The 3 MOST CRUCIAL steps to take when something feels off in your medical career

Recently I’ve noticed that some things have felt off in my business and it’s been causing frustration, overwhelm, and social media-related burnout.

In this episode, I get super raw and honest with you as I share:

• how I started to notice that things were off
• what I’ve been doing to course-correct
• the 3 step process I use to bring myself back into alignment (and how you can do it too!)

If you've been feeling like something is OFF in your career, but don’t know where to start, this episode is for you.

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.

[FREE TRAINING]- PLAN YOUR PIVOT
How to create your exit strategy and find work you enjoy (that doesn't burn you out) in the next 120 days.
https://coachchelsmd.com/pivot/


Life After Medicine FB Group
Connect with a community of like-minded healthcare professionals seeking career change support
https://www.facebook.com/groups/leavemedicine/

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

2:24

Today's podcast episode. Is going to be. Raw. And personal. And so authentic that I questioned if I should. Even share it with you. Of course I know that I. I want to, because a huge part of my brand and everything that I stand for is being authentic and being open and honest. And I realized like it needs to be raw. I do need to share this with you. It's something I've been sharing. With some of my one-to-one clients recently. And. They've all said, wow, I hope you share this with people. I hope you talk about this on the podcast because. This is it's really inspiring. It's really open. It's really honest. I think this episode and me sharing what I'm going to share is going to be. Just so relevant, especially in light of authentic career alignment, the program that is starting very soon, I'm recording this it's Tuesday. October 10th. And the program starts this Sunday, October 15th. So in just five days, really four days. This program is going to be live. We're going to have our first day, and I'm so excited for everyone who is signing up already. We had some signups come in over the weekend. With each name that pops up in my email as somebody who has signed up, I just know this group is going to be so beautiful. If you're listening to this right, when the episode airs, there is still time to get in and what I'm going to share with you guys today. Throughout this episode is something more business related that I've been going through that also directly relates to the process that I take you guys through. Inside of authentic career alignment. So recently in my business, things have been feeling a little bit off. And I realized that what I've been doing the course correct. Just naturally intrinsically because this is part of how I operate now follows exactly the process that I teach you guys inside, authentic career alignment, so essentially what I'm going to walk you through is, what's been going on in my business recently. And then how I went through the three key. Steps. Of career transformation to course correct. And to get myself back into a place where my career feels more free and it feels more fulfilling because really. That's the work we do with an authentic career alignment. We do is the inner work to reconnect to yourself, to clarify your purpose, we make space by releasing any of the doubt, limiting beliefs, the resistance. And then we take action and we start. Actually doing the things that. Are going to help us move the needle towards what it is that we want. So let me just talk you through. How I've been going through each part of that process in relation to my business. When I say something has been feeling off. It's nothing big. It's so interesting. It's nothing big that feels off. I love my clients so much. I love the work that I'm doing with them, but it's just the way I'm doing things that doesn't quite feel aligned anymore. And I think a lot of it is because I'm just shifting seasons and I've been going through some growth. So to take you back a little bit within my business journey, I went through a season starting in 2022 have a bit of hustle. I loved everything I was doing to get my podcast off the ground, building my platform, reaching out to other people, to be on their podcasts and to get my offer suite dialed in and. Being on lots of calls with clients, I was working about six days a week for almost probably over 18 months now been working six days a week, not nearly 80 hours, like in residency, but maybe about in the 50 hours a week range. I really started working hard and just going all out, starting at the beginning of 2022. And then in April of 2022, I started making$10,000 every month. And then things have taken off from there. I've been scaling, moving into 15,000,$18,000 months taking on clients, keeping my schedule, really open for whatever someone wants to book a call, staying up till 11:00 PM or midnight to do calls with clients. And. It has been a really rewarding and wonderful season. Everything that I was thinking about and dreaming of back in residency has been coming true. I've been making great money having this financial freedom have been traveling the world. I'm on my 43rd country right now. I'm in Azerbaijan. I also have a thriving community that I've become a part of outside of my business as well. But what I've noticed. Over the past few months. Is that some things have started to shift. And it's been subtle. Like I say with intuition, it speaks to you with a feather, right? It tries to get your attention with a feather. And then