Do you wish that you could finish charting faster, maybe you’re bringing charts home, doing them in the weekends in the evenings. And it’s just exhausting. I want to invite you to join me for a 10 day email challenge, designed to help you finish charting faster, so that you can get home sooner for what matters most to you. So if that’s you, I want you to head over to mededwell.com/efficiencyguide and get enrolled today. Can’t wait.
Welcome to the MedEdWell podcast, empowering physicians to get work done at work, then be able to reflect and choose what is important for both their life and medical practice. I’m your host, Dr. Ryan Stegink, general pediatrician and life coach for physicians. Hello, everyone. And welcome to another episode of the MedEdWell podcast.
Encouraging physicians and others in medicine about taking that next step in their wellness journey. I’m so glad you came back and join me for another episode. If this is your first time, welcome. And I’m just so thankful to be here with you today. As many of you might have noticed, last week, I didn’t have an episode. And I wanted to kind of talk about why. And a few of the things that I’ve learned about myself and my processes and how I want to go about this moving forward.
So as many of you know, I recently launched chartingmastery, my six week group coaching program to help physicians finish their charting faster so they can go home sooner and be present for what matters most to them. And so, so, as I was doing the webinars and building things for it, it took up a lot of time. And I found myself with a little bit less family time than usual time with my kids time with my wife. And she called me on it.
Like when I tried to do my launch back in August, I realized that when I got feedback from my wife like this, I needed to take a step back. And so I decided I wasn’t going to record an episode. And I was okay with that.
So I put a lot of time into this because I know that physicians want to finish their charting faster, and get home sooner, and I’m one of them. But it’s not just to say I can finish faster, or I can add on an extra patient to help myself with my metrics with getting things done in a timely fashion, being able to earn more revenue by seeing that extra patient. But ultimately, it’s about that intentionality. And so I had to take that into account in my own life.
I also heard podcast episode by Simone Sol with Dr. Sonny Smith as a guest talking about the enchantment in our business and whether we’re doing what we really want and whether it’s serving us and kind of went through a bunch of the suppose twos versus the want twos, and what we’re doing, and how that helps us. And so I decided to skip last week, and I really wanted to bring that excited, engaged positive energy, that sure, in everything, there might be the times when you may not feel like it. But I wanted to grow in implementing these things, in putting this into action in a way that really resonated so that if I’m trying to teach people how to engage with them in this coaching program, I needed to be teachable and coachable myself.
And so, yes, I’m going to try and batch some of these episodes so that they’re more consistent coming forward. But ultimately, it’s about aligning what I’m doing here with my goals and my big priorities with how I want to run my business not just someday, but also right now, so that this serves me and my family.
So a few points that I wanted to bring to you as reflections as I looked at this and as I encourage you in designing what you want for your life.
First off, what do you want? What is your big why your priorities? Maybe you want to become a doctor, you’re still in undergrad or medical school.
Last week, I had the opportunity to go to a local wellness conference that was open to all in medicine. But it had an increased focus on some of the things that students and residents fellows face in training. And there were a lot of medical students there, there was the ability to get an unexcused absence to go and attend and to engage with these topics. And so it was maybe that they wanted to be a doctor. And so their big Y was wanting to be a doctor, but still be a human being I heard stories of struggle of working through challenging things in their background, maybe not having both parents around, about having a child in training, about not being in their ideal field, because they had to pursue some additional fellowship training now that there was board certification.
And so by focusing on their why, because they wanted to practice in that subspecialty, they were willing to kind of rearrange some of the other logistics in their life, the type of job they had, how they had to arrange childcare, so that they could pursue this in the long term, but in a way that supported them and their family.
So what do you want? Is it to advance in your career, to be able to save more aggressively for a particular short term, or maybe long term goal? Maybe it’s for retirement so you can cut back sooner. But again, this is about what you want, and your priorities. So first, what do you want and your priorities?
But second, what seems to be getting in the way of your priorities and what stories are, you’re telling yourself about these obstacles, those beliefs, those things that keep coming up for you, and you’re like, I can’t do this. It’s, it’s just all these things that come up for us, maybe even just automatically, unintentionally, that we don’t even realize, are holding us back from moving forward.
So like I said, at this conference, I heard stories about other physicians and medical students. Like I said, parenting during training, going through mental health struggles, people being really open and honest in a way that I found myself really encouraged to hear the vulnerability of people reaching out and asking for help.
It really resonated with me as someone who’s been through grief and loss with our miscarriages, to being burned out after just a year out of training. I found myself reflecting on some of the stories that I’ve told myself about things that are fixed that I could never change, things that were like my can’t finish my charting in the room. Thinking about one of my colleagues, I worked with my first couple years, and they finished all their charting before the end of the day, and I was like, that’s weird. I don’t know how you do that. But that’s weird in a good way. Now looking back on it.
