Episode 74:

[00:01:00-00:02:00] Should I Leave or Stay?

All right. Welcome back to another episode of Stop the Burnout. Okay, so I felt called to hit this topic. I talked about it a little bit in episode 64, but essentially I have been talking to many of you, and a lot of you have been sharing, your feelings around your career, "Should I leave?

Should I stay?" And I wanted to address that, but also give you some insight of if you feel stuck because maybe you don't enjoy your job in veterinary medicine, but you also are like, "I don't know what else I can do. I have this s-one set of skills and degree, and I can't do anything else." And so I want to

[00:02:00] elaborate on that for you in this episode and give you some tips on what to look for if you are going forward and like, "Oh no, I need to explore what is out there for me," whether that's in or out of vet med, instead of just scouring job postings hoping some, like, unicorn job description is gonna pop up there, and you're gonna apply for it, and then they're gonna pick you.

Not to say that they wouldn't pick you, but there are also a lot of job postings that aren't even really jobs. So I want to give this episode some really good, juicy information for you to think about before you dive into those postings, okay?

[00:02:00-00:04:00] Burnout and All-or-Nothing Thinking

So the thing I wanna hit on and cover is when we're burnt out or in this chronic stress state, we tend to have very all-or-nothing thinking.

I talked about this on a older episode, and it's that survival mode, so it's

[00:03:00] either A or it's B. It's either yes or it's no. It's either stay or leave, and the problem with that is we can't see other options. We don't see other opportunities. There's actually some neuroscience behind this, that our brain starts to filter out any opportunities because it also feels really overwhelming to our nervous system to think outside the box because we're just barely surviving every day.

So that can keep us very trapped and make us feel like, yes, it's either I leave veterinary medicine or I stay, and I think there's so much nuance to it, and there's a lot of gray in between there. So recognize that you don't even really... might not realize that you're doing that or that your brain is doing that.

So that's why I talk to a lot of you, and you feel very conflicted, which we'll go into that as well, but it's like, "It's this or it's this." I'm like,

[00:04:00] "But it could be so many different things in between," and that's what we're gonna talk about.

[00:04:00-00:06:00] How Confirmation Bias Keeps You Stuck

The other thing is when we are in this really difficult place and we're burnt out, our brain- In the same token that it tries to make things as easy as possible for us, even though it doesn't seem that way, but what it does do is anytime we see something that fits with the belief that we have, our brain clocks that as like, "Oh, that is confirmation that what I was thinking is correct."

It's called confirmation bias, and it can work in your favor, or it can work against you. It's the same thing that if you start out the day, you spill your coffee, you're like, "My God." And then it seems like everything that you do even before you get to work is you're like, "Oh, my God, I'm having the worst day ever.

Like, all these bad things keep happening." Because now your brain is just scanning for the bad things. You can think of that on a larger scale, and think of it when you do go to work

[00:05:00] and you're like, "Oh, my God, it's gonna be a full day." Maybe talking to clients is exhausting, or maybe your colleague that's there is not very nice and you gotta deal with that.

And so we're constantly looking for the negative. And I'm not saying just to be positive and forget about everything else, but just recognize the neuroscience behind it, and that's why it can feel really tough. That is also why you can change jobs or careers, and you still end up experiencing the same situation because that's what your default mode is in your brain, and it's gonna look for those scenarios.

And it's also, part of it is trying to keep us safe of like, "Well, if I, brace for this awful thing and it happens, at least I've prepared myself," versus the chances of that happening maybe aren't zero, but they're very slim. And now I don't, now I'm just like

[00:06:00] over-worrying myself essentially.

[00:06:00-00:10:00] What Do You Really Want to Leave?

So we'll get right into it. All right. Number one, the first thing to ask yourself is what do you really want? And I'll add to that, what do you really want to leave? So what I mean by that is, AKA, what about your job sucks? And it might be people, and that's okay, like certain people. It might be certain things.

It might be certain aspects that you didn't really have on your radar as, like, something you were gonna have to do in your job, and that's okay. But get really clear on what that is because it's... If it's certain people, m- moving jobs won't necessarily make that better. It could, but a lot of times we find similar personalities that we don't gel with in other avenues of life.

