Show Notes:

Hello, hello, and welcome back. We are so close, my friends, to the end of the year. This is episode 49 of 50 and we are nearing that finish line. As we edge towards the close of 2021, I was interested to know which topics that I’ve shared so far have resonated most with you, the listener. So I took a look at the episodes that had the most downloads and here’s what I found out.

The top three most popular shows, based on your listenership, were episode 1 all about integrating work and family life, episode 13 about having a bulletproof mind, and episode 45 about anxiety. 

So here’s what this tells me. Given the current climate in medicine, you’re anxious about the future and the uncertainty in your industry or even your life. You want certainty. Perhaps you want things to go back to how they were before this pandemic. You don’t like what this has done to your work and you’re feeling it.

What you want is to have a sense of purpose in your career that isn’t overshadowed by unrealistic expectations or mountains of stress. You likely love what you do and want to be able to stay in medicine for the long-haul but don’t know how you’ll manage because this is taking a massive toll on your mental health.

Which is why having a bulletproof mind seems critical. You understand there are things that are outside of your control. You want to be able to manage stress better and be mentally strong. And you are, but there’s always room for improvement. 

In fact, just the other day, one of my clients asked me a question. It was almost like she had a revelation but she was checking in to see if she got it right. I guess previously she had this notion that when she completes her coaching with me, she would be good to go. She will have learned everything there is to know and she would be able to move forward without looking back. 

And you know what I told her? I compared personal development to cleaning your house. Just because you’ve dusted your furniture doesn’t mean more dust won’t come back around next week. You have to keep dusting if you want your furniture to be dust free. 

When it comes to our minds, we need to build up certain skills, but it’s not enough to learn these. You have to implement them and it’s when the tough gets going that you’re truly put to the test. 

Another client of mine recently reached out. She’s having a hard time with others in her place of work and I encouraged her to complete a thought download to get some clarity, or to make order of the chaos in her mind. 

But she had a hard time getting through even that exercise, which can happen. That’s part of the brain fog that takes over our ability to focus when we’re stressed.

Amazingly, though, she was able to capture in an email all the thoughts circling through her mind and sent them to me so I can tease them apart and help her see each one of them individually so she could work through them. And sometimes we need that –  someone to help us make sense of our own brain because we’ve got blindspots and also, when our emotions run high, we can’t think rationally. 

If you’re not familiar with what a thought download is, it’s simply writing down what happened, identifying your thoughts about the event, how that makes you feel, and what you’ve done as a result. 

The first area that trips people up is distinguishing between what’s real and what isn’t. What I mean by that is that they think their thoughts are factual. That’s part of the power of this exercise. You have to tease the two apart and it helps you see what you truly have control over and what you don’t.  So if you’re having massive stress or anxiety, this is a great exercise to do.

It works well for any and all emotions, really, because it helps you see how you have many thoughts for each event which explains why you have so many feelings about it. When you look at the thoughts individually, you can see how they tie together with your emotions and when you then ask yourself some powerful questions like, “What would I like to feel given this situation,” you reverse engineer your thoughts. 

But getting back to what started us off on this topic, we are on episode 49. When I began this show last January, I set out to create at least 50 episodes, and I have to say — it feels so good to be nearly there. 

So when we talk about having a bulletproof mind, part of it is creating goals and having structures in place. It’s not enough to say, “I’m going to start a podcast.” By telling myself that I plan to create one episode a week for 50 weeks, I have a very precise goal to follow. 

I think part of what gets us stressed out is that we feel like the demands on us are too much. We tell ourselves we can’t cope. But when you create goals that are specific, you know what you’re doing and when you’ll be doing it. You plan ahead and because you have a specific time frame, you also know when you’ll be done. 

There doesn’t need to be needless stress and anxiety around your goals and if there is, you might have to restructure them. It might be a sign that they are unrealistic.

So think about what’s currently stressing you out or what the biggest stressors were of 2021. How did you manage them? What can you take away that will help you move forward? 

When we take the time to reflect on our year, we become wiser. This all helps with resilience.

For instance, when it comes to work-life balance, what got knocked down that perhaps you were able to recover from or would like to still recover? What goals can you put into place for next year to address this?

The clearer you get about what’s important to you, the more focused you can be in how you manage your time and energy.

And that’s what it’s really all about. 

So I’ve shared the 3 most popular topics amongst my women in medicine: Anxiety, work-life balance, and creating that bulletproof mind. 

But here’s what’s most surprising. When I looked at which episode got the least play, it was episode 11 which was about joy in medicine. 

Given how much burnout is on the rise for you all, I would have thought this would have been a popular topic. So when few of you tuned into that episode, I can only assume that you’re already joyful in your career. What you want is not more joy but more balance. 

Hopefully I got that right. 

Well, here’s what you missed. In that episode, I talk about the difference between joy and happiness. I think that’s an interesting concept to consider because we all want to feel happy, but what does that even mean? 

If you want to find out, go back and listen to episode 11. 

Meanwhile, I want to take this opportunity to wish you happy holidays. I’ll be back next week for that final episode of the year where I’ll be sharing with you my plans for 2022. And hopefully, you all are starting to reflect on this past year and considering what’s next in the year to come. 

No matter what you’re currently going through, know that you don’t have to go it alone. If you’d like to work with me, book your Breakthrough Session by going to www.bookachatwithsharon.com

Until next time, stay badass!