The Worthy Physician
"Reigniting your humanity and passion for medicine."
Welcome to The Worthy Physician, a podcast for physicians, other healthcare workers, and high-performing individuals seeking to reconnect with their humanity, rediscover their passion for medicine, and redefine fulfillment. This podcast offers reflection, healing, and authentic storytelling in a world where burnout, imposter syndrome, and overwhelming expectations are shared.
Medicine is more than a profession—it's a calling. Yet, modern healthcare often leaves physicians feeling disconnected, chasing milestones that fail to bring lasting satisfaction. The Worthy Physician challenges these narratives, prioritizing well-being, core values, and authenticity.
Why Listen?
1. Physician Burnout: Understand its causes and recovery strategies to rediscover joy in medicine.
2. Authentic Self: Explore your identity beyond the white coat and integrate it into all aspects of life.
3. Imposter Syndrome: Overcome doubts, embrace your worth, and value your contributions to medicine.
4. The Arrival Fallacy: Break free from achievement-driven dissatisfaction and find fulfillment in the present.
5. Core Values: Align decisions with what truly matters to live purpose-driven lives.
6. Financial Empowerment: Gain insights on managing debt, creating sustainability, and building financial literacy.
7. Real Stories: Hear physicians' struggles and triumphs, fostering connection and solidarity.
8. Healing Through Storytelling: Share and listen to stories that inspire resilience and growth.
What to Expect
Each episode blends:
- Engaging in Conversations with experts in medicine, psychology, and finance.
- Real-life stories from physicians who've navigated similar challenges.
- Practical Strategies for addressing burnout, improving balance, and enhancing well-being.
- A Supportive Community that celebrates your victories and offers encouragement.
Why It Matters
You are more than your profession—you're a human being with dreams and aspirations. The Worthy Physician reminds you to prioritize your values, honor your well-being, and reignite your passion for medicine.
Who Should Listen?
This podcast is for physicians seeking clarity, fulfillment, and alignment, whether struggling with burnout, imposter syndrome, or the pressures of the medical field.
Join the Movement
Redefine what it means to be a physician today. Subscribe to The Worthy Physician and take the first step toward a healthier, more compassionate approach to medicine.
The Worthy Physician
Stop Comparing, Start Leading with Dr. Maha Mohamad, MD
Dr. Maha Mohamad returns to discuss authentic leadership strategies for women physicians, challenging the stereotype that women should remain silent and hold space. We explore how vulnerability enhances credibility and effectiveness as leaders when balanced with confidence, sharing personal examples from parenting and patient care.
• Women physicians can lead by showing up to events and meetings, and ensuring their voices are heard
• Overcoming imposter syndrome requires silencing your inner chatterbox and occupying your rightful space
• Embracing vulnerability with patients and team members enhances credibility rather than diminishing it
• Using self-auditing to evaluate what went well and what can be improved regularly
• Comparing yourself only to your past self rather than others leads to authentic growth
• Finding purpose through quiet reflection and working backward from your goals
• Accepting we're lifelong learners makes us better leaders and physicians
Subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who'd love it too. Follow us on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram for more updates and insights.
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Though I am a physician, this is not medical advice. This is only a tool that physicians can use to get ideas on how to deal with burnout and/or know they are not alone. If you are in need of medical assistance talk to your physician.
Learn more about female physicians' journey through burnout to thriving!
https://www.theworthyphysician.com/books
Let's connect for speaking opportunities!
https://www.theworthyphysician.com/dr-shahhaque-md-as-a-speaker
Check out the free resources from The Worthy Physician:
https://www.theworthyphysician.com/freebie-downloads
Battle of the Boxes
21 Day Self Focus Journal
Welcome to another episode of the Worthy Physician. I'm your host, dr Sapna Shah-Haque, reigniting your humanity and passion for medicine. With each episode, we bring you inspiring stories, actionable insight and expert advice. Get ready for another engaging conversation that could change the way you think and live as a physician. Your income is your greatest asset, protected with Pattern Life. The easy, stress-free way to find the right disability insurance, with unbiased comparisons and no jargon. Pattern helps you to choose the best policy for your needs. Secure your future today at Pattern Life. The link is in the show notes. Let's dive in. In this episode, I return with Dr Maha Mohamad and we discuss how do we actually lead as women physicians? There's a stereotype for women to show up, be silent and hold space, but today we're going to challenge that. How do we use our feminine nature to lead, and lead from where we are? How do we lead as women?