So doesn't mean

[00:07:00] that going away from it is gonna be the solution, although it could be. But in that same thought, asking yourself, "What about my job sucks?" But then ask yourself, if that piece that sucks was remedied tomorrow, like, if it was better and it wasn't, it wasn't sucky, would you like your job? So some people might be like, "Oh my gosh, it's just being understaffed.

We're chronically understaffed." Okay. If you weren't understaffed, would you enjoy other parts of your job? If yes, then great. If not, then okay, what is the other piece here that you don't enjoy? Or maybe it is about clients, and it's like, "Oh my gosh, it's just they're such an energy suck, and it takes a lot of mental and emotional energy to hold people, hold space for people, you know, multiple times a day with all differing personalities and their

[00:08:00] capacity to deal with whatever situation is in front of them."

So yes, it can be a lot. But don't think of this black and white thinking, and don't say, "Well, yeah, if I don't have to talk to clients, I'd love my job." Okay, and then you would say there's no jobs like that," or, "There are only a few." Okay, we're n- we're not... We've already gone to step 10, and we're only on step one.

So don't try and predict the next step. Just really get clear on asking yourself get specific. What is it? Like, if you were gonna explain it to someone else, it would be very obvious after you explained it and told them what it was, because they were like, probably like, "Oh, I've experienced that too," right?

So that's number one. Get really, really clear on that. Because we don't wanna make these permanent decisions, semi-permanent decisions, like changing jobs or careers based on fear. And a lot of times we look outside of us for the

[00:09:00] solution, and saying, "Oh, if I don't have to deal with this one thing, and I don't have to deal with it in this other job, then I'll be fine."

Like we're, there's a lot of what-ifs there. And th- that's why this is only part of it. It's not just running away from what sucks. We tend to go towards m-something that might still suck. It's just b- hopefully sucking less. But a lot of times we don't even know what level of sucking that is, and so we don't end up doing anything, and we stay in our dirty diaper, as I say, and we're miserable So we, there is a little strategy behind this.

We don't want to just go to the next best thing, and sometimes that's just another job in vet med, and how many of us have done that? And then we get there and we're like, "Holy fuck, it's the same thing again." And then we, then our confirmation bias comes in. It's like, "Hey, it's like this everywhere.

You're gonna get the same thing everywhere." And so then that's when we're

[00:10:00] like, "Oh, we have no other options. We have to leave the profession," right? Like, do you see how quickly we got there? So going through these exercises, don't try to jump ahead. Just be very much in the moment and answer the question that is very truthful to you without trying to predict what it means.

[00:10:00-00:12:00] You Have More Career Options Than You Think

Okay. Now, number two, you do have more options than you think. So I read a lot of posts on social media, especially veterinary-specific Facebook groups and side note, this is maybe a little more geared towards veterinarian base, but this would be applicable to anyone in veterinary medicine with these steps and what I'm sharing here.

But okay. So yeah, you have more options than you think because we tend to be like, "Okay, it's clinical practice or it's not. It's industry or it's academia or it's not," right? Like, we get, again, that black-and-white thinking really funnels us into

[00:11:00] not seeing those opportunities. So I want you to see that you may not know the answer of what it is, but you have to be open to receiving what it is because if you're not even open to receiving it, then you'll never find these opportunities.

So It is a lot of times, yes, there are jobs in veterinary medicine that are outside of clinical practice, so we, we know them all, right? It's you're in industry, like pharmaceutical sales, academia, maybe you go into shelter med and feel like, "Okay, I don't have to maybe have forward-facing client interactions."

Maybe it's telemedicine or it's consulting or it's doing some sort of education, insurance writing, technical writing is another one too. Before we, again, try to push ourselves into one of these other holes, I want you to ask yourself, if you're in clinical practice and what you answered in

[00:12:00] the first part, the first question, was, like, part of your day, it's not necessarily something that is your entire day.

[00:12:00-00:14:00] Identify What You Actually Enjoy

So for example, some people really love surgery. Some people really don't ever wanna do surgery again. If it's like that, or you love doing dentals, but you don't really like soft tissue surgery, but you could do dentals all day long, like, I want you to start expanding and just really focus on what do you enjoy?