it'll try to get your attention by hitting you with a four by four, and then it'll run over you with a Mack truck. And that's usually the phases and basically in med school or in residency, when I was really. Going through my deep rock bottom of burnout. I don't know if I was quite at Mack truck level, but I felt like I had been run over by a Mack truck with my intuition, trying to get my attention. But now the cool thing to celebrate is that I'm noticing it at this other stage. I've started to notice that. I want more spaciousness. I've been traveling with other people. I did a road trip with one of my friends all through the Balkans, which was so fun. And we were incredible planners around everything. Cause we both worked. She worked European hours. I worked. American hours, but all over the place. And I have Sundays that I work and she was doing more like nine to five type things. And in Europe, And. Man, we did such ninja level planning for travel days. What I didn't like I noticed we would meet and talk through. Okay. Where are we going to go? Accommodations? What days are we going to travel? When are we going to get in the car? How are we going to work around calls? I would. Notice that this planning process, I would feel a bit constricted. Because I felt. There wasn't a lot of leeway within my schedule to plan things around. I was feeling a little constricted. A little bit frustrated while we were planning and it was the sense of I don't totally want my schedule to be like this. I was frustrated with myself because at the end of the day, I know that. I'm the one in charge of my schedule. And it's like, why am I. Making my schedule, so that there's calls basically six days a week. Why is that? It's great that I love the work I'm doing, but it's not great when it really starts to. Interfere with some of the other things that I want to do. I was starting to notice this desire of. more spaciousness. I want more days that are fully. Off and there's not calls, so I don't have to rearrange calls or just be constantly shifting things in my schedule to make it work. I also started to notice. That I'm tired. It's not all the time, but there's days where I wake up and I'm like, wow, I could use more sleep. I wouldn't say burnt out. Because there's times where I have so much energy and I have excitement and joy for the work I'm doing. So it's not even that it's burnout, but I just noticed a deeper level of tired. That's starting to come in and it's this sense of tired of almost like a tech, maybe like a social media burnout, if anything, just this sense of. There's not as much output that I want to do. I've been napping a lot more frequently having a little bit more coffee. And it's just a sense of, yeah. I'm a bit tired. One of my one of my team members. She took a week off and I was like, Ooh, Yeah, that sounds good. I haven't really done that in awhile. And so I'm starting to notice yet. I'm tired. I've also noticed some overwhelm, the way this comes up is I feel like I don't have time for life things. It's a subtle, like de prioritization of self care. So I have been wearing this same pair of contacts that does not work for me for weeks now. And my vision has been. I just, haven't been able to see, I have glasses, so that's nice, which is what I'm wearing right now, but it's I haven't. Made time to go to the eye doctor, it's just this low level. Overwhelm around feeling like I don't have time for life things. And part of that is ADHD being neurodivergent and not wanting to do boring admin type tasks, but some of it is that. I haven't really given myself a lot of space outside of my business. The other big thing the biggest source of all of this is I had this heart opening moment. It happened a few weeks ago when I was in the mountains. I made a note on my phone when I was in that space, because I was like, I have to note what this is. So this was September 7th. 2023. This is the note that I wrote. In my phone. Literally as it's happening of me trying to describe what was going on. It's like everything within me that felt capable of harshness. Or judgment. The part of me that felt the need to build up walls, to protect myself. To put on a heart and act. Suddenly all melted away. And now I feel this profound tenderness. Pure love. Mixed with deep grief and sadness. At the pain of being in separation for so long. How could there ever be anything but love. I'm so sad for the version of me who experienced so much pain. Who wasn't able to see or feel. Or led in the truth. That was literally right in front of her face the whole time. Pain is separation. And now I can't even connect to the feeling of separation. It seems almost absurd. I can't feel anything other than oneness. There is only oneness. Nothing real can be threatened. I get it now. It was always the mission to love on fire. This was always the goal. This was why I left residency and set off on my journey around the world. I'm here. To love. To love on fire. And. After having this moment. It was about three hours in the middle of the night. Where. I had no thoughts. There was no. Mental tatter. There was just this deep feeling of love and oneness and connection. And. After experiencing that it's not constant now, but I can tap back into it. I can come back into this place of deep oneness and connection and love and. After going through that, it's like, how could I worry about. The Instagram algorithm. Why do I care about. I care about people downloading this podcast because I want to reach people, but there's just like little things that seem to matter less and