As a coach specializing in helping female physicians struggling with balancing meaningful work, family life, and well-being, by far the commonest question asked of me is “how can I feel less burnt out?”
As if it was as simple as:
giving a checklist
a neat strategy
or a prescription for change.
As with most things in life, the answer is “that depends.” And that’s true if you’re looking for real solutions.
You’re a doctor.
You know that you can treat symptoms in the short-term without addressing the root cause (and therefore the long-term problem keeps causing more crises to pop up).
When you tell me you feel overwhelmed, overloaded, and burnt out, you might cite one of the following problems:
Your mother fell and broke her hip and now you need to apply for LTC.
Your partner is not helpful.
Your child is being bullied at school and you feel like you failed as a parent.
Your team members have labelled you as “the slow-mo doc.”
You received your second patient complaint in a row.
You want to leave a toxic relationship, but dread being single and trying again.
You can’t seem to say no when someone asks you to join a committee (even if you hate the work).
You can’t get good sleep.
These are all PROBLEMS, i.e. symptoms. I’m not saying these problems don’t matter. They DO matter. And they are tough problems to solve.
But what is the CAUSE?
Minds are tricky that way, right?
The dramas that play out in your private life often surface as signals at work. You feel the signals as burnout especially when work is demanding and you haven’t peed or had a chance to properly take a break.
Someone else is always asking to be first to receive your care and guidance.
But if burnout is the symptom, what is the underlying cause?
That’s the inner work that you deserve to find out.
That’s the inner work you must find out to avoid future regret.
But that’s also the inner work that seems scary.
It might seem confusing to know where to start, but I’ve walked this path myself. It’s a learnable and repeatable process.
Let’s break down this process over the next few weeks.
Question: “What symptom feels like overload for you right now?”