If you're in clinical practice, what are those things that if you could do it all day long you'd be like 100% yes? For some people, that's in-home euthanasia and end of life care, which is fine, which is great. It's just knowing what that thing is, and a lot of times we are really good at knowing what we don't want, but we don't...

or we're not clear on what we do want, and that's what we're trying to get by these exercises. So figure out what it is. If you're in clinical practice, yes. Is it surgeries? Is it dentals? Is it appointments? Is it end of

[00:13:00] life? Is it I like to be m- you know, doing mobile and meeting people and meeting, like, three or four people a day instead of 20 or 30 people a day, and I like connecting with clients and really spending the time.

Maybe it's integrative medicine, which is, you know, your acupuncture, Chinese herbs and, you know, personally I think that this is a- an aspect of vet med that is going to really expand in the next, I don't know, five, 10, 15 years. So whatever that is, write it down. Like, that's what we wanna pull out of there.

[00:13:00-00:15:00] Find Your Transferable Skills

The other point I want you to know, and this is where we get stuck as well, which I see a lot of you, is because it's this all or nothing thinking, we think, "I don't have any other transferable skills. I don't know what I would go back to school for." Ert, full stop. Now, because we've spent so long in school, we tend to think that anything that is going to

[00:14:00] be close to what I make as a veterinarian, say, is going to require that level of degree or certification or experience, and I'm telling you that's not true.

Our brain tells us that because we don't know any other options, and so then we're like, "Okay, it's either vet med or it's not," right? We go right back to that all or nothing thinking. But write down, and spend some time with this. Don't be scrolling on your phone. Set a timer, like 10 or 15 minutes. Write down what skills you use on an everyday basis, whether you're in clinical practice, you're talking to a client, doesn't matter.

You know, we would think, "Well, I, I don't know, like, I can do a physical exam, but that's not gonna help if I'm doing some other career." Okay. But what can you... What's part of that is, like, identifying problems, recognizing patterns.

There's even the aspect of, like, leadership skills. Maybe you're medical director, you're a practice owner, or [00:15:00] you're in some level of leadership.

[00:15:00-00:17:00] Recognizing Your Transferable Skills

There's even the aspect of, like, leadership skills. Maybe you're medical director, you're a practice owner, or

[00:15:00] you're in some level of leadership.

Write those down. Get very specific on those. Maybe you're really good with communication. Clients are always... Like, maybe it's exhausting for you, but clients are always like, "This is what happened to me." Client's like, "Oh..." Maybe not all of them, okay? But many of them would say, "Oh my gosh, thank you so much."

You know, "You explained everything, and I wanna see you as my vet," and I'm, like, doing relief work. I'm like, "Well, that's not gonna happen, but okay." But what is it that is a really good skill? And maybe you don't enjoy doing it, but it's a skill. That's what we want to pull out. And maybe it's delegation.

There is that leadership. Or it's teaching others, right? Like, maybe you go... I know when I started doing relief work, I felt really excited, I guess 'cause I was, like, you know, doing my own thing, and so I really had a renewed sense of teaching, and I really liked teaching the support teams that I was

[00:16:00] going to these practices, 'cause most of them were- I think this was right before COVID.

So then when I was working during COVID doing relief, y- you could be severely short-staffed or maybe there's someone really, really new, inexperienced. So I really enjoyed that aspect. That is a very transferable skill to so many other industries. So write those down and know that, again, just kind of walk yourself through, like, an average day for you and what those skills are that you do.

Maybe it's organization, it's problem-solving, whatever it is, and just ask yourself, "Is this specific to vet med?" Not, where else can I put this, but is this specific to vet med? And if it's not, then write it down. Okay? So that is number two.

[00:17:00-00:18:00] Research Before You Change Careers

Number three, before you jump to another job or career, yes, we try to

[00:17:00] do some homework, right?

I think probably most of us are the, the type that are You know, doing our research, right? That's like what is ingrained in our brains. We do some research. We wanna talk to people. Maybe it is talking to people in the field. And going back to number one, what are the things that you fucking hate? Ask that person that is in this field that you might wanna go into "Hey, there's this thing and, do you have to

Is there any aspect that is similar to that in your job?" Because that might be like a total no-go for you. And look how much time and energy you saved going into a job that sometimes we put our blinders on and we're like, "Well, it won't be that bad," or, "It won't be as much of that in this job as it was before."

It's like just stop trying to gaslight yourself into making this other option seem better. If it is better, that's great, but we wanna do it from a very aligned place, an educated place. So talking to people in that field, if applicable, if you're able to do that.

