What If ‘Being Realistic’ Is The Very Thing Keeping You Trapped? | 🔥 A millennials hot take on common career change advice for doctors

How many times have you shut down a dream job or career idea because it didn’t seem “realistic” enough? 

But what if trying to be realistic- is actually the very thing keeping you stuck in a career you don’t love?

The people who actually make an impact on the world…are not the people who are hell bent on “being realistic”.

In today’s “hot take” podcast episode, I’m exposing the lie of “realistic” career advice and showing you the benefits of being unrealistic AF.

You’ll learn:

✅ The hidden risks of “playing it safe” in your career

✅ How to think like the world’s biggest changemakers (and apply it to your own career).

✅ A mindset shift to start designing a career that excites you every day.

Hit play now and start building the career you actually want!

Pathway to Purpose Starts May 18 Enroll Now 

Join the Life After Medicine Telegram Community

Life After Medicine explores doctors' journey of finding purpose beyond their medical careers, addressing physician burnout, career changes, opportunities in non-clinical jobs for physicians and remote jobs within the healthcare system without being burned out, using medical training.

Transcript

Speaker: 0:15

In today's episode, you'll learn why trying to be realistic in your career is preventing you from actually doing good in the world.

Speaker 2: 0:23

Welcome to Life After Medicine, the podcast helping millennial health professionals leave the system and build a fulfilling career. I'm your host, Chelsea Turgeon, residency dropout turned six figure entrepreneur and world traveler. I'll help you discover your unique path to making an impact without the burnout because you were meant for more than 15 minute patient visits under fluorescent lights.

Speaker: 0:45

welcome back to another segment of Millennials Hot Take on Common Career Change Advice, where I am out here challenging conventional wisdom, and my goal is to break you out of outdated thinking, call out the bad advice that is keeping you stuck, and share a new, more empowering perspective that will help you create a career that you actually want. Today's hot take is all about being realistic. Is all about the concept of being realistic in careers. And here's my hot take. If you want to make a meaningful difference in the world, you have to be on Realistic AF. So let's dive in. There is this strange emphasis on being realistic that I encounter in many of my coaching calls, in my online interactions, where people talk about, well, yeah, I want to find something that's realistic. I want to find something that's feasible. And I get why we think that, most of us are clinging to the idea of being realistic because we believe that it keeps us safe, secure, in control. Trying to be realistic also feels like a way to avoid risk and prevent failure, which is something that as perfectionists we can be terrified of. Another reason we need to be quote unquote realistic is because most of us are thinking on a very small timeline. We're trying to think of, what's a realistic career change I can do next year, as opposed to thinking the bigger picture purpose of our lives, and what's actually realistic in terms of decades instead of just a year. And usually when you change the timeline, the concept of what's realistic or not realistic also changes. Let's start with the definition. what is the definition of realistic? I have several one is practical, reasonable, and based on what is actually possible, rather than on hopes and dreams. Ew. The next definition. Having or showing a sensible and practical idea of what can be achieved or expected. Accepting things as they are in fact, and not making decisions based on unlikely hopes for the future. So as I'm reading these different definitions, essentially what's happening is the definition of realistic, being realistic means looking at things as they are and almost assuming that they're never going to change. You take things as they are and you say, well, that's it. There's no way for things to get any better or different and I'm not going to make hopes for the future and I'm not going to dream. I'm only going to take things as they are right now. And so essentially, when you're being realistic, you're being stagnant. You're not being open to change. You're not being committed to a new direction. So what would happen if we were all realistic? Think about it. If we're all accepting things as they are, and if we're all refusing to make decisions based on unlikely hopes for the future, what happens is there will be no innovation. There will be no creativity, no change. If everyone was just realistic with how they approached career choices, then we wouldn't have iPhones. We'd probably still be living in a segregated America. the world needs people to be unrealistic, to have hopes and dreams, and to make decisions based on these quote unquote unlikely, hopes for the future. The world needs people. Like that, in order to move forward into the future. The people who have the courage to be unrealistic are the ones who make the biggest impact. And if we were all realistic, the status quo would never change. The world would just be stagnant. Think about this. when you think about your need to be realistic, or like, okay, yeah, I gotta be pragmatic, I gotta be practical, where does that conditioning come from? Has anyone ever told you to, like, be more realistic? And they're this beaming ray of light, and they're radiant, and they're so inspiring. And they're like, Yeah, the reason I'm glowing and on fire and so inspiring is because I was realistic, and you need to be more realistic. Or are the people telling you to be more realistic chugging coffee with bags under their eyes and they're a little overweight and they're drinking on the weekends and they're numbing out an unfulfilled life? More often than not, the people who are telling you to quote unquote be more realistic are often the same ones who are low key miserable in their own careers, but the people who were Important changemakers, the people you remember, the people who made an impact on the world. They were unrealistic. Did Martin Luther King say, I have a feasible plan? Or did he say, I have a dream? Are dreams practical? Are dreams realistic? No. But dreams create something new. Dreams cast a vision that other people can believe in, and when enough people are believing in a vision and taking action to make it happen, it can become a reality. The thing about being so set on what's realistic or not is you forget to understand we create our realities. And so if the thing you're focused on is creating the same exact thing you already have, Then sure, keep doing that. But if you want to create something different than what you have, if you want to create a life, a career, an environment different than what you currently have, you have to be unrealistic. You have to look at what you want instead of what exists currently. You have to have the courage to hope, to dream, and not just the courage to hope and dream, but there's, you need to start acting on those things as well. I'm sure most of you have heard of Mr. Beast, who is one of the, I think he's the top YouTuber in the whole world, and he's 26, like super young, has done incredible things in the entrepreneurial world, in YouTube world, has just like already created this huge platform and made this massive impact at such a young age. I was watching an interview with him. he was talking about sort of his philosophy on being realistic or not. And whenever he has an idea and someone's like questioning, Oh, but that can't be done. That's not a thing. We can't do it. The only question he asks is, does physics allow it? Like through the laws of physics, could it technically occur? Okay, well then let's make it happen. So unrealistic is not really in his vocabulary. He's not interested in what's realistic, what's already been done. He's pushing the edge, changing the status quo. And again, there are nuances and caveats around this. Just because you're being unrealistic, just because you're casting a vision that's never been done, just because you have hopes for a future that doesn't currently exist, does not mean you have to be an idiot. You can be unrealistic and strategic. You can be unrealistic and wildly effective. You can be unrealistic and devoted and committed. Because you can't just be unrealistic and like laying on your couch eating bonbons if you want to be. Turn your unrealistic dreams into reality. If you're going this route, if you're going into this imagination, dreamer's, visionary route, and you're like, yeah, I want to be unrealistic, you have to pair it with strategy, with action, conviction, dedication, diligence. So it's not just about coming up with this pie in the sky dream and then being like, well, that would be nice. And then just hoping for it to come into fruition and not doing anything to bring it into fruition. So there's obviously caveats around this conversation. And those are important to understand. But I think what I'm realizing is maybe there's two types of people in this world. Those who are called to be realistic and keep the status quo as it is. And those who are called to be the dreamers. The innovators. The changemakers, the people who believe in a better world and are willing to go out there and create it. It's not for everyone. As someone who has been dreaming unrealistic dreams and bringing them into reality for six years now, it is not for the faint of heart. But if you are one of the people who are called to be unrealistic, then my work is for you and I am so glad that you're here. And we'll close out this hot take with a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt, which totally hits and is exactly the point I'm trying to make. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. So if you have the courage to believe in the beauty of your dreams, if you have the courage to dream, to be unrealistic, the future is yours and you get to create it. You get to create the reality you want.