less. Ever since experiencing that, I've just noticed this deep desire to spend time. Connecting with other people. Laughing just being, and it's honestly so cool to notice this and start living into this. My business is still so important to me and a huge part of my mission. But it's like ever since going through this deep heart opening. It's not six days a week. Important to me. I'm so grateful that I put in that time. And that I, I did that work and that I have things up in pop in, in such a cool way. And I love what I've created. And I just have to start honoring. These new desires that are starting to form. And so let's talk through these three steps in relation to all of this, because I wanted to give you all that context. And I want you guys to understand where I'm coming from. So essentially. What I just outlined was doing. The inner work. Which is identifying your desires, learning how to tune into yourself, learning how to get clear on what it is you want and in the program. In authentic career alignment. We do it in a very structured way. I walk you guys through a process of identifying your values. Of figuring out what it looks like to live them out. In a very real and tangible way. Every week we do these intuition workshops where you start learning how to connect to your body. How to tune into your body. And how to listen to the emotions and use those as messengers to identify and figure out what you want. So in the program. This inner work is very structured. In my own life now. It's a bit more. Built in because I've been living this for so long. So for me doing the inner work. Is paying attention to how I feel. It's having these intentional moments of checking in the morning. When I wake up. The first thing when I opened my eyes. I've made it a habit to. tune in and ask myself. How am I feeling? What am I noticing? It's a quick body scan. It's just a little check-in of Hey, am I rested? Do I have anxiety. Are there jitters and my stomach. What do I feel grounded? Do I feel chaotic? How do I feel? It's having these intentional moments to check in. Where I can start to notice patterns. It's also looking at jealousy. Noticing when I feel that little twinge of. Oh, I want that. And what is that? What is beneath that? Interviewed this person for the podcast and you guys are gonna love her episode. She was talking, she's yeah, I work two days a week. And I was like, oh, I would love to do that. Looking at jealousy. Looking at overwhelm frustration, like what is going on with these feelings? Treating your emotions as messengers. That are trying to guide you and redirect you and give you more information about where you are in relation to where you want to be. Paying attention to my energy. Noticing where my energy feels constricted and flat and low. And then looking at. Where I feel lit up, where I feel natural excitement. Really just paying attention. Also to the things that you're saying, but not doing anything about. So I sent my friend a text recently, maybe a week after my heart opening. And I sent this text to my friend where I was like, so I'm at a point in business where I either want to completely quit everything and go off the grid tracking and Papa new Guinea. Or I want to scale back to three to four days a week and just have more time to rest. And she's just take a vacation. Just take an unplugged vacation. And the truth is when I really look at what I want it's I don't want to quit everything. I really don't. But what is happening underneath that? Is I'm tired. I want more space. I want more time for me. And it's almost similar to when I would tell people back in. In residency they'd ask, what do you want to do when you graduate, what are you going to do? And I would say, oh, I want to be a travel blogger. And there's some things that you say that it's oh haha. Just kidding. It's. There's there. It's funny. It's you making a joke, but. Usually there's truth behind it, especially if you keep saying things like that. And I noticed, like I had that one text to my friend where I was like, joking about quitting everything, but I noticed for a while, I've been saying things like. I just want to go off the grid and I want to go tracking and I want to just unplug, like I've noticed, I've been saying things like that for a while now. But I haven't really been acting on it. And so these are some of the ways that I now. Do the inner work within my day-to-day life. I pay attention to how I'm feeling, my energy, my emotions. I look at my actions and patterns around that. I look at what I'm saying. it's just this greater awareness. Of how I'm operating through the world. I allow myself to tune in when things feel off. I let myself ask deeper questions and be like, huh, what's going on here? Yeah, things are so crate in my life. And it's also okay. If there is something that's a little bit off that needs some tweaking, like that's okay. That doesn't mean I'm ungrateful. That doesn't mean I've done things wrong up until now. It's just, I'm allowed to honor myself. I'm allowed to pay attention to how I'm feeling. And course correct. And make some small tweaks after doing this inner work. I've been checking in and I'm like what does this all add up to? What is really going on. What is actually happening and the desires that have come forth are I want to work less. I want to work more supported. And structured. And I want to have more spaciousness in my calendar. So those are the desires that I've identified after doing the inner work. But then we need to move on to make space. And making space. This step is all