[00:18:00-00:20:00] Apply Even If You Are Not 100% Qualified

[00:18:00] And the other thing is when we start talking about applying for jobs please, if you take nothing else from this episode, please apply for jobs that you're not 100% qualified for.

Please, especially if you're a woman, because this is a statistic that this varies, but from, I think it was 2014, Tara Mohrer, she wrote in the Harvard Business Review, which she was like paraphrasing off of a study, but they said that in general, now I think these numbers are a little bit off nowadays, but s- on average, 60% of men, or excuse me, men will apply to jobs that they're 60% qualified for, while women will wait until they have every single qualification on there before they apply.

And please don't do that. Just apply. What's the worst that's gonna happen? They say no. Well, it's already a no if you never applied. And don't think, "Oh, it's

[00:19:00] a waste of time and money and energy." I will tell you, as someone that had her hand in hiring support team members, medical directors, doctors, you know, veterinarians, a lot of times, y- yeah, skill, certainly, if a veterinarian, like you have to be credentialed, but a lot of times it came down to personality because you can teach a lot of skills, especially for support team members.

But if the willingness to learn that type of approach to, being very open and coachable, that trumps any sort of Skill that you can have if you have a bad attitude, in my book. And I, I do think that's true for a lot of other people that I've talked to that do hiring. So it- if you have that, like you c- and you can't teach that.

That's the other thing. If you really have that type of approach, and I think many of us in this profession are very caring,

[00:20:00] empathetic, warm people, like a lot of times that takes you much further than a, a skill that you learned, truthfully. So just remember that, please apply. Just apply for it.

[00:20:00-00:22:00] Can You Change Your Current Job First?

And the other thing is that maybe before you start looking elsewhere, can you look at your current job?

And is there anything there that would, if you could change it a little bit to maybe experience maybe a different schedule, maybe it's different hours, maybe it's less hours. Maybe it's like, I know a lot of people when I did ER, they liked, myself included, to work overnights once in a while. Because, yeah, I mean, it was tough obviously working overnights and the day/night thing, but you usually have a lot less human interaction because you don't necessarily have as many clients coming in the door.

Doing things like that, can we say that or think about is there something in my job that I can change

[00:21:00] to see if this would make it better? And those things include also things like asking for a raise, because a lot of people will say, "Well, I don't wanna ask for a raise." They won't feel comfortable asking for a raise, but what they end up doing is going and finding a different job that pays more.

And they left because of the raise. Like it wasn't other reasons, or the other reasons weren't a huge factor. It's like, wait, we just kind of like recreated the wheel here. Like there might have been a, an easier option. And a lot of those people that I talk to will say, "Well, that's so uncomfortable.

Like, what if they said no?" I'm like you just left. You left a job." So worst case scenario, they say no, and you still do the same thing. But at least you know because maybe where you are working is great, but you're like, "I need-- Pay needs to be-" needs to change for this in order for this to work for me.

So just know that there are some aspects that you can kinda

[00:22:00] think outside the box on that, on, you know, do you change the hours?

[00:22:00-00:24:00] Create a Job That Fits What You Want

Even going back to the other one that I mentioned, if you're in clinical practice and you love dentals, is there a way that maybe you're in general practice, you can be like the dental guru?

Maybe there's another doctor that would love to unload all the dentals onto you or vice versa. Think outside the box. Make the fucking box. Throw the other box out. We're making a new box, okay? I want you to get really creative because when we start doing this, this is where we find that fulfillment instead of trying to push ourselves in, it's the square peg, round hole analogy.

I was just talking about this with a with a veterinarian the other day, and I was like, "Instead of us trying to like fit into where we're gonna go, sometimes we just throw the whole thing out, and we just create what we want." And she's like, "That makes a lot of sense," because we might not

[00:23:00] find what ticks all the ba- boxes for us or what we would get excited about, and so we're just gonna bounce around either from job to job or different careers and fields of work, but that's a lot of work, too.

So a, a lot of work to create what you want, but it's also a lot of work to bounce around and not be happy as well. So that's the other piece. I think I forgot to mention, which is a huge one here, back to the transferable skills. You do not unless you're doing like brain surgery, okay? And even then, you might be listening to this, maybe you're a veterinary, um, neurologist, so you already do brain surgery.

