Doctors leaving medicine is becoming more common? But maybe you are thinking of leaving and wondering, what if it doesn’t work out?
This is a common fear I hear from so many doctors leaving medicine. Making any sort of life or career change generally requires you to take a bit of a gamble. It requires you to jump, hoping that the net will catch you on the way down.
In this podcast episode I talk about how to take the leap in your career- when there are no guarantees.
I share with you….
- Details of my own personal leap out of medicine.
- Stories of leaps that my clients have taken
- The law of vacuum and the Buddhist philosophy of “open palms”
- How to build self trust and develop the courage to take your very own leap
This episode is packed with inspirational quotes, poems and all the things that have helped me jump into the unknown time and time again.
Click here to listen on apple podcasts.
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Doctors Leaving Medicine Take a Risk
Doctors leaving medicine may feel scared about taking a giant leap into the unknown. It feels risky. I get it. So many of us stay in the good enough because there’s not a guarantee of the great. Or worse, we stay put in the not good enough because there’s not a guarantee that anything better will come along.
There’s a sense of “Well what would I even do when leaving medicine?.”
or the “I can’t really think of anything else, so I might as well just stay put in what I have.” Until we have our next career path surely lined up, it can be hard to let go of our current career. Even when we are miserable in our current career.
But in my experience and in the work I’ve done with clients, when you are brave enough to take the leap, that is when opportunities open up for you.
One of my favorite quotes from the book, Untamed talks about this:
“There is a life meant for you that is truer than the one you’re living. But in order to have it, you will have to forge it yourself. You will have to create on the outside what you are imagining on the inside. Only you can bring it forth. And it will cost you everything.”
Glennon Doyle, Untamed
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Two Ideas that Help me Deal with the Unknown
The law of vacuum means that whenever you have the courage to let go of what’s no longer good enough, you make space for something else to come in. The Universe hates a vacuum and so rushes in to fill it up. But, the whole process feels risky. You have to let go when there are no guarantees. Sometimes quitting clinical medicine creates a vacuum that allows new opportunities to come into your life.
Holding your career with open palms is a Buddhist philosophy. When you hold something with open palms you don’t cling to it too tightly. You are willing to let go of what no longer serves you. You also allow space for what does serve you to come in.
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Examples of Doctors Leaving Medicine
I want to share examples of people who have taken the leap. When I was leaving medicine I didn’t have my next steps fully lined up. I knew I wanted to explore life coaching and travel blogging. I knew I wanted to get a job teaching English, but outside of that, my plans were pretty vague.
One of my clients recently was quitting clinical medicine and also had to take a leap. She desperately wanted to get out of the hospital and was working in a contract position. The contract position wasn’t working out for her, and even though she wanted to use it to leave the hospital, she had to quit. However after she initially quit the contract position (and created a vacuum), they came back with an incredible offer for her.
Taking the leap is never easy, but when you are bold enough to do something daring you will be rewarded.
