Why Searching for Passion Keeps Doctors Stuck in Burnout—And What to Do Instead

Do you ever find yourself wishing you had something you were truly passionate about—only to come up empty every time? You’re not alone. So many healthcare professionals I talk to feel disconnected, uninspired and unsure how to find something that lights them up.

The good news is you are not broken.

It’s just the way you are searching for passion that might be keeping you stuck.

In this episode, we’ll break down the real formula for passion and how you can start feeling alive again.

You’ll learn:

• Why passion feels out of reach (and why that’s completely normal).
• The three key ingredients that create passion, even when you feel stuck.
• Practical strategies to reignite your energy and feel excited about life again.

Hit play now to stop wishing for passion and start creating it instead!

Sign up for Activation Codes: a 3 day FREE experience to reignite your spark, feel inspired by your work, and come back to life. 

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 this episode, you'll learn how to reignite that spark of passion that you've been missing.

Speaker 2: 0:20

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: 0:42

Welcome back to another episode of Life After Medicine. Thank you as always for pressing play today. In today's episode, you're going to learn why searching for your passion is Just making you feel more lost the three ingredients that make up passion and how to use these ingredients to get your spark back. We're kind of creating a passion recipe and I'm so excited to take you in. So let's get to the show. When I hear people talking about passion, there's just like this wistful sadness. That I hear in their messages and in their voices. There's this idea that like, I wish there was something I'm passionate about. Or like, I don't know if there's anything that really excites me enough. Essentially in society, we tend to think there's almost two types of people, like those who have that burning passion within them who just like are lit up and they're on fire and they're going for it. And then those of us who feel like we don't have it. And when we feel like we're the latter, it's. It feels like a very painful experience of like, oh, like I'm it's almost like passion fomo Like i'm missing out on something that other people have and i'm missing out on this like great experience of life Which is having something you love and you're passionate about and we start to almost categorize ourselves and like write ourselves off as like The people who don't have it and that feels so painful. That's like so damaging to us and The thing is passion is not a pre built entity that exists inside some of us like oh Like I'm thinking of the the little Jesus baby in the Mardi Gras cake It's not like some of us are a Mardi Gras cake with the Jesus baby of passion and some of us are not That's not how it is, right? Passion is not a pre built entity It's not something outside of us. It's a glimmer within us. Triggered by something outside of us. And it's something that we can build over time. It starts off very subtle, like a little, like a glimmer. If we recognize the glimmer and we move towards it and start to develop it, then that's when passion can build and grow. So let's go through the three ingredients of passion and we're going to basically be making a recipe. Wait, this works with the Mardi Gras cake thing too. Love it. We're going to make a Mardi Gras cake of passion. Um, it's not Mardi Gras season, but it's fine. Passion is not just one. thing. It's like really a combination of a few essential elements. Um, and so I'll talk through those. We have like something that's on the mind level, the heart level, and the body level. And so we'll talk through each of those. So the mind level is curiosity, right? It's that intellectual spark. It starts in the mind as just like a sense of curiosity, something that intrigues you, excites you. makes you just want to learn a little bit more and you don't have to be obsessed right away. It's just you feel a sense of like, huh, that's interesting, like interested enough to explore. Recently, I was interested in cults. And so I was learning about those. It didn't turn into a passion, but that's okay. I followed my curiosity. I've also been. interested in curious and there's like this rare animal species in Mexico. That's like exotal. And I'm like, you know what? I need to adopt one as a pet. Like it has to happen. So I've been curious about those and I'm like exploring those. So it's like not all curiosities turn into passions, but if you cut all your curiosities off before. you have a chance to explore them, they absolutely will not turn into a passion. So it's really just like allowing yourself to notice and start following that intellectual spark. That sense of like, huh, Wonder what that's about. Oh, hmm. Why do they do that? What's happening there? Just like follow that curiosity. You guys know what it feels like Number two is the heart level element, which is Connection, right? It's the emotional pull it It can't just be something like the mind is a starting point or it can be a starting point but It'll be empty and superficial if there's not also that deep emotional pull there because passion's not just about Like what you're interested in it's it's like why does it matter to you and the emotional piece is feeling like a deep connection To a topic or to this certain problem or to the people that you're interested in helping. It's like, there's something in your heart, your heart strings that are pulling at it. So there's the connection piece, which is also the emotional pull. And that one is harder to articulate. But you know that experience of like, we have that expression, like my heart goes out to you. When you're feeling touched by something now, if you're really deep in burnout and you're kind of like empty of emotions, that doesn't mean you're broken and that you don't have this at some point. This just is not going to be the easiest starting point for you because you might not experience. Your emotions and your empathy in the same way. So you might be going through more like emotional exhaustion. And so you don't feel a connection or heart level emotional