But not everything, even if it's says it's required, needs a certification or schooling, et cetera. We are conditioned, I think, that way because that is a path that many of us took, but it is not necessarily like that. And, you know, yes, there are some caveats to that, but I don't want you to be looking up...

[00:24:00-00:26:00] Know Your Financial Numbers Before You Jump

Here's what I

[00:24:00] don't want. I don't want you to be looking up schools to go to to learn the skills so then I can apply for that job when you don't even know if you want to do that job. That's what I don't want you to do. That's a lot of time, money, energy, and you're already burnt out. Can you imagine going back to school and working?

Okay? That's what I wanna share. All right. The other piece here, so knowing before you jump, is to know your financial numbers. Know what your monthly costs are, so rent or mortgage, maybe you have a car payment, student loans, what you spend on food, pet care, maybe kids, family, all of that. Because I have found a lot of times our brains like to get us into this survival mode, and when we actually look at the numbers, yeah, maybe it's not feasible, but you're like, "Oh, it's actually not that far off."

Like I thought w- it was in a, worst case scenario, and then you look and you're like, "Actually, what I'm looking for and what I need is, they're not far off." So knowing your

[00:25:00] personal numbers and what is like bare minimum, like can you get rid of some of those things? Maybe you can decrease car insurance and the coverage.

You know, there's pros and cons with that obviously. Do at your own discretion, but sometimes we get creative on things like that and looking at our monthly costs, which honestly in this economy maybe many of you are already doing. But now we know too if and when we go to apply for other jobs, we're not just like again square peg, round hole.

"Oh, you're gonna offer me that? Okay, shit, let me like back myself into is this gonna work for me?" Instead of knowing your numbers and knowing what minimum is that you need to, cover your bills And that way you can negotiate instead of three months down the road being like, "Okay, well, there was more money here, but I don't know where the hell it went, and I thought I was gonna be making more money here, but it's just as stressful, and it's just as much work, and I, I

[00:26:00] don't feel like I have any more money than I did at my last job."

So knowing your financial numbers is huge.

[00:26:00-00:28:00] Make Sure You Are Solving the Right Problem

Okay, the last piece here. Make sure that we're solving the right problem. So if you listen to any of my episodes, this won't come as a surprise to you, but a new job can look like this shiny, bright, shiny object. We call it shiny object syndrome. And we go to it, and maybe it's a new job, maybe it's a totally different career, but we are still the same human with the same baggage, if you will, and maybe trauma.

So things like having trouble setting boundaries, having trouble saying no, perfectionism, imposter syndrome, overworking, like, all those things are still gonna come up. They're just gonna show up in different ways. And speaking from personal experience, in doing what I do now with coaching, all of those things come up.

Even though I, I'm not

[00:27:00] dealing with, you know, like, 30 or 40 pet owners every day, those things can and do still come up for me. So I'm not... I didn't really get away from that. So there's nothing worse than spending all your time and money and energy to go to another job to find out that you're just recreating the same reality, which sucks.

And I would even argue that for some of those jobs, especially if you are awesome, you apply, you don't have all the qualifications, but you're like, "Yes, I want this job," you get hired. Now you're like, "Oh fuck, I got really bad imposter syndrome." So it can be very easy to over-function and overwork just to feel like you have to prove yourself because you're deep down are like, "This doesn't really feel comfortable.

I don't know. I shouldn't... I don't know who the hell put me in this job. I know I don't have all the qualifications," right? So we don't wanna get stuck in that.

[00:28:00-00:30:00] Doing the Deeper Burnout Work

And that, the way we do that is through that deeper work, right? And this

[00:28:00] is a lot of what I do with my veterinary coaching clients is how do we move through that so that it doesn't ruin our day, it doesn't stress us out even more.

And then slowly, I say slowly 'cause we've been doing these patterns for decades at this point, but slowly over time, and comfortably for our nervous system, changing how we show up in those scenarios so that we can overcome this perfectionism. We can overcome this imposter syndrome. And side note, if you're interested in like, hey, that's, yes, fuck that, I definitely need that 100%, uh, you can grab the link in the show notes.

You can apply for a complimentary burnout breakthrough session with myself, 45-minute one-on-one session with me. We'll get really clear on where you're at, what you're experiencing, and I will map out your next few steps to get you to start healing burnout. And if I feel like, you know, in that process that we might be a good fit to work together, I might invite you into one of

[00:29:00] my coaching programs.

