How Doctors Can Find Their True Path- Even When The Destination is Unclear

Are you feeling stuck at a crossroads - unsure which way to go next because the final destination isn’t clear?

Every option feels like a risk, every decision feels heavy, and the fear of choosing "wrong" keeps you paralyzed. 

You’re used to certainty, structure, and clear goals — but now, without a set destination, it feels like you’re wandering without a compass. 

In this episode you'll learn:

• 3 mindset glitches that are keeping you stuck 
• The mindset shift that frees you from perfectionism and overthinking.
• How to take your next step even if you don't feel 100% sure

 Hit play now to learn how to stop spinning in uncertainty and start creating the fulfilling life you deserve — no final destination required.

If you are ready to move into clarity- there are 3 upcoming ways I can support you.

1) FREE Masterclass this Thursday at 6pm EST. "How I built a Life of Freedom by Trusting my Unrealistic Dreams" >> Sign up here

2) The Purpose Prequel: 3 Day Mini Course to Discover the Map back to your truest self (May 16-18th) >> Join here

3) Pathway to Purpose: 8 week group coaching program to discover the work you are meant to be doing. We start May 26th. >> Enroll here 

Register for Pivot Potentials Now >> https://coachchelsmd.com/summit/

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: 0:30

In this episode, you will learn how to embrace directional clarity to get unstuck.

Speaker 2: 0:37

Welcome to Life After Medicine, the podcast helping millennial health professionals leave the system and build a fulfilling career. I'm your host, Chelsea Turin, 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: 0:59