about releasing the limitations. The self doubt, the resistance towards living out your desires. The inner work helps you identify and clarify your desires, your direction. And any time there's a gap between you. And your desires. There's work to be done. To make space. By essentially releasing. Anything that's keeping you from what you want. So have identified the desire. And then you wonder why am I not living that out? What's in the way what's keeping me from living this out. I assume that anything keeping me from my desires. Is a story. That can be disproven. Or an old pattern of conditioning that can be rewritten. And so this is what we do in the making space we look at what are the stories you're telling yourself. About why you can't have your desires. And so this is what I did, right? This is what I do with my clients. This is what I did with me. What are the stories I'm telling myself about why I can't work less? Why can't work more supported. I can't work more structured. Why can't have more spaciousness in my calendar. Some of the ones that came up with. My clients need me to keep my schedule open. They need options because they're busy. I'm in different time zones. So I have to have, open hours during these times. There's the I already have a great life. Why do I need to work less? That's silly. That's indulgent. That's selfish. Like most people would kill for what I have. Why can't I just keep going and keep doing exactly the way I'm doing. And I already have plenty of spare time. I have plenty of flexibility and free time. Like why am I complaining about this? I should just be grateful. Another story is I would have to make less money if I dialed back. If I started working less, if I started working more supported than I'm paying other people more money and then ultimately I would have to be okay with making less money. There's also the fear of if I'm not living on this content creation hamster wheel. What if I become irrelevant? What if my sales drop and my business drops so I have all these stories about. No. You can't change anything, stick with what you've been doing. And really when I look at all of those much more deeply, what these stories come down to is a sense of unworthiness. This sense of. Who am I to have a great life? To have all my needs and desires met to have everything going so smoothly. Who am I. To have that. I'm not worthy of having this wildly successful business. If I'm not working six days a week. I don't deserve that. I'm not the kind of person who can have that. So for me, that's, what's beneath it. And just identifying that. Has been so powerful. So making face, essentially, it's about taking inventory of these stories and then releasing them because these stories are directly keeping me from living the life that I want, having the desires that I identified in the inner work. And really just having my next level of career freedom and fulfillment. So in order to make space for that. Freedom and fulfillment. I have to release these stories. And some of them, I can just poke holes in with logic and counter examples like my clients need me to keep my schedule open because they're busy. I have to have these certain days. I actually was on calls of clients as I'm starting to implement some changes, which I'll tell you about. And I was saying, I'm not going to do calls on Fridays anymore. Are you going to be able to find a time? On, Sunday, Monday or Wednesday, those are the three days I'm doing calls. Are you going to be able to find a time? Oh, yeah. Oh yeah, no problem. Okay. Can you do it at lunch or could you do it here? People were able to figure out a time. So is it true that my clients need me to keep my schedule wide open? Not necessarily. Is it possible that they can find times within these specific days? Yes, it looks like it is. Some of these, I was able to poke holes in with logic, with counterexamples. But some of them, there's this deeper component. There's this emotional release. Subconscious reprogramming that needs to be done. Through tapping through somatic release. So sometimes that's what it requires, but in this exact instance, because I've already done so much of that leading up until now. Really, all I had to do is notice. Oh, okay. These are all stories. I don't have to play this game anymore. I'm not playing the game of work hard. To prove your worth. The game of fear. The game of scarcity. One thing I can always come back to is I didn't leave medicine. To keep hustling and proving myself. So I'm not playing that game. For me in this moment. Coming back to that mantra. Of I'm not playing that game. That was really all I needed to do to make space. I also had some moments of talking it through with my coach. Where she helped me to notice the cognitive dissonance that was building up. Between how I wanted to be living and how I was living between. The things that weren't adding up with what I was saying and what I was doing. So really having someone else as a coach and as a mirror to say you've been saying this for a while. Now. You've been saying that you want. More time off. Are you doing anything about it, that was really helpful to you to just to have that sense of. Sort of accountability to have someone reflect back to you. This is the things you've been saying, and this is how you're actually living. Is that what you want when you notice that you're like, huh? Okay, maybe there is something deeper going on. Because why wouldn't I just do the things I say I want to do usually it's because there's some belief there's something in the way. That's making