So if you're interested in that, again, the link is in the show notes, or go to my website, thestressandburnoutcoach.com/application. Fill out that application, and I will get back in touch with you and get you scheduled. So that is the best way, you know, to, to really know how to get to those deeper layers.

And I, I will say a lot of you that I've talked with on calls recognize that now, which I think is a beautiful thing. Okay. There one, one more part I wanna go into that's really important, and then I'm gonna go into like the how-to of this. So there's this thing, you have to know this. You have to know this.

It's called the sunk, S-U-N-K, sunk cost trap. This was actually coined in 1985 in the psychology of sunk cost, but it's a theory... Not

[00:30:00] really a theory.

[00:30:00-00:33:00] The Sunk Cost Trap in Veterinary Medicine

I guess it's a, a thought and a pattern where we tend to pursue something because we've already invested time, money, effort, energy, and we're essentially allowing our past investments to determine what we do next.

Well, I don't know anything as a better example of that than veterinary medicine. I spent, you know, as a veterinarian, eight years, multiple six figures in debt. I just had a call with someone this past week, and it was interesting 'cause she was identifying with that. "I put all this time and energy and effort," and she even had a coworker that was close to her that was like, "You can't not do this.

You're really good at it." And I'm like, "Oh, I know that feeling, but if you have an inkling to do some- to a d- to do a different job, do a different career, like you have to follow those breadcrumbs."

[00:31:00] And we tend to stay stuck in the sunk cost trap because it took so much time, money, and energy. And then if we aren't really w- fully confident, we tend to look outside, so family members, friends, partners, to tell us "Hey, should I go for this other job?

Should I leave vet med?" And they'll say, "No, you're good at your job." I-- my parents, my dad specifically, would always say that, has always said that. "You don't wanna go back to clinical practice. You're so good at it," which is hilarious because how does he know? Um, he's not in the veterinary profession.

He's not in the medical profession. And it can really keep you trapped if you are like, "Okay, maybe they're right." We kinda gaslight ourselves. So the way to look at that is- First of all, you're not erasing what you did,

[00:32:00] and like I said before, all those skills can be transferable to other fields, other jobs.

But there's nothing that's more costly than staying in something that isn't sustainable and isn't something that you enjoy. And the more we push something, it's like pushing a brick wall. It ain't going anywhere. The harder you push, the wall doesn't move, but we just get exhausted and burnt out. So you don't owe anything to anyone, regardless.

And so we have to consider that because I know that keeps a lot of you people stuck, especially we get outside influences that think we're crazy. And you can be good at your job. That's the other thing. You can be really good at your job. That might not be your zone of genius, but it might be your zone of excellence.

You're good at it, but you're fucking miserable doing it, that, that's okay. That doesn't mean you have to keep doing that.

[00:33:00-00:34:00] Recapping the Career Decision Process

Okay, last bit here. How do we do this? Okay, so recapping real quick. Number one, what

[00:33:00] is it in your job that you really... It sucks, right? What's the sucky part of your job or parts? Number two is you definitely have more options than you think.

Start to really look at what do you enjoy. Number three, think before you jump, knowing your financial numbers, qualifying, or excuse me, applying for jobs that you're maybe not a hundred percent qualified for. That's okay. And, you know, if you can, talk to people in that field. And number four is make sure we're solving the right problem.

If we have an issue with a person, and you're like, "Yeah, I kind of felt that way about... although, about the last two jobs I was at." It's like, well, you're not, there's nothing wrong with you. We all are different personalities, but if we're trying to solve the wrong problem, it doesn't matter where you work.

It'll recreate. Okay, so that's a recap of that.

[00:34:00-00:36:00] Write Down What You Actually Want

How do we do this? Number one, spend some time before you go on job postings, please. Write it down. So similar to what I said here,

[00:34:00] especially with what part of your job sucks, what part is exciting for you, like just write it down. Don't write it on your phone.

Grab a pen and paper and write it down because there's something psychologically that is better to actually write it down and get it on paper. It also helps with our overthinking. We just kinda word vomit onto paper. So write it down. Do this before we go scouring job postings because, again, we're trying to fit a r- a square peg into a round hole.

