through a brainstorming process. Once you get all of these possible things listed, Not everything here is created equal. So from here. You want to look at. What are the things. That are most likely to really move the needle here. Because you want to focus your efforts first. Because I know that a lot of the things that people say, okay, just have my first paying client. I need a website. I need. An LLC for my business, I need a contract. Like I need all these things. We'll tell ourselves these things and that's actually not true. What you really need? I signed my first paying client. During 2019, my first year of coaching and all you need is a way for someone to pay you and the thing that they'll pay you for. So those are really the only things that you need. I started out just charging$60 a session and someone who I was working with at that time. It's oh, it's like a massage. Cool. It's like a massage for my heart and soul. And I was like, great. That sounds perfect. And we'll just do it like that. And you don't have to make it as complicated because that's another thing is you want to just make it as easy as possible. So what is the easiest, most least resistant way to get to my first guide posts or my first guide posts and know that not everything you write down is actually going to move the needle. And that's something you really want to think about that something I'm really going to help with throughout each of the planning sessions is like, what are the actual move? The needle goals. And so for something like this, for me, an actual move, the needle. Thing would be building relationships. Being in conversations. With people who might need my help. So just reaching out and asking people if they need coaching. Doing free coaching sessions. Asking inviting people having, like creating something, creating a little outline or if a package or, a service list, creating prices or whatever it is. So you really want to look at what are actually the things that are going to move the needle. And you want to focus your efforts as much as possible. And then from here, you have your first little mini map. From this possibilities list every week, you're going to identify three main priorities. So three bigger things that you're going to do. So maybe one week you're a big three big priorities are. Maybe hold free coaching calls. Create a price list. And set up a payment processor, and then each day, You want to identify three tasks that are in line with the priorities? So maybe the tasks would be reach out to this person to see if they want coaching, reach out to that person and research. Options for payment processors. So each day, and maybe you're not working on your business every single day, or maybe it's not a business, maybe you're not working towards your goal every single day, whatever that is, but this is the formula and the way that we. Move towards this. This is the process for reverse engineering goals. And the way I look at it, the way I teach it inside this program is. This is the way we build your own roadmap for success. Because the thing is. You never have to be without a map. You never have to be just staring into the unknown with no clue what you're doing. You never have to feel. Lost and disoriented and aimless and wandering around blindfolded. You can learn how to create your own map for a career that gives you freedom and fulfillment. And this is exactly what I teach. My students to do in my program. So if you're sick of feeling lost aimless disoriented, if you are done. Being trapped in the wrong career, if you feel like I would love to, do something different, but I can't because I don't know what that is. I don't have my direction. And I don't know how to get there. This is exactly what we do together within authentic career alignment. So this is my six month program to. Finding a career that gives you freedom and fulfillment. We're going to reconnect. With yourself. You're going to figure out your direction and you are going to use this beautiful process to build a clear roadmap towards a career that gives you freedom and fulfillment. So enrollment is happening now. And we start October 15th. If this is something you were interested in, this is something that you have been thinking about. I absolutely would not wait, jump in on this and go to coach Chels, md.com/aca. Or you can reach out to me, email me. Hello at coach Chels, md.com. Or you can even book a quick enrollment call. To see if this is right for you. All of those links will be in the description. And I hope this episode was helpful for you because I think. I really do giving you these tactical, tangible things. And showing you. This exact process for mapping out your own roadmap for success. Would love to hear how you guys enjoyed this. We'd love to hear if you're able to actually utilize this process. If there's any places where you got stuck or lost or confused. And just know that if this is something that you really enjoyed, that this we're going to be going into this and so much more dads within the program, you'll have me to support you all along the way, and you'll have workbooks and videos and all of these resources around using this to actually build and design your own roadmap to fulfillment thank you so much for listening. I hope you have enjoyed this. I've enjoyed spending time with you and sharing this really cool process with you. So i hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and i'll see you next time