me feel unworthy of it. That's making me feel like I can't just go ahead and do it. So having a coach to point those things out has been helpful for me. Coming back to this mantra of I'm not playing that game. That's not how I'm operating anymore to reminding myself of this is an old pattern. This is not the way I'm going to keep operating, going forward yes, this idea of working less. Of working more supported. I've working more structured of having more spaciousness in my calendar. Yes. That's uncomfortable to start taking action towards that. But it can be uncomfortable. And I can still do it and that's okay. Because I think there's this idea of I'm not ready to dial back yet. I'm not ready to get support yet. I'm not ready for these things. And that's a story. So just looking at that as a story and saying that's actually not true. I don't have to feel ready. It can feel uncomfortable. And I can still do it. In a way that titrates to my nervous system's capacity. And so that's where we move on to step three, which is take action. So you take your desire that you identified during the inner work. So for me, that's, I want to work less. I want to work more supported and structured. And I want to have more spaciousness in my calendar. How do I do this? How do I start taking action towards this? The first step for me, it was literally to change my calendar, which is like so simple. I just go into my Calendly. I log in there and I just block things off. And so I decided that starting October 15th, I'm going to be working just four days a week. And only three of those days I'll be taking calls. So I went into my Calendly. I blocked those off. And that was like my first step initially, I was also wanting to take out a week, take off a week every month. But in the spirit of nervous system titration, I decided I'm going to pause on that for right now. And that's actually going to start. In 2024. So starting in 2024 January, I'm going to be taking a full week off from calls every month. Which gives me time to do some of that off the grid. Hiking and just having more of that spaciousness in my calendar. That I really crave. And so that's me. Taking action. Feeling the fear of doing it anyways, in a way that's uncomfortable. But also doesn't make my nervous system go into a state of panic. Then on top of that, I'm also doing this purging process in my business. I'm basically like Marie Kondo in my business. Looking at everything I'm doing. And I'm like, what? Doesn't bring me joy anymore. What actually needs to be done. Where can I focus my efforts to have the most impact. I'm basically simplifying, delegating, deleting things in my business. And taking these actions. Is what's going to allow me. To have this desire, to work less. And this is the process that I teach. Within authentic career alignment. And I teach it in much more depth and it's much more structured in the program. So let's go through a little bit of. What that can look like. When you do the inner work, What happens is you get to connect back to your desires. Like how I identified my desires for. To be off the grid more, to have less time working, like I've connected to those. You get to connect back to your desires. Also connecting back to the version of you. That maybe lost while going through medical training. We also identify your values. Your strengths. Your unique purpose. We help you understand how to follow your joy. And your desires and how to use those as. Essentially a compass that points you. In. Your ideal direction for your career? I think so many people who come to me are feeling lost and feeling directionless. And they're looking to me to give them direction. And the best thing I can give you. Is teaching you how to find your own direction. By tuning into your joy by tuning into your desires. And you'll also start feeling this excitement and this passion again. As you start to connect back to yourself. And do this inner work. What you'll discover is there are things that you enjoy. You're not broken. You're not somebody who doesn't have interests, who doesn't have desires. There are things that. Are percolating with any of that have probably always been there, you'll really get clear. On what it is you want. But then what usually comes up. The moment you. Speak out loud. That thing that you would love to do? All of the little gremlins come up. Around why that's not going to work. Why that is way too crazy of an idea why that's not realistic not practical. Why you've got a mountain of student loans just. All of the reasons for. why it's never gonna work out. And that's when we go through the making space process. Making space is identifying and releasing all of the doubts, fears, limitations, stories that are keeping you from the desires you identified. During the inner work. And when you go through this, you learn how to shift from self doubt to self-trust. And this part is so powerful. When, you know how to trust yourself. You trust your decisions, you trust your desires. You trust yourself to figure things out along the way. Which is such a powerful place to be. And you'll stop second guessing yourself and your decisions. You're going to move forward much more quickly and you won't be in this place of feeling paralyzed by fear. You also start to cultivate. A more empowering way. To think about career, to think about money, to think about your abilities. You'll be able to realize when you're. Thinking from a place of scarcity. From a place of a fixed mindset and you'll be able to shift out of those into more abundance, into more growth