What am I going to do? I have no transferable skills. This is what someone actually wrote on one of the medical Facebook groups I’m in after they found out they failed their boards. I had to really sit and marinate on that particular comment.
This is what most of us believe as physicians. We limit ourselves to traditional patient care.
We are placed, or place ourselves in a box of working 8-5 (usually longer) and call shifts in the setting of an office or a hospital. We are afraid to see ourselves outside of medicine because for so long we allowed medicine to define us. When I meet someone new, I usually don’t reveal I’m a physician because for the longest I thought that was the best part about me. But that is so far from the truth.
The same skills that you used to study for endless hours, to take call for 24+ hours , to take 9 hour exams, memorize hundreds of pathways, algorithms and formulas are the same skills you use to start a business, invest, record that podcast and write the book. The same tenacity that you used to complete 4 years of medical school, 4 years of residency and fellowship training are the ones you use to become the CEO of a start up, to become a TedEx speaker and to invest and buy real estate. Stop limiting yourself.
If you couldn’t fail what would you do? Write it down. And then work towards it. I bet if you look at the “notes” section in your phone right now you have your next business idea sitting right there in front of you.
You have gifts you haven’t even begun to tap into yet
You have people who are waiting on you to share your gifts
Being overworked, burnt out and resenting your job isn’t cute. The time spent, student loans and the perception of others keep most of us from stepping out on faith. You are not limited to your current profession. You can use it to leverage the life you really want. I realized that when I took a step back to reevaluate what was truly important to me it actually made me fall in love with medicine and patient care again while still having more time for my family and myself.
You can create the life you want and deserve.
