Working in medicine is an incredibly rewarding career. Few other careers can have such an immediate impact on our patients’ lives. Yet, many times in that pursuit of becoming a doctor or nurse, our personal goals suffer in order to achieve our career goals.
Additionally, we think we achieved our career goals only to feel uninspired and unmotivated at work. All too often, we reach the proverbial mountaintop of becoming a doctor or nurse and simply stop growing professionally. Yes, you may complete the obligatory continuing medical education (CME) courses, but those often leave you unfulfilled.
You feel like a hamster on a wheel, wondering to yourself, “Is this really it? Is this how it’s going to be the rest of my life?” It’s about this time when you become emotionally detached from work and switch into autopilot mode. This ultimately bleeds into your family life as well and toward the dark road of burnout.
If this sounds familiar, consider this…your personal and career goals are not aligned. If you want oversized success at work and at home, keep reading.
Learn to Align Personal and Career Goals
1. Start with Vision
Your professional goal may have been to become a doctor or nurse, but over the long haul, that alone will not cause you to thrive in medicine. All too often, we graduate from medical and nursing school and let out a big exhale, for we have truly achieved much. We spent hours at our desks, patient bedsides, and classrooms in that pursuit, often at the expense of reduced times with our families.
However, graduation was not the end; it was only the beginning. You haven’t reached the mountaintop; you just reached base camp! For next-level success and to be extraordinary, you need a vision of what that success looks like.
I keep two vision boards beside my desk-a personal one and a career one. I keep them side by side as they are uniquely different but need to be connected. It’s needed to remind myself of the balance that is necessary for both to succeed.
Create a Vision Board
If you think that vision boards are ridiculous, you are not harnessing one of the most powerful tools for your success. Have you ever observed your favorite athlete’s ritual before game time? They seem to be talking to themselves, but actually, they visualize themselves after the event–as a winner.
“People are working harder than ever, but because they lack clarity and vision, they aren’t getting very far. They, in essence, are pushing a rope with all their might.”-Stephen R. Covey
Don’t complicate this. A career vision board simply forces you to be intentional and clear on your current profession’s goals and goals for your ultimate career position. Dream Big! This is the place to do it.
2. Find Work That Matters
Are you working in an environment where you are thriving? Does it fit into your personal life? Do you feel inspired and challenged at work? These questions will help you find a work environment that aligns with your career goals. Please, under any circumstances, work at a job that is financially rewarding but drains your energy and wellness. Yes, you may be financially richer, but it will drain every part of your mental, emotional and physical health. You will suffer, as will your family and patients that you serve.
Finding work that you enjoy begins by taking an inventory of your skills, personality, and career goals. Second, where do you and your family want to live? In our zest to find the “perfect” career, we often neglect incorporating being intentional about where we want to live. Even worse is the converse–we live in a “perfect” neighborhood and try to accommodate your career to your zip code.
3. Career Goals Must Match Your Version of Success
As physicians and nurses, we have trained to work hard, study hard, and success will follow. And that is absolutely true–to a point. There is a false perception in medicine that being the best is within one’s reach if one just tries hard enough.
And that’s precisely where the problem starts.
The typical scenario is this: you work more–staying in the hospital far longer than you need (nor even want), you stay in the lab just a little bit longer to “run just one more experiment,” then you look back and begin wondering, “who am I doing this for?” Yes, you convince yourself, at first, that it is for you and your family, but if you are honest with yourself, you are doing it for external accolades, acknowledgment, and, perhaps, financial gain.
This flawed thinking does make a lot of sense because, frankly, it has worked for many of us. That’s how many of us achieved “success” in our careers–we worked hard, if not harder than our peers.
But it is not sustainable.
I want to be clear that I am not suggesting you should not pursue success. In fact, quite the opposite–I want oversized success for you. But I want you to pursue YOUR success. What does success look like for you? All too often, we compare ourselves to those farther along on their road to success and feel that if you just “outwork” that person, you will be “the best.”
A New York Times Bestseller, Jon Acuff, states this perfectly: “Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle.” Take a moment to re-read that and let it sink in. It’s a mindset shift that is a good reminder for all of us to remember.
Be 1% Better EVERY Day
As I see it, we have two choices–you can continue to be someone else’s best, or you can focus on becoming your best, focusing on becoming 1% better every day. Many of us understand the concept of compounding. The term is used in finance commonly. Even Albert Einstein appreciated the power of compounding in a widely referenced quote “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it earns it…he who doesn’t…pays it.”
If you worked on getting 1% better every day in one year, you would have improved a whopping 3800%. Now that’s a goal worth pursuing!
Make 1% better every day your superpower. You will be amazed at the results. Granted, you won’t see immediate results. And that’s the point. Truly successful people have “staying power.” Yes, they work hard but not necessarily harder or longer. They are consistent, though. Almost obsessively so.
What Are Your Career Goals?
Take the time to review the tips above. Give yourself 15-20 minutes of uninterrupted time and get very clear on your career goals, and put them next to your personal goals. Are they aligned? Set aside time to speak with colleagues, friends, and your significant others to get their perspectives.
Above all, start. Do this today! Don’t let another day at work leave you feeling unfulfilled, unmotivated, or uninspired. Do not settle. Enjoy the work that you do and constantly work toward your career goals.
Until next time, be good to yourself and each other.
