During my MBA, I had the opportunity to work with a career coach. And it was an amazing experience! One of the questions my coach asked me was this:
“If you were invited to do a TED talk, what idea would you want to share with the world?”
Wow.
And you know what?
I didn’t have an answer.
When I reflect on that question now, I realize I didn’t have an answer because of three things:
First, I was at the very start of recognizing my burnout. I wasn’t even taking care of basic needs.
Second, I didn’t know myself well enough. I certainly didn’t know how I might be able to serve others beyond reading their ECGs, putting their bones back into place, and giving antibiotics. I thought medicine was what I was trained to do…
And third, other than aerospace medicine and the MBA (which, in retrospect, was kind of an academic experiment), I hadn’t experimented with many activities outside of medicine-adjacent fields.
Since I was a huge fan of National Geographic, I remember asking my career coach how I might be able to pivot into a career as a documentary photographer/emerging explorer.
Haha, she was quite stunned by my question!
Doctor —> (everyone scratching their heads) —> documentary photographer?
She didn’t have a clear answer. Of course, it also wasn’t her question to answer. It was mine. It was my path to explore.
So here’s the truth about navigating career transitions–it happens in small steps, yields unpredictable results, and will lead you down unforeseen paths.
It requires a certain amount of “letting-go-of-control” for career pivots to blossom.
You might try to intellectualize your end goals, but the reality is that you need to trust the process of discovery of each experimental hop. And each hop, if it is fueled by your interests and makes you happy, can lead you to opportunities you would never have imagined…
Question: “how might you need to let go of control?”