Dr. Mohamad:This is definitely the hot topic now. I think showing up would be the first thing that a woman, as a leader, can do to herself and to others. Showing up to events, showing up to meetings, showing up to gatherings that's really important. Second, having something to say, like, even if you need to prepare what you need to say, like, those meetings matter, your voice matters, and this is where it starts from. If, growing up, when you see a woman who is leading in her own space, that is such a powerful scene, you would feel like I just want to be that woman when I grow up. So I think we have a lot of ways to go, but starting with showing up would be the best approach.
Dr. Shah-Haque:What do you mean by showing up?
Dr. Mohamad:with showing up would be the best approach. What do you mean by showing up? Occupying your space, know that you are worthy of being there and, as we women tend to have a lot of imposter, this is where we need to have our chatterbox shut up a little bit and take control. Take control of our mind, really, and our body, and sometimes you to me, me. Sometimes I need to remind myself of why am I doing this?
Dr. Mohamad:even there are moments where you get into self-doubt, where you get into fear, where you get into avoidance. But I think if just hush that chatterbox and take the lead within yourself, showing up to the place, to the event that is mainbox, and take the lead within yourself showing up to the place, to the event that is main goal.
Dr. Shah-Haque:And to the listeners. Yeah, I struggle with imposter syndrome and at times I still do, because there are nuances every day. My goodness, my kids found out that I really don't know what I'm doing, when I'm making something or when I'm trying to talk to them about their feelings. To me that's scary.
Dr. Mohamad:It is definitely scary because they are 100% dependent on you and this is where I think perfectionism starts and this is where we're born ready. We know what to do. This is the I don't know. I would call it it's a toxic positivity and a toxic confidence, because it definitely doesn't come this way. I think if we start telling them, we'll explore this together. Mommy doesn't know everything. We'll find out, we'll work on this together. I think that expands horizon and gives them the notion that not everything is set in stone, but we can develop, that not everything is set in stone, but we can develop. We can learn more and get to our answers.
Dr. Shah-Haque:And I bring that up as an example because, like you said, they depend on like kids depend on the parents. Going back to our discussion at the beginning, that we're the most vulnerable species when we're born and we lose that vulnerability. And having kids has been a life-changing event, but it's made me a better person because I've sat down and talked to him and you know what? I don't know how to handle this right now because parenting we don't get a manual. I've never been through this before, so I'm still learning how to be a mom to you in this situation. And my son kind of looked at me like, oh, okay, we'll learn together.
Dr. Shah-Haque:Wow, yeah, it was six and we were having a discussion about something. He was really upset and he was having a meltdown. I don't know what to do. I don't have the answers to why this happened. It was something so trivial. Now I don't remember the exact details. I'm like, look, I'm sorry that I did something that you didn't like. It might have been like throwing something out, that it was something he drew or something that he wrote and I didn't know. It was in the pile of newspapers that I was tossing out and it really hurt his feeling. But now we take that transparency and that vulnerability and it's okay to use that, I think, in leadership. It's okay, I think, to use that even with the patients. I don't know the answer, but there's a reason why there are other specialties in medicine and we can consult.
Dr. Mohamad:Absolutely and no one knows everything. Even within the same specialty, most of the cases don't follow the paragraph in a textbook. It doesn't look like a classic picture. Knowing that vulnerability is being true to yourself and true to your patient and true to your team member. It shows your human nature because, again, we don't know everything and we will never get to a point where we know everything. So accepting that fact and just following whatever pathways that could get us closer to an answer, exhausting the tools in our toolbox that gets us to some answers for those questions, is the way to go and that gives us more credibility. Like I would trust a person who is trying to find me more answers more than someone who just blurts out the answer without even backing it up with evidence or knowing what they're talking about. And again, like I think this applies to all aspects of life rather than just a patient encounter by itself.
Dr. Shah-Haque:I couldn't agree more Listening, quit doubting yourself. I think it's okay to go in with vulnerability when used at the proper time. That does not mean to say that you need to be vulnerable and say I don't know the answer right at the beginning of the meeting, because you have to balance that confidence with vulnerability. One really important, powerful book even a podcast or a videocast if you could find it online there's plenty of them is but the book is Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss, and I absolutely love that book because it goes over negotiation and it's just what do we have to negotiate?
Dr. Shah-Haque:But think about how many times we have to negotiate time or negotiate a plan of care, negotiate with family, friends, kids, and so it's going back to communication, going back to body language and the cherry on top is my favorite, I'm a visual learner, so it's going to be his masterclass on masterclass.
