It is a big turning point for most doctors when they realize that leaving medicine isn’t the answer to feeling trapped in medicine.

The truth is you have all of the power you need, right now, in your current job to enjoy medicine again.

But first, you’ll have to deal with some hard truths. This article today, the hard truths we are going to dive into, are only for the brave and courageous.  If that’s you, let’s go.  

Today’s Thought 

Today’s thought is this:

When you position yourself as a victim, you remove all of the power you have to be who and what you want.  Only YOU can give this power away.  And only YOU can take it back.

Life is about shifting paradigms.  About changing the narrative of the story that we tell (often ourselves) about a situation. 

When you tell yourself a story in which you are the victim trapped in medicine, you believe that as the victim you have no control to change the situation. Your brain really begins to believe that leaving medicine is the only way out. 

But, what if that’s not true? What if inside of the victim, you could be the hero in your story?

I Use To Be The Victim 

For the past couple of years, I was positioning myself as a victim until pretty recently.  

You may or may not know my story of going through physician burnout in the midst of having a smoldering Grave’s disease diagnosis.

Of being on the golf course (one of my favorite places to be) when I had my first panic attack after the group behind us teed a ball off that flew right by my head. (It turns out that when your TSH is undetectable, handling these situations becomes a real challenge).

And then that ultimate moment when I got passed up for a leadership position in my department. It was a position that I had expressed interest in for years, and that I had been previously groomed to overtake. 

For the next year and a half I positioned myself as the victim of an unfair situation.

At the time, I didn’t have all of the facts, and so my brain did what all of our brains do, it filled in the gaps with the worst imaginable story to make sense of the situation. It filled in those gaps in order to protect me and make me feel better. 

It would take me the next two years to realize that the story my brain had come up with only positioned me as the victim of an unfair situation.  

I became bitter and angry. Disengaged at work in some of the things I had previously enjoyed. Practically leaving medicine. At least, thinking that leaving medicine was the only option. I reacted like the victim that my thoughts were making me out to be. My thoughts and actions were full of spite.  

The bitterness that raged inside of me for the better part of two years was set to consume me. It impacted my home life, work life, and just about everything else. 

The problem? I was disengaging from so many other things out of spite.  Out of bitterness.  Out of anger.  

Until I realized what I had been doing and  the thought model that changed my life.

The Transformation

One day, it all clicked that it was up to me how I responded. 

This realization came when something inspired me to realize that I was not showing up as the kind of person I want to be, and that deep down I knew I was. 

This inspiration came while I was getting coaching and reading a book. 

This book is old. It was originally published in 1989, but the truths in this book are timeless.

The book is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and when the author, Stephen Covey, gets to the chapter on proactivity he talks a lot about focusing more on “Being than Having.” Focusing on who we want to be rather than on what we need to do or what we want to have.

That was when it clicked.  

It is up to me to no longer place myself in the position of being a victim of an unfair situation, and, instead, to control what I can control. To show up as the man I know I am. As the husband and father that my family deserves.  

And that I can be the hero of my own story, no matter the situation. No matter the circumstance. 

The Hard Truth

It was a hard-truth to take on, but I had more power than I realized. 

And you do too. 

You have the power to choose what lens and perspective through which you view your reality. No matter the circumstances that happen around you, it is 100% completely up to you to determine how you will respond to situations, no matter how impossible that might seem.

Becoming bitter and angry is one option. Or you can choose to focus on who you are and who you want to be, even in the midst of the worst possible circumstances. (This is exactly what we teach our Alpha clients when we coach them.) 

There is a long standing idea from the time of Socrates, that some things are out of our control (in coaching we call these circumstances). These are things we have to accept, because we do not control them.

Other things are in our direct control, and are therefore things we can change. 

And one thing we can always control includes our thoughts, feelings, and actions in the midst of these uncontrollable external circumstances. 

Nelson Mandela is an excellent example of this concept. Despite being jailed during Apartheid in South Africa from 1962 until 1990, Mandela refused to give power over to his captors or to let them determine his self-worth, identity, or purpose. 

They could take his clothes. Force him to work. Emotionally and physically abused him,  but his mind was the one thing Mandela, and Mandela alone, could control.  

The Problem  

Ultimately, you have two choices when faced with circumstances that you see as unfair or unjust.  

You can do what most people do and choose to see yourself as a victim of the circumstances.  Or you can choose to position yourself as the hero of your own story. 

You can choose to be the victim and leave medicine. Or you can choose to be the hero, empowering yourself in ways that make how you practice medicine your choice. 

What do I mean?

Well, when you feel like you are trapped in medicine by moral injury, burnout, are unappreciated, unheard, or overworked. When you have no control over the administrators and insurance companies that seem to rule the world of medicine, you can choose to become bitter and angry.

You can choose to react with rage and ultimately leave medicine. 

But in doing this you have positioned yourself as the victim in your own mind. And medicine has lost someone it needs. 

And this, my friends, is the problem.  

When you choose the road of becoming a victim, you have not only lost emotionally, you have also lost control of your own thoughts, feelings, and, worst of all, the way you show up in this world.

You Have Two Choices 

Ultimately, you have two choices when faced with circumstances that seem unfair or unjust. You can choose to be miserable or you can choose to take control of the situation. You have the power to choose your response.

And that is what this is all about. It is about taking back your power by learning how to understand the way your mind and feelings interact. It’s about positioning yourself as the hero of your own story, not the victim. 

A hero who can triumph, despite great odds. Who can choose to rise above, no matter what is going on around you.  

Who can work to shift their paradigm and perspective. Who can pray for the serenity to accept the things you cannot change, courage to stand up for the things you can, and wisdom to know the difference.

Because medicine needs you.

If you want to learn how to always harness the power you have to enjoy medicine again without having to leave medicine, get on the interest list for our next enrollment of the Alpha Coaching Experience at thephysicianphilosopher.com/waitlist.

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