Welcome back. My Loves to another episode of Life After Medicine. In this episode, I'm going to share. About a coaching session that I did with one of my clients and the, the three like key insights we learned and the takeaway that, and process that we used to get her unstuck. And it's going to be so powerful for you to, it's almost like you're getting a peek at being coached in one of my coaching sessions. But first I wanna talk about. A hike in Oman.'cause obviously that's where we're gonna go with this. Hiking is such a beautiful metaphor for so many things. There's this one hike I did that really stood out to me. It was this sunrise hike with my friend in Oman, and it was just the two of us. We're trying to. Like make it before sunrise. So we're in a little bit of a like urgency moment and um, so we're going up and following the path and, you know, doing good. And then we get to this plateau and all of a sudden we're like. Where's the trail? We kind of lost the trail. We like, were wandering around in this, it was sort of an opening and it's Oman, so it's not like forest. It's like deserty and like, there's like, it's like cracked rock and so it's not like you can see everything, um,'cause there's not trees, but there was just no clear sign or indicator where the trail picked back up after this like plateau and after this clearing. Because we had like come up this one hill to get there, and then it's like, well, where do we go next? And there's different ways things went up, but we're like not sure where to go. So we kind of walked around this opening in a circle, trying to look for like where is the path? Like which one is it? And we went around like maybe twice and we don't really know each other that well yet. So I think neither of us are wanting to like pick a direction or be wrong or whatever. And then finally we're like, you know what? We can't tell where the trail is. Um, so let's just pick something and start, and start going because we wanna make it for the sunrise. And so we could kind of see in general where we're supposed to go, like the bigger direction. And so we're like, let's just pick one of these paths and like, see, see what happens. So we start walking down one of the trails and one of the possible options, and within a few minutes we look over to the right and we see like one of the blue trail markers that we were following and we're like, oh, okay. This is not the trail. The trail is over there, but that blue trail marker. Was not visible to us, or at least we couldn't see it from where we were below in the clearing. So it's like we kind of had to go up this one route and realize, oh, this is actually not the right route, so let's just cut over and go here because this is the right route. But the thing is, we could have stayed down below in this clearing. And missed the whole sunrise. We could have just been like, well, which one do we do? We can't figure it out. What's the right option? And just like been overthinking it, but instead,'cause we were like, well, we wanna make it for sunrise. Let's just pick something and go. And the moment we started going, we had more information, more information, and then, oh look, here's the marker for the trail. We couldn't see that before. Now we see it. Now we reroute. Now we move in this other direction. So I hope that's all landing for you in the metaphorical way that it is supposed to land. Because sometimes when it comes to things like this, we need metaphor, we need story, What did we do on this hike? We embraced directional clarity. We had a general sense that like, okay, the, the peak that we wanna catch the sunrise at is over there. We can see the peak in the distance. We have this idea of like, it's somewhere over there and so we're gonna try one of these paths to see if it gets us there and we're just gonna start going. And from there we were able to see. Well, no, that's not quite it. We need to scooch over a bit. We need to go lateral. We can swerve, um, a bit to the right and so let's go that way and then we're gonna find our path. Right? We embraced directional clarity. We didn't need to have the exact path mapped out for us. We just said, okay, we wanna go in this direction. Let's start going in that direction. The rest of the path will become clear directional clarity. Is the fastest path to clarity. Just moving in the direction of the thing you want without knowing if it's exactly the right path to get there. Because clarity comes from action. Clarity comes from motion. And you hear me say this, you hear this story and you're like, okay, that's cute for hiking. But there's something that happens when it is career and job, that the stakes feel so much higher. And I understand that. So let's just go into, I was on a call with one of my clients the other day and she is going through the Pathway to purpose process and she's on module six right now. And in her email that she sent to me, I know she's gonna be listening to this too, so hello. Don't worry, I won't give any crazy details away. Um, she's on module six and she was starting to feel confused, right? Because she's been doing all this inner work. She's learning all these things about herself. But now we're coming to module six and within the Pathway to purpose process right now, that's like where we're putting it all together and she's like not sure what it's all adding up to and like what direction to take. And so we get on the call and she's talking me through her confusion and she's kinda laying it out for me, like what's confusing her and what's happening. And I immediately heard something within her words that very clearly pointed me to the problem, or kind of like the brain glitch. Um, so when I'm coaching, what I'm doing is I listen to your words to understand the mental picture that you have in your mind, the way that you're viewing a situation. The beliefs and structures that you have around the situation, because usually the problem that you're having comes from perception. And when we can change your perception, we can solve the problem or we can have a different access point for the problem. Okay, so as she's talking, I'm taking it in and what I realize is she was confused because of a few. Key perception glitches is what we'll call them. So I'll list them out and then we'll kind of go into them. So one is thinking there's a right or wrong answer. Thinking that choosing the wrong answer is a mistake and thinking there's some authority outside of you that can tell you if it's right or wrong. I break it down in that way, but it comes down to I don't wanna mess this up. I want to get it right. I wanna find the right answer, but I don't know what the right answer is. And, and I want someone else to validate for me that it is the right answer. And so when you have all these thoughts, it's like you're spending your time in this pressure cooker in your mind. I'm trying to figure out the right answer instead of giving yourself space to explore and find the answer. And do you see how it's like that's a really narrow right, or wrong answer? We wanna choose the right one to avoid a mistake. Someone outside of me can tell me if it's right or wrong. It creates this, this narrowing, this pressure, whereas giving yourself space to explore and find the right answer, there's breathing room there. And so I wanna go into some of these quote unquote perception glitches. So one is thinking there's a right or wrong answer when I say this. It's one and two are very much together because I do think there are paths that are more correct for you that are more in line with you. But I don't think of it as this rigid sense of like right or wrong. To me, I, I think the ways I wanna speak about that now is like, it's just correct or less correct.'cause it's not even binary, you know, right or wrong. It's like there's, there's more of a spectrum. And so, just for example of this, like, when I first started my journey, I thought I was gonna be a travel blogger. So I bought a$200 superstar blogging, travel blogging course. I set up a blog, I started writing blog posts. And from taking that action, from starting to move in, that directional clarity turns out, I don't like writing about travel. I don't want the, the business model that kind of goes along with travel belonging. I didn't like those different business models. And so was it wrong? We could say it's wrong'cause I didn't continue pursuing that. Um, but I don't think of quote unquote wrong as a mistake. Like doing it was not a