Every physician has had the experience. The moment you ask yourself, “Why am I doing this?”
It could be when you look into the waiting room where there are more patients to be seen and know if you take a break it will set you back even further.
It could be on the final stretch of the 24-hr shift that redefined the meaning of the word ‘nonstop’.
It could be the third time you answer the phone to clarify an order because the new computer system only allows for the order to be formatted in a certain way.
It could be when you take stock of your life and career and things don’t add up. You’re not where you thought you’d be in your career, your finances, or your life.
But what if the very things you think are minuses, obstacles, and challenges are the very things that are taking you to your desired outcome, if only you could stop thinking of them as stumbling blocks and see them as stepping-stones?
What if you could see the moments of feeling uncomfortable and discouraged as defining the next steps to breakthrough to success in life and in medicine?
Are you willing to give up now and accept where you are as final when with a few shifts you can bring the target into view?
The success you seek is the naturally unfolding.
3 Steps For Physicians To Shift From Stuck to Unstoppable
- Expand your vision. When challenges arise or you are feeling frustrated and your energy is drained ask yourself, what would it look like if you were living fully into your passion and purpose. How would the day flow? How does your team support your efforts? What are you grateful for? In the very moment of frustration, stop. Interrupt the pattern of complaining and replace it with expansive thinking.
- Energize your vision. Feel into the vision you created. Release the present feelings of stress, overwhelm and frustration. Replace them with positive energy as you appreciate a team that supports you. What does it feel like to be happy with a workday that flows? Love your patients. Imagine how the patient visit flows when communication is optimal so patients ask clarifying questions to improve their compliance with your care plan. How does it feel when you know you’ve made a positive impact in your patient’s life? After all that’s part of the reason you pursued a medical career.
- Empower yourself. Now bring this new expanded, energized vision into your reality. What is the one next step you commit to that will make the difference in how you manage your energy and your thoughts in the clinical setting? With this new energy as your foundation how will you now respond to what the day presents to you? When you bring this new awareness to your experience you shift from feeling stuck to becoming unstoppable.
As clinicians we live at the patient bedside. We narrow our focus to see what’s the next thing that needs to be done to ensure the best patient outcomes. We get sucked into trouble shooting for the team. We lose sight of the power that resides in our life calling and purpose. In being the best at our jobs, we stop living into our best selves.
When we tap into the energy of our calling, we become unstoppable. We see the greater purpose for our journey in medicine. We grow and expand into the person we are meant to be who shows up even more fully in every area of life. And that’s when success is revealed to us in every moment.
