I’ve had a few moments in my life where time seems to stand still.
I’m not talking about being in the flow of creativity or about a near-death experience. I’m referring to those times where a sudden realization makes you reconsider how you’ve viewed yourself or your life in fundamental ways.
After leaving clinical practice, I was dogged by guilt and shame for at least a decade. I viewed my choice as proof of weakness, that I “couldn’t hack” being a doctor. I kept to myself professionally, working quietly in my home office as a freelance writer for nonprofit organizations.
My story and my voice remained hidden. It felt safer that way.
Then, the coach I’d hired to help me navigate life as a newly divorced working mother sat me down one day. By then, we’d worked out the basics of my life. She looked me in the eye and said words that stopped time.
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“Why have you never told your story about burnout and leaving medicine publicly? It could help someone.” To my stunned silence, she added, “You know, what you did was courageous.”
Her reframing of the situation transformed how I saw my life—and my subsequent career.
In 2011, I shared my story on an NPR blog. There were 26,000 views in a week, and physicians began contacting me with their personal stories. The rest, as they say, is history. In the time since, I have dedicated my career to working with physicians to create sustainable careers.
A physician client of mine recently shared that she sees coaching as “The School of Unlearning.” She has found new awarenesses and new ways of responding that have transformed her career too. Her work environment is still stressful, but she sets limits now that mitigate the stress and allow her to live a full life.
I too unlearned something in coaching. My perception of myself, and therefore my choices about my career, were limited and fixed. It was a trusted coach who opened my eyes and inspired me to reshape the trajectory of my life.
What perceptions of yourself might be fixed—and holding you back by limiting your options? How might you begin to shift them? I encourage you to ask yourself these questions today.
Diane W. Shannon is a physician, professional coach, author, and health care writer who helps women physicians build influential, sustainable careers without sacrificing their well-being. She can be found at dianeshannon.com.
She brings more than 20 years of expertise in physician burnout, women physician leadership, and building sustainable physician workplaces. After experiencing burnout early in her own primary care career, she dedicated her work to understanding why talented physicians struggle and what it takes for both individuals and organizations to thrive. Drawing on her experience as both a physician and award-winning health care writer, she helps women physicians expand their leadership, navigate career transitions, and avoid burnout, while partnering with health care organizations to retain physicians, develop women leaders, and strengthen workplace culture.
Dr. Shannon is coauthor of Preventing Physician Burnout: Curing the Chaos and Returning Joy to the Practice of Medicine, a TEDx speaker, and cofounder of Lead Your Way Academy. Her writing on burnout, cognitive load, and physician well-being has appeared in Massachusetts Medical Society publications, the American Medical Association’s STEPS Forward toolkit series, and on WBUR. She shares updates on LinkedIn and Instagram.
