Are You Making Room For You To Do What You Want To?

Check your schedule. Examine your day or your weekly planner. Is there anything scheduled for you to do what you want to? Do you think there is the desired amount of time scheduled to do what you want?

Intentional planning your day is the key to making room to do what you want to, through thinking differently.

You may be thinking that you do not have any time slots available in your day to fit more things in. You already packed your day with work, running errands and family obligations. Your focus is based on your logic and the practical way you are living right now. It seems impossible to have the mental space and the time to even think more about yourself, let alone be making the space and time to do what your heart desires.

The main focus to make room for yourself is not on the execution or the action, but it is on your opinion about your day. If you believe that there is absolutely no room to do more than you are doing, then it is quite impossible to find the room for yourself.

Plan your day with you in mind. When you get to do what you want to, even if it is just a small thing, you will feel more in control, less stressed, and will be able to find more opportunities to do what you want.

As a physician, you experienced very strenuous and trying years of training to become a full-fledged attending, unlike most other professions. As your life has been patient-centered, that implies you are the second most important thing at best. But the need for each individual to do what is desired has not changed; you simply suppress it, consciously or subconsciously. So you are left with either not knowing what you truly desire to do, or you are in resentment because you cannot do what you want to do.

If you have not been able to make room to do what you want to, it is not your fault. For years in medical school and in your training, you were taught to think of others first. It was even to the point that thinking about doing something for yourself was selfish. Patient safety first. Patients’ interest first. That, at least to some physicians, meant no room to take care of themselves.

Do not expect others, including your administration, your employer or your colleagues to give you the room and space to do what you want to. Their focus is on efficiency, patient care, physician generated revenue, safe practice, reputation, etc. If you do not decide to make room for yourself, it is not the priority of someone else at work to do that for you.

That is why I have made it my mission to help physicians to make room now. To make room to do what you want, even with a full day’s work. To make room to enjoy life outside of work.

If you do not make room now, you will continue to believe that is impossible to have a life outside of work. That you do not deserve you have a life besides work. If this belief is strong enough, you may even think it is forever out of reach for you to do something you want in life.

You see, a few years ago, I was just focusing on patient care, on helping other people – patients and non-patients alike. I thought I did not matter, and that making room for myself to do what I wanted to was a luxurious dream. That it was not possible for me. But I wanted to help people and feel alive, not drained. So I hired a physician life coach. That was transformational and enlightening. Now, even though I have the same workload, I feel content and alive. I also gained the mental capacity, space and time and do what I enjoy – to help other physicians the way I want to help, with life coaching. I am doing more and feel more grateful, content and fulfilled – not drained.

It is important to know that there is room for you to do what you want, if you desire to do it. Make the decision to believe it. When you believe it is possible, your brain will be open to different ideas to achieve your desire.

You get to decide what to do. If you choose to change nothing, then nothing will change. If you do not have room for yourself to do things you want, it will stay that way. Or if you try to do it yourself without guidance, it may take a lot longer than you want. Or let me do the heavy lifting for you and guide you through the process. As I have been there, done that, you will save a lot of time, effort and energy to achieve the same goal. All you have to do is to make a decision. Only you can decide what is best for you.