Dr. Shah-Haque:Why? Because, again, we're not taught these nuances and in medical school or training past that, and if most of our communication is nonverbal and we need to be mindful of the way we interact, even with ourselves. Even if I sit here like this, right, I'm mad or I'm cold or I don't want to be here, that's truly not the case. It's probably about that I re-listen to it or re-watch the masterclass. Even going through a book you've already read or something you've already listened to, you can always take away an extra point which, going back to the fact that we don't know everything and having a mindset of constantly learning and constantly improving it just you level up that next percentage point. And it's not about perfectionism, it's about the fact that I want to be more impactful, not just in my life, but in other people's lives, because it's not about what I can get from it, but it's what energy I can put out in the world and try to leave medicine or my community in which I reside, better than what I found it.
Dr. Mohamad:Absolutely. That's a great goal to have, and you're just infusing your life with a purpose.
Dr. Shah-Haque:How do we find purpose? Because I think it's so important to leadership.
Dr. Mohamad:I think going back to your personality type will help you get closer to this answer. For me personally, it's sitting in a quiet place, have my cup of coffee next to me and jotting down ideas and thoughts and goals. Basically, and to me, what I found really helpful is starting with the end in mind. So think about your goal and backtrack to what can I do, who can I speak to, what resources can I approach to get closer to that goal? That would be my two cents on how to try to find your purpose.
Dr. Shah-Haque:That's a very methodical approach. I think it took me a good 30 plus years to figure things out, and I'm a slow learner on that. I will tell you yeah, there are stories that what inspired you to look at leadership.
Dr. Mohamad:It is a series of experiences and situations that I was involved in and I really didn't know what to do Audit myself at the end of the day or end of the week or month and think about how things could, thinking about it in a positive mindset, trying to focus on the general goal and the general bigger picture. But the more you get into those situations, the more you learn and the more you.
Dr. Shah-Haque:I think you hit some key things there, keeping on okay this past week. What did I do well? What can I improve on? Because anybody does something that they're not necessarily happy with the outcome. Okay, what can I learn from this and how can I level up for the next time? And so it's not about chastising yourself or like self-punishment, but it's more. Okay, what can I learn from this? How can I grow this area? Have you always had that type of mindset where I'm going to audit myself for the last week? Where did that come from?
Dr. Mohamad:I can tell you it came from a duration of stagnation where I felt like I'm in a rut and I don't know really what to do, and it was a little bit of comparing myself to others. That's not a good idea. I do not recommend this at all, and this is when I started listening more to inspirational videos, trying to find my purpose and trying to reignite my passion for doing the things that I like. I need to learn this about myself I'm not a machine. Even a computer sometimes freezes and needs some time down. Take your time down, take a break, relax and you'll become better the next time, and the only person that you need to compare yourself to is yourself from the past. That was basically what made me focus my energy and time on getting better for the sake of myself, for the sake of fulfilling my goals, and not trying to impress anyone, not trying to compare myself to anyone or be better than anyone. The only person I want to be better than is myself from the past.
Dr. Shah-Haque:It's very powerful, and at what age did you learn that?
Dr. Mohamad:I think it was around 24, 25 when I got to a point where I was really not impressed by what I'm doing. I was still in med school, but I lost my passion for some time. And then I think to me it was at a point where I started comparing myself to my classmates and then I didn't get to where I want to get and I didn't feel authentic. Basically, it was not me. It was as if I'm trying to copy someone and wear their personality like a jacket. But it didn't feel genuine, it didn't feel right. And that's when I realized that, hey, you yourself have your own unique character, your own values, your own way to conduct yourself. Everybody does, and that's why we don't have to be in a competition. And since then, honestly, I never asked any single body about their achievement.
Dr. Mohamad:Or when we were little, we used to ask oh, how much did he score? Is it a 98 over 100? Towards the end of the day, it really doesn't matter. What matters is if you gave it your all, if you were present, if you tried, whatever you can do, regardless of the outcome, you went through this journey and it's always about the journey rather than the result.
Dr. Shah-Haque:That's really hard to accept as a human being when we want to try to control every aspect and every variable, but the truth is we have no control over anything outside of ourselves. What's one last word of wisdom for today?
Dr. Mohamad:I would say know that you will not know everything. We are lifelong learners. Just accept that fact and you will become really a super woman or a super man.
Dr. Shah-Haque:Thanks for tuning in to another episode from the Worthy Physician Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone who'd love it too. Don't forget to follow us on YouTube, linkedin, instagram for more updates and insights. Until next time, keep inspiring, learning, growing and living your best life.