But rather than looking at those things as fixed that I can’t do it. It might be that I don’t know how yet. I’m still learning I can grow. And I’m resilient.
So I’ve talked about this and other episodes, but just there’s a lot of value in keeping that growth mindset about having others around you who can encourage and support you. Because we can’t do this all alone.
And even if we could, there’s a whole lot of value and richness, to having others
that are coming alongside and encouraging and supporting you. And we can go farther together.
So as we look at strategic priorities and the alignment of how we’re working things out in our lives, first have to look at your priorities, what do you want? What seems to be getting in the way, and then what needs to change, but also what needs to stay the same.
So for me this week, it was not doing another podcast episode, so that I could be present with my family. And to be an example of what that means to say, Sure, I want to be consistent. And I want to show up and provide value and encourage each of my listeners. But I can’t do that at the expense of who I am as a husband and father, and just a person of integrity that wants to live this out in my own life, and not just say this, but then do something else.
For me, when I was burned out, I needed something to change. That’s what my wife told me. And she was right. So I cut back my time in clinic by one and then eventually another session, as I picked up some informatics time. But that was what I needed. It wasn’t immediate. And I found that there were still struggles. But as I cut back, as I was intentional in how I approached my charting, my productivity, some of these tools that I teach about, and that I have in my 10 day email challenge, finished charting faster, we’ll get the checklist, and a series of emails to help you get those things done.
So it could be any number of things, maybe you are a medical student, and you’ve failed the test, you’re having struggles with mental health, you are still human, you are valuable. And to just hear that, you matter.
Not just that you need to push on and just keep it all in and keep it together. It’s okay to not be okay. It’s okay to say I need some space. I need some supportive leadership to say, Okay, we’re gonna get you the help that you need. Because you as an individual, as a human being with value.
You’re more than what you do. And we need to come alongside and support you. Because sometimes things do need to change. Sometimes things don’t go exactly like we expected. But we need to take that time to see a what are my priorities? What seems to be getting in the way? And is it just a story that I’m telling myself? Or is it saying I need this help? I need something to change?
Yes, I still want to continue with medical school fellowship, my current position, but I need this in this moment. I need the support. And so I want to encourage you, as you think about intentionality, about the messiness of life and your priorities.
I want you to consider why you are here. If you are wanting to be a physician, if you are working in a job that you didn’t think that it was what you thought it was. You can make a change. But with the right support, maybe you don’t have to, but it’s up to you.
So as we think about this, and I just said that it’s messy. A lot of these things that aren’t clear cut, and there’s not always a right answer. It’s about making that next step in alignment with your priorities.
So to review again, these three things, it’s important to think about your big why what you want and your priorities.
Number two, the obstacles and stories that you tell yourself, that may or may not be things that you can change. But it may be a mindset thing of how you address that.
I, for me, personally, it’s thinking about my, my boys, and our miscarriage, and I couldn’t change that or stop that. And I’ve had opportunities to connect with others and to encourage them. And it’s not just saying, Oh, this is a story that I need to change of what I’m believing about the situation. But to be able to say that grief hurts, loss is hard. And to just let that be enough.
So again, the priorities, how you look at obstacles, and what you want to change or keep the same.
It’s about learning to have that self compassion, to ask for help. And to seek and to promote as you come alongside others, that interdependence that we need.
So as we wrap up today, I want to encourage you to take a moment to take five minutes and to reflect how are things going right now? How are things going? And how is my current state? How I’m living in the direction I’m going? How does that match up with my priorities? What seems to be getting in the way? What am I telling myself and what may need to change.
So I want to thank you for joining me today on this episode of the MedEdWell Pub Podcast. I’m so thankful for those who are listening, or sharing for subscribing. And for leaving a review if you haven’t done so already.
I also want to encourage you, if you enjoy some of the stories that I’ve shared, that you join me on my email list, I send out a weekly email and share some more of my stories and how that relates, typically to the topic of the podcast. But I just want to take every opportunity to encourage you to take your next step in your wellness journey.
You can sign up by downloading my finished turning faster, email challenge PDF and get those emails or there’ll be a link in the show notes. But wherever you are wanting to go, take that next step today. Thank you so much for all that you do. And have a great day.
And now for our important disclaimer.
Dr. Ryan Stegink is a practicing general pediatrician. But the MedEdWell podcast does not reflect the views, opinions or beliefs of his employer, nor is affiliated University.
Additionally, the MedEdWell podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered advice regarding financial, legal student loan, medical or any other specific topic.
In such a case, you should seek consultation with certified professional in that particular area.
Again, thanks for joining us on the MedEdWell podcast. Have a great day.