A Hinderance to Your Happiness: Feeling Bad about Not Fitting in All Your Patients!

One of the main issues I hear from my Doctor coaching clients is that their schedule is way overbooked and that there is nothing they can do about it. Their office staff continues to double book appointments or put a new patient in right before the break they have blocked off for themselves or just at the end of the day when they are supposed to leave. These are the same doctors who tell me that what would make them leap for joy is to leave on time a few days a week and actually get home early to spend some quality time with their family.

So, what's the solution? Well, first of all, there is ALWAYS a solution! That's the first thing that my doctor clients learn and embrace during the coaching process - that even though they don't know the exact HOW it is going to happen, that it is essential to believe that they could have a schedule that runs smoothly and gets them out on time.

If you are always focused on "hectic" schedule and "I'm always running late" -- of course you are going to continue to attract this exact situation again and again and again. This is what I discussed in my previous post about what you expect.

But there is another aspect that plays into the solution of an overbooked schedule of patients -- you have to set some boundaries. You teach people how to treat you and YES, that includes your staff. I have one client who always has her staff overbooking her and does this way more often to her than her partner in their medical practice. Why is that? Because she "feels bad". She wants to be able to see all her patients. She doesn't want to be stopped in her small town by a patient and be told that they couldn't get in and hear complaints on her personal time.

But here's the dilemma of putting up and tolerating with being overbooked because you will feel bad if you can't see all the patients that want to be seen => YOU ARE NOT PUTTING YOUR HAPPINESS AND BALANCE FIRST! Yes, I know ... you are a caregiver and you help other people for a living. You have other people's overall health and well-being "in your hands". However, what about YOUR overall health and well-being.

When you take care of yourself first, your patients benefit, your family benefits and most of all YOU benefit. It's a win-win for all. And those patients that can't get in -- they will get over it. Do you think that those patients will be there for you if you are going through a life crisis or have a family emergency? Does the feelings of your patients really fit into the bigger picture of your life and your path to joy?
I think NOT.

Feeling bad about not fitting in all the patients and overbooking your schedule is the worst thing you can do for your sanity, your health, your well-being. Start taking your power back and decide what type of life you really want to live. And if you want more balance in your life between your personal life and your work life, then you are going to have to REALLY DECIDE (e.g., cutting off all other options) and make a healthy work-life balance your top priority.

I had one doctor client tell me today "I want to be a regular person; a regular Mom." She also said that she wants to "not always feel rushed". It starts with choosing to focus on the way you want it to be instead of the way it is and believing that it can turn around. Start imagining having that lifestyle you really want and feel the essence of who you will be when you manifest it. Our minds are very powerful catalysts for the quality of our life experiences and once we imagine what it is we want and activate the essence of how we will feel into our present moment, it is bound to happen!

If you are looking to improve your work-life balance and would like to find out more about Life Coaching for Doctors, Click Here and let's set up a time to discuss how the process of life coaching can help you.

To YOUR Health & Happiness,
~ Coach Maria

Physician Burnout - Late Hours: Your Expectation always affects the Outcome!

Many of my doctor clients expect to be home late. They say to me "well, there are so many hours in a day! I can never get home on time to spend some quality time with my kids!"

Does that sound familiar?

Well, first of all, if you affirm that you can NEVER get home on time, you will create that in your reality. This really is an affirmation that you are putting out there into the Universe and each time you will prove yourself right.

So, the first step is to start believing in they way you would like it to be. If you want to get home on time occasionally, then start EXPECTING that you can manifest that event. It can happen. My current doctor clients have experienced this once they started to change what they expected and believed could happen.

Once you start questioning your expectations, especially the ones where the outcome doesn't feel good to you and is not aligned with your joy, you will start to see positive changes in your life. And YES ... even with your hectic schedule as a Doctor!

One of my clients told me that she doesn't even know HOW it was happening, but that all of a sudden she started to come home earlier than ever after we were working on her expectations and beliefs around this during her coaching sessions. I will tell you how it happened - she started to become more at peace with where she was at. She stopped affirming that she was NEVER going to be home on time. She stopped telling herself the story that her kids never see her and that she is going to miss out on their childhood and then regret it. The coaching process helped her to change the stories she was telling herself to ones that felt more empowering. And as a result, she is coming home on time way more often then she ever has. She is even able to attend her son's sporting events and be there on time. Amazing! And this all happened because she changed the nature of her thoughts and feelings. She changed what she was telling herself. She shifted her mindset to a better feeling place and one that was more aligned with what she wanted to attract into her life.

So, start examining what you are expecting to happen in your life. And realize that your expectations affect the outcome 100%! Start to expect the positive outcomes. Start to expect to live a life that is in more balance and allows you some free time to spend with your family or with yourself.

Physician burnout is something that occurs as a result of the nature of your thoughts, feelings, beliefs and how you manage the day-to-day stressors of a Physician's lifestyle.

Change your thoughts & feelings and your life will change for the better.

To your Health & Happiness,
~ Coach Maria

Life Coaching for the Doctor's Wife / Doctor's Spouse & Family!

What about the doctor's wife ... or more generally, the doctor's significant other -- doesn't he or she deal with stress and have challenges just by being the spouse of a doctor? Of course they do!

Doctors have long hours, stressful days, deal with government interference all day long (Medicare and HMOs are cutting back), patients are demanding, the list of admistrative work is overwhelming and taking over the type of work the doctor loves to do ... treating patients, solving medical mysteries, helping people feel better! I don't think that being a doctor is the same job that it was 20 or 30 years ago. The culture of being a doctor has changed. Things have become more complicated. Doctors are being taken away why they came to the profession and beginning to say "boy, if I knew then, what I know now, I wouldn't have entered this profession!"

Sometimes you may even see that your spouse (that is the doctor) is starting to come home "run down", not appear as healthy, vibrant and energetic as he or she once was. But dare you address the issue of his health? Sometimes, that topic is like the pink elephant in the room -- it exists... but no one wants to talk about it!

Now, back to the doctor's family .... Your loved one comes home ... whatever time that is and then he or she has to shift to "family" mode. Do you think that is an easy shift to make? Do you think that the spouse or kids get their doctor family member at his or her best? Or do they get the left over of that exhausting, long and stressful day?

So, as the Doctor's wife or husband or significant other, how do YOU deal with that stress? How do you maintain a healthy relationship with your loved one? What type of stressful situations do you experience by being a wife of a doctor or a significant other of a doctor?

Do you sometimes wish that you could have more free time with your spouse? Do you wish that he or she wouldn't have to work such long hours? Do you wish that more money was being made so that it would free up time for both of you and you could start living life together, enjoying the things you love, vacationing as long as you want or maybe even starting your own little side business together that you have talked about but never got around to doing?

Maybe you are worried about the closeness of the relationship because the two of you do not spend as much quality time with each other as you would like to. You feel that your relationship is getting lost in all that stress that exists when being married to the Medical Profession.

But it doesn't have to be that way!

As a Certified Life Coach for Doctors who specializes in Law of Attraction Coaching, I will often work with the spouse of the doctor in addition to the doctors themselves --- this can be quite productive and enhance the relationship and the dynamics of your family. You will see improved communications and learn how to shift your focus so that you DO attract a more healthy relationship with your loved one!