You’ve been brainwashed your whole medical career

Have you ever accidentally broken a mirror?

There’s usually a prolonged moment as you see the accident about to happen, observe it as it does –

And then stand stunned taking in the display of shattered glass all over the floor.

This moment is not too dissimilar to becoming disillusioned with your career.

It’s the same sense of OMG no, how has this happened? How could I have been so foolish? What could I have done to prevent it?

But with a mirror you have unignorable evidence of:

• The brokenness
• The dysfunction
• The shattered dream

You see at some point you had a dream of becoming a doctor and experiencing all the benefits that come with that role. Saving lives, making money, feeling fulfilled, being respected.

So when that dream is broken by disillusionment you’re now in a situation where you have broken glass all over the floor.

After that moment of stunned silence what do you do?

Do you pick up the pieces and try and put them back together again in the shape of the original mirror?

Do you try and rearrange them somehow into an alternative shape?

Or do you simply throw them away and get a new mirror?

The problem I’m talking about here is the problem of being unable to create a new dream because you’re too caught up in the brokenness of your original dream.

The system has conditioned you to believe that medicine is a lifelong commitment, a noble calling you’re bound to for better or worse.

Stepping away is failure and you can't fail or you will die! This is the brainwashing that prevents you being able to create a new dream.

And without a new powerful dream to be pulled towards you’ll never be able to truly accept leaving medicine as a success rather than a failure.

I know this because I’ve been there. I was already disillusioned and heading for burn out in my final year of GP training. I thought to myself,

“I don’t actually want to be a GP until I retire but I might as well give it a try for a few years and earn some money.”

I vividly remember shaking my head as I declined a salaried position at my training practice.

I knew at any moment I might decide I wanted to leave or worse burn out.

I opted for locum work for the flexibility to jump in and out of the fire – But even with more control over my schedule, I couldn’t escape the gnawing dissatisfaction.

To be honest with you at that point I secretly thought that I might make it as a DJ and be able to leave clinical practice. I'd even paid £500 for DJ lessons only to attend one and then give up.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and the relentless pressure of the NHS backlog came as an aftershock that reverberated through my sense of purpose.

It was the wake-up call I needed to acknowledge that the life I was living wasn’t sustainable.

Desperate for change, I spent 9 months trying to force myself into a career as a software engineer but it wasn’t a good fit. I’d explored all the other cookie cutter non-clinical employed options like pharma, health tech and occupational health but nothing suited me.

Each dead end reinforced the belief that I was trapped. But then whilst looking for something to watch on YouTube I stumbled upon the concept of ‘Solopreneurship’.

I wanted to be self-employed, in control of my own time and feel fulfilled. I saw the possibility to have all of this by building a career around my passions and personal brand.

It wasn’t a case finding a new job; it was a matter of creating a new life that aligned with my values and aspirations.

I didn’t have to buy a brand new mirror from a limited range of options. I just had to start thinking outside the box to find different mirror pieces from elsewhere, that I could use to create an entirely unique hybrid mirror.

This would be the dream that would pull me out of medicine.

Creating a new Dream

Okay enough of the mirror metaphor. How do you actually create a new dream once your medical one breaks?

It all comes down to reprogramming your mind.

Identifying Limiting Beliefs

Your medical career is riddled with limiting beliefs.

Beliefs are things you assume are true about the world without any proof or evidence.

They’re like unwritten rules that dictate your actions and filter the information that you perceive.

To be able to create a new dream you have to eradicate the limiting beliefs associated with your previous career.

The easiest way to do this is to answer one important question about any belief that you have -

How is it serving you?

Here’s an example:

You believe that being a doctor is a safe job and you shouldn’t risk leaving.

How is that serving you?

• Going to bed anxious the night before work?
• Spending your day off rotting in bed scrolling social media?
• Not having any time to do any hobbies or hang out with your friends and family?

These are negative experiences resulting from a belief that you shouldn’t leave medicine.

When a belief results in outcomes that you don’t want –  it’s a limiting belief.

When a belief results in outcomes that you do want – it’s an empowering belief.

Letting Go of Limiting Beliefs

For the majority of people letting go of their limiting beliefs is all that’s needed for them to realise what their new dream is.

Imagine, for a moment, that anything is possible. Forget about the constraints of your current career.

What would you do if failure wasn’t an option? What would your dream life look like? Allow yourself to dream without judgment.

This exercise can help you identify the passions and interests that have been buried under years of medical conditioning.

Develop a growth mindset

If you find the above questions difficult to answer the chances are that you might have a fixed mindset.

If that’s you I’m gonna be real with you now because you need to hear this.

The reason you can’t think of a new dream is because your mindset is fixed in your current reality.

• Your current skills
• Your current contacts
• Your current experience.
• Your current financial situation

You won’t allow yourself to imagine a future that isn’t possible with what you have right now.

But we're not interested in right now, we're interested in the FUTURE, things change, you can grow, you can learn, you can develop. But you can’t do that if you don’t have anything to grow towards.

Here’s an example that illustrates the transition from fixed to growth mindset.

In the movie ‘The Invention of Lying’, Ricky Gervaise’s character is the only person in the world physically capable of lying. He tries to explain his newly discovered ability to his friend by saying,

 ‘I just said something that isn’t’

This is the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset. Except you're not lying - it just hasn't happened yet.

People with growth mindsets can have thoughts that are not compatible with their current situation AND believe that they are possible.

Developing new Beliefs Challenge

Here’s my challenge to you this week.

Write down 10 random or work related things that you're able to do now – that you couldn't do 10 years ago.

Keep thinking about it over the course of the week if they don't come straight away.

Once you have 10 things written down for each of them ask yourself:

What’s the difference between the point in the past at which you first tried it

And

The moment you are in right now in relation to trying something new?

Message me with your insights or schedule a free introductory coaching call to explore them further together.

Final thoughts

Deciding to leave clinical medicine is one of the most challenging decisions you can make.

It requires you to challenge the deeply ingrained beliefs that have shaped your identity and create a bigger and better dream to pull you out.

As hard as that seems right now it’s an opportunity to create a life that aligns with your values, passions, and dreams.

You’re capable of so much more than you're allowing yourself to explore. Don’t let limiting beliefs hold you back anymore.

Stay healthy

Lewis