mindset. You'll be able to feel calm. And confident about your career direction. Because when you're not dealing with all the gremlins and all of the. The stories and the doubts and the fears. when I made my decision to leave medicine, I was doing residency in Pittsburgh and my grandparents live in Michigan. And so I remember. Going out to dinner with them. And it was still in this phase of I had turned in my resignation. But it was like November. And so it was like very new still, and people were still questioning me, trying to talk me out of it. And, I hadn't sold my stuff or, bought a ticket to South Korea yet. At the end of the dinner, my grandpa was like, wow. You seem very calm and competent. For someone who has just made such a big life decision. And I totally felt that I was like, yeah. I do feel calm. I do feel confident because I'm not making this decision based on what makes sense to other people. I'm making it based on my own inner compass. And that's the sort of confidence and calm that I want for you guys. And that's possible for you. When you learn how to systematically. Recognize and release all of this. Self-doubt finally we get into taking action. This is all the practical stuff. So the other two pieces. Are so important to make sure that you're calibrating into the correct direction because there's this quote I love that's like direction is so much more important than speed. Most people are going nowhere fast. And what I see for a lot of people is they're taking action. Tons of action and they're getting somewhere and they climb a whole ladder only to realize the ladder is tilted against the wrong wall. What's the point of rising the ladder of success. If it's in a career, that's not correct for you. There is this taking action component, which is so important, and there's going to be a much greater emphasis on this part of the equation within this round of authentic career alignment. Within the taking action piece, We build a clear roadmap for you. Towards a career that gives you freedom and fulfillment. While you have this clear roadmap, you're going to be identifying. Every week, every month, what are your move? The needle actions. And you'll have this regular check-in and accountability and support to consistently be taking this intentional decisive action. Two. Move you towards what you really want. You'll also learn how to make this whole process fun. We released the pressure to get it right. And we just allow it to be this experiment where it's fun and we get to enjoy the journey. Because one thing that we say over and over again in all my programs and all my clients know, this is like, The journey is the destination. The journey is the destination, meaning that. We're not in this place anymore. Where we're holding our breath and waiting until we hit a milestone. We're going to take action in a way where we get to enjoy each part of the journey. And so that is the process that we go through within authentic Kurt alignment. We do the inner work. We make space enemy take action. And. It's this exact process that I've gone through recently. As I'm starting to notice things feel a little bit off in my business. I did the inner work to realize these desires were starting to come through these desires of working less. These desires of having more spaciousness in my schedule. And being more supported and having more structure in my business. And then I made space. I released all of the ideas that said you can't. Change things in your business, you have to keep working six days a week. You have to. Keep churning out content, like you're on this crazy hamster wheel. You have to. Keep. It's low key sacrificing things that you want to be doing. In order to. Have other things that you want. So essentially what I mean by that is. There's. An underlying story of you. Can't just have everything you want. He can't just work four days a week and make good money. And, have the time on your calendar to go off the grid, hiking. Like you can't just have all of those things. Life is good enough as it is. Slow down and just be grateful for what you have. So there's all of these stories. That I was able to release. And then I took action. Once I had identified the desires. And released all my resistance to moving towards them. Then I was able to take the action, which honestly felt really simple that taking action process can be so simple. Once you've done the other two things, I was like, oh, okay. So I just. Go into my Calendly and change some things on the calendar. It took like maybe 10 minutes. And then I communicated things to my team and my clients, which also did not take much time either. But what I'm doing is really creating this whole new. Way of doing business I love the things I'm doing. But I just don't love the way that I'm doing them. And it's this process that we get to go through and it's this constant iteration of doing the inner work making space and taking action. That allows me to create a career that gives me freedom. And fulfillment. That is what we will be doing together within authentic career alignment. If you have enjoyed this episode, if you are interested in. Going through this process. In order to find a career. That gives you freedom and fulfillment. So that you can wake up and look forward to your day. I would love to invite you to join us with an authentic career alignment. Click the link in the show notes now. And see if he can get signed up before enrollment closes, which we close October 14th, start October 15th Thank you so much as always for listening and i will see you next week