pull. And that's okay. Again, that does not mean you're broken. That will come back once we do the burnout recovery work. But in this exact moment. Just don't worry about this particular piece of the pie and we'll just use the other ones to really get you going. Because number three is actually what you'll need to focus on more with burnout is the body level. And that's your energy. This is your physical response. And this is the most ex I love this part so much because true passion is not, it's not gonna drain you. Now if you did something for like ungodly amounts of hours, it would. But like in a normal time period, like in a four to five hour time period, even like in a 12 hour time period, sometimes passion is energizing, not draining. Even when it's challenging, it can fuel you instead of depleting you. And that's you paying attention to how your body reacts. You feel more alive, you feel more engaged, you feel more activated when you're doing the work. Yeah, it's just a liveness. And so that that's in your body. There's a sense of energy that occurs in your body. And that's something to pay attention to. So now you know, the ingredients we have curiosity, which is on the mind level, we have connection on the heart and energy. in your body. And so how do we use that to kind of reignite your passion and get your spark back? So if you're feeling, right now if you're feeling uninspired, if you're feeling stuck, if you're feeling like just kind of meh, like you're trying to figure out what's next for you but there's nothing that's really sparking you, it just means you've lost connection with your passion, or with a passion. And so the key to getting it back is just to reignite each of these core ingredients. I think for most of us, because we're so mind driven, um, one of the easiest entry points can be the curiosity. So let's talk about curiosity and how, how to reignite it, because if you don't feel drawn to anything right now, if you're not having any of those moments of, hmm, curiosity, you might be like, okay, well, why, why am I not having curiosity? What's going on? Usually the reason we start to like atrophy the curiosity muscle is because we've just been stuck in a routine for too long. We're kind of like stuck in a rut. There's nothing new even coming into our awareness. Yes. And so. What is there to be curious about? Everything's the same. I'm in, living in my comfort zone. Everything's predictable. This is what I wanted. So yeah, there's really nothing there that's gonna like ignite your curiosity. We've also been prioritizing the shoulds for so long over what actually interests you. So like maybe to get through school, to like studying, to get through board exams, whatever you've been doing. You don't really think about what is interesting to me. What do I want to learn more about you're like? Oh, well, I need to learn this because I'm this like I'm a doctor So I need to know this thing and I need to learn that thing And so you're sort of taking all of your mental energy and putting it into shoulds And so there's not really a lot left over for like the fun Exploratory mental energy. And then the other piece is you sort of dismiss and like bat away your curiosity instead of just exploring it. So like you'll feel a moment of curiosity about something and then you're like yeah but that's not like a job or that's nothing. And so you just dismiss it, shove it down, bye. So how do we get it back? Really it's just kind of reversing those things that we've been doing. Can you just start to notice The tiny sparks of curiosity, not putting any pressure, not putting expectation. You don't even have to explore them just yet, but just notice. Oh, that was a curiosity spark. Great. You also want to like mix up your life and your routine because you want to be exposed to things that you want to give yourself the opportunity to spark your curiosity. So can you go on like a weekend trip somewhere? Can you take a class? Can you go to like, not a networking event necessarily, but some kind of meetup where you're like learning something outside of your usual and maybe you don't know if it's interesting to you yet, but can you just go and, and see? Maybe watch a documentary. Netflix has a ton of documentaries. Is there any sort of topic you're mildly interested in? Can you watch a documentary? And like, just start to engage that muscle of like, curiosity and interest that isn't really related to exactly what you're doing. So a big part of curiosity is like, you need novelty to spark the curiosity itself. Exposing yourself to new places, new people, new new topics. Those are all going to be things that really help spark your curiosity. Rebuilding connection. Rebuilding connection. So this is the heart level. Now when I'm saying this, what I don't want you to do is try to force yourself to care about what you're doing currently for work if that's not where you're at, right? So if you're feeling like emotionally exhausted, drained at work. What this is not about is trying to force yourself to like be present and enjoy the work that you're doing. If that feels completely inaccessible to you, you don't have to go that route. Um, but the thing is, passion thrives on meaning. It thrives on connection. And if you feel like you don't have that emotional pull or that sense of meaning, it's because you've lost that connection. And the truth is, where we get that connection back, Is really presence with people. So it's being fully present in moments when you're engaged with other people. And so maybe that means at work, you just start your visit with like a moment of like eye contact. Instead of rushing in and doing whatever you do, it's like just starting with a slow moment of like eye contact and acknowledging the humanity of the person in front of you. Now, look, if you're at work and you're just like, I hate everything about this. No, I don't want to do that. That's fine. Do this outside of work, it's about being connected to other people. So having moments of pure presence and connection, like even just thinking like in a yoga class at the end of the class, when like the teacher's kind of going around saying namaste to different people, like, can you just like be so present in your body and like look at the