mistake. So that's why I think it's more useful to think of it as correct or less correct. So travel blogging is a less correct path for me than coaching, which is what I'm doing now. But starting off on the travel blogging path. It wasn't a mistake. It's how I set up my blog. It's how I started writing. I actually got some of my first few clients from the travel blogging course that I did, so it wasn't a mistake. It was part of the clarity process because clarity is not something you just like arrive at. Yes. There are aha moments along the way. There's things where, ah, like it makes sense. There's like light bulbs of clarity that happen. It's a process that you engage in. And part of engaging in that process is embracing directional clarity. It's allowing yourself to take a step and then get more information about how correct that step is for you, and then adjust and recalibrate. And so none of it is a mistake, and that doesn't mean we're just like doing a bunch of steps. For no reason. It's like there's an intentional, we're coming into ourselves coming, coming inwards, and so then the other piece of like, is there an authority outside of you that can tell you if it's right or wrong? That also puts so much pressure on it because someone else could look at my path and be like, oh, well you wasted time. Doing travel blogging or you wasted time doing medicine or like someone else could dub any of my decisions, right or wrong, but it's like right or wrong. According to what? According to who? Like what metrics are you using for that? Because that's not how I see it. And so there is no authority outside of me that can judge the correctness of my path because it's not about objective, right or wrong. It's about. Am I getting closer to what's true and right for me? And it's always yes. Like when you're engaging in this process of like intentionally connecting to yourself, embracing this directional clarity, like I'm always getting closer, I'm always getting warmer to, to what's correct for me. And so what I told my client, like, we walked through all of this and we did a lot of other work around. Who is that authority and like how to demote them. And that was just like so much fun and such a beautiful work that we did. And that's part of why I love my job so much. Um, but the big thing I want you guys to take away from it is there is no, the answer, there's only a direction. And so we need to embrace directional clarity to, to start moving in the correct direction for us. And when I say direction, it's like in this instance. What I first knew was the first like piece of directional clarity, let's say, that I have was I wanna travel and I wanna be able to do something remotely. Like I wanna be able to work remotely from anywhere. Right? That's what I knew. That was my directional clarity. Okay. Let me take a step towards that. At the point, I didn't know if it needed to be entrepreneurship or. Get a job. Like I didn't really understand those distinctions at that moment. So I started doing the travel blogging course and I was like, okay, this is, this fits that. Um, and it wasn't quite right, but through that process I was like, no, I really would love to do my own thing. What I liked about it is it's my own, like I have this creative ownership over it, right? Now my directional clarity is, you know, work remotely and work from anywhere. Do my own thing and it's not travel blogging, right? So then it's like I'm getting closer and closer because I'm embracing this directional clarity. There's a quote I feel like I use over and over again, and I, it, it's just this, it's direction is so much more important than speed. Most of us are going nowhere fast because most of us think we need to pick a final destination and rush there instead of getting our direction right. And when we just, when we can actually just calibrate the direction, then we're gonna get to where we actually wanna go so much faster, but not even needing to be where we wanna go because we're just being in the going, which maybe doesn't make sense, but it's just how it all, how it all works out. And so now that you know all of this, I wanna say something. With love and with like, let me wake you up. Lack of clarity is a decision. It is a decision to remain in this rigid idea of right or wrong. It's a decision to be so afraid of wrong, so afraid of making a mistake that you can't take a step forward. It's a decision to let some other authority outside of you be the judge of what in your path is right or wrong. And it's a decision to just not move. It's a decision to just allow yourself to stay paralyzed. There is no reason for you to not have clarity other than you are too afraid to move. And that's a decision. To stay in that fear. Now that you know this, now that it's laid out for you, it's a decision to stay stuck. And so what I want you to do is to look at the decision you've been making to stay stuck and, and ask like, am I okay with that? Am I okay with staying stuck? Am I okay with making that decision over and over again that I'm just gonna be spinning around not making progress towards what I want, that I'm not gonna let myself be clear? Or do I want to embrace directional clarity all the way to my next path? Do I wanna just embrace directional clarity while discovering and expressing my purpose? And you can feel the difference of these approaches, right? One of them is so rigid, it's so linear, it's so perfectionistic. It's so like. Controlling. And the other approach is just like more open and expansive and more like, let's try something and figure it out and we're gonna get closer and closer and like it's all okay. You do not have to stay stuck. You do not have to stay spinning around, spinning your wheels At any moment you can embrace this directional clarity and start. Moving towards what you know best right now, and you don't have to do any of this alone, right? You're welcome to continue listening to the podcast, and I'm gonna be dropping so many pieces of wisdom here through the podcast, and I have so many things coming up to help you engage in this process. So if you're listening to this live tomorrow, Thursday, May 15th, I'm hosting a free masterclass of. How I built my life of freedom by trusting my unrealistic dreams. I'm gonna be walking you through four key things that I did to turn my gut knowing and my, my sense of like, this is what I want, how I turn that into my reality. I'm gonna walk you through my process for, for how I did that and like what I focused on. We also have the purpose prequel, which is starting May 16th through 18th. It's an audio training mini course that's happening over three days on Telegram, where I am giving you the map back to your truest self. It's this internal process of reorientation. I'm reorienting you to who you came here to be so that you can move forward. All of these things are ways to calibrate your direction and to start moving forward so that you don't have to be stuck. And then the other, the final thing that we're doing now is pathway to purpose is open for enrollment for its may cohort, and this cohort is gonna be special for a thousand different reasons. But mainly because an entirely new curriculum has dropped in for how to help guide people to their purpose. I'm gonna be sharing this new curriculum in real time with you. It's gonna be live, and there's also going to be co-working sessions. We're gonna do the classes live, and then we're gonna do the workbooks together. In this coworking community kind of a vibe where it's like I'm turning on viy music and we're just like enjoying each other's company while we're working and going through this process. So all of these things are me helping you find your way back to yourself so that you can get unstuck, so that you can move forward, so that you can calibrate your direction because it, when you have the right direction, it's so much more important than speed. You don't wanna keep going nowhere fast. And just spinning around and going, going nowhere. You want to ha to make intentional progress towards the life and career that you are longing for. And that's what I'm here to help you do through these, these three different offerings that I have right now. So all of these things are ways for you to begin your journey at any price point, at any support level. And I'm here for you guys so. Lack of clarity is a decision. Let's make a different decision. Let's embrace directional clarity together because there's no need to say stuck.