teacher in the eye and say namaste back to her. There's something like really connecting about, about a moment like that. Um, something else you can do is try to like ride. The energy of other people. So, connect with other people who are excited about life. Like, go to an entrepreneurial meetup somewhere. Even if you don't feel entrepreneurial, like, Entrepreneurs are excited people. They have ideas. They have projects. Like, there is life energy there. Can you just go to a meetup somewhere? Or, who within your friend group is excited about things? Excited about life? Like, just go hang out with the person in your friend group who is like that hype girl energy. And it's not just connecting to other people. You also want to connect to yourself. So doing things that make you feel connected to you, whether that is art, if you haven't like reignited your creativity in a while, one of my clients, one of her new things is she wants to help people reignite their creativity. And so if you feel like you're disconnected from your creativity, Let me know. I'll connect you with my client. Um, she's an artist and she can help you get your creativity back. Um, movement is something that can help you feel connected to yourself. Storytelling, I went to this beautiful storytelling meetup in Mexico City and it's, it's just such a vibe. Like, there's a topic and then we just, like, put your names in a bowl and then you pull the name out and You take turns just like sharing a story and it's like story is why we're here. That's why you guys probably listened to different podcasts. There's like a storytelling element. So the more you can tell stories and be around people telling stories and have these like deep conversations, it's such a powerful thing. So again, you don't need to try to force this at work. This isn't doing it from like a. I should be grateful for this connection. It's like, can you experience it? Um, and if work is completely not a place where you want to experience this, just try to experience this meaning and this connection outside of work, wherever you can through connecting to your heart and connecting to your creativity and connecting to other people. Okay. The final line is the body element. Which is just reigniting your energy. And this is such a key piece of burnout recovery that so many people overlook. We talk about the rest. You got to slow down. You got to have boundaries. You got to say, no, but a huge part of burnout recovery that people don't talk about is you need an activator. You need things that activate your energy. That bring you a, bring you a sense of energy because without that. You're just napping all the time and like, that can be great for like a week, but it's not, that's not it. Like, in order to recover from burnout, your body needs to be activated in a more powerful way. So yes, rest is so important. don't mishear me on that. You absolutely need to rest and sleep and say no and set boundaries and create space. And without Doing anything else and then it's just like this boring nap of a life. So you really need more. Um, and that is the activators and that's what, how you start to kind of reignite this energy, the body level component of passion. So how do you do that? Part of it is moving your body, because movement can create energy. Light movement, like doing like a walk in nature, dancing, any kind of exercise class, like those things can actually bring you energy, because there's, have you ever noticed just like how slothy you feel on a day where like you don't do anything, and there's just like this inertia that takes over, but when you're actually, Moving and activated. There's just like this energy. You can kind of create energy through moving your body. But you also want to see what your body responds to naturally. And it's tuning into this is one of the questions we talked about in a recent episode is like what what makes you feel alive? What gives you that life force energy? Maybe it's being around certain people. Maybe it's doing Um, certain activities when it's just noticing what energizes you versus what drains you, what brings you a sense of life force energy, and how can you start doing more of the things that energize you and make you feel alive and less of the things that drain you. So let's review all of these pieces and how they all fit together. How do we reignite your, how do we get that spark back? Feed your curiosity, start following those tiny little sparks of interest, those tiny little glimmers of interest, no pressure, but just allow your mind to play, find your emotional connection as well. Get present back in your body, reconnect to yourselves, reconnect to others see if you can just feel more connected to the world around you, because it's when you're fully present in your heart space. That you're much more connected to the ideas that actually have a depth and a meaning for you. And then recharging your energy, right? This is cutting out what drains you. But also doing more of what makes you feel physically alive, like in your body, what makes you feel alive and doing more of that. You do have the capacity to experience passion that is within you. You're not broken if you feel dead inside, that's okay. I have felt dead inside too. And now I'm, I can't even imagine that version of me because I'm just so not that, but it's not because you don't have a passion. It's because you're not listening to your own body and your own signals for what lights you up. And that's okay. We haven't learned how to do that, but your spark is not lost. Your passion is not dead. You've just stopped feeling it. When you reconnect to yourself, when you follow those little sparks of curiosity, and when you surround yourself with more of what makes you feel alive, your spark will come back. Your passion will come back. You'll feel just more alive on a day to day basis. That's one of my favorite things my clients experience is just feeling more lit up on a day to day basis. And that is what I want for you as well.

Speaker 3: 18:30

If you want help getting your spark back, I am hosting a free three day challenge called the activation codes. The formula to reignite your spark, feel inspired by your work and come back to life. Click the link in the show notes to sign up.