Like what job is good for me? We're not even there yet. We need to figure out what we're truly looking for. And It doesn't matter how-- like what is it in that you would like? So maybe it's, "Oh, I don't care, working in an office all day, but I only wanna work two days a week," or, "I only wanna work four days a week."

Okay, great. Or you're like, "I wanna be mobile and I need to be going outside. I like vet med, but I

[00:35:00] wanna go to, visit different clients. I wanna be outside." Okay, doesn't matter how small or odd. Those aren't odd, but you know what I mean. Like what is the thing that if you could have it, you're like, "This is awesome.

I get to do this every day"? And I'm not saying big stuff, like the aspects of your job, like I said being mobile, maybe the hours, the type of people that you're working with. Maybe it's specialists, maybe it's colleagues, general practitioners, whatever. So just set a timer, fifteen minutes, and write down all of that on paper.

Doesn't have to be complete sentences, just literally get it down on paper. Okay?

[00:36:00-00:39:00] Use ChatGPT to Explore Career Possibilities

Second thing is, this is my favorite one. Now, if you're not familiar with like AI or ChatGPT, however you feel about it, this is a great tool to use for this part. So-- And if you don't wanna use it, don't use it. But what you can do is I use ChatGPT a lot.

I've used Claude too. They

[00:36:00] kinda do two different things. But ChatGPT, and you can do this with a free program, you don't need the paid one. I would go in, and don't type this. There's the microphone. Talk into it, because you can get a lot more information that way. And you're gonna talk into ChatGPT, and you're going to basically vomit all the stuff you just wrote down on paper and talk it to ChatGPT.

And you can say, "I'm," I don't know, "forty-three-year-old veterinarian. I've been a veterinarian for seventeen years. These are the things I enjoy about my job. These are the things that are challenging. These are the things that I really, really want in a job. I wanna work three days a week. I don't care if it's, twelve-hour shifts.

If I can be done in three days, that would be ideal." Or, "I wanna teach. I really like teaching," whether that's in school or teaching to, you know, veterinary staff in their clinic, whatever that is, right? We're gonna speak it into ChatGPT. Now, what you say at the end of that is, "Okay-" I want to

[00:37:00] look for different types of careers, even if they don't currently exist, that's important, and try to identify if there's a job or a profession, whether that's in or outside of vet med, that is ideal for me or is interesting for me.

So knowing what you know now, this is the important part, you ask ChatGPT, "You can ask me three questions, up to three questions, one at a time, to give you more clarity before you answer that question." So essentially, it's like having a conversation with a person. If you're asking them something and the person's like, "Wait a minute.

Hold on. I don't understand. I, I need to clarify. Is it X, Y, and Z," right? But we're forcing ChatGPT to ask us that because what that does is it's really hard for us to see our own, like, blind spots and things that we maybe didn't, I do this all the time, maybe didn't say out loud, but it's in our head, and we forget that we didn't say it out loud, so it doesn't really make sense

[00:38:00] to someone.

And now that's where we're gonna find the crevices and the, the things that kinda fall through the cracks. So that's important is asking it, "Hey, you can ask me up to three questions, one at a time, to give you more clarity before you answer." And you can do that every time you go through ChatGPT.

If you're, like, refining this over time, you can ask that every time. It's, it's a really good thing to get clearer on what you're asking and making sure that you're getting those really good results. And side note, with that, ChatGPT, a lot of times I'm, I'm not like, "Oh yeah, that's it," cut and paste. No. It is one of those things that it gets my creative juices flowing, and it gets me thinking about other stuff I wouldn't have normally thought of.

So the things that ChatGPT tells me, again, we're not trying to put a square peg into a round hole. We just wanna, like, pull out these juicy pieces of information we haven't thought of yet. That's what you wanna do.

[00:39:00-00:41:00] Replace Pressure With Curiosity

And then the next piece is Remember that [00:39:00] we put so much on, like, I have to find the perfect job, I have to find this career.

Is it in vet med? Is it outside of vet med? And what if we put the intention of not I need to find this perfect job, but we put the intention of I'm curious to find what's out there. Because when we put so much pressure on ourselves, we tend to go into it with if the one-- this one little thing is off, then it's not perfect, and then we get that confirmation bias.

We keep looking for bad things unbeknownst to us, and then we're six months later stuck in the same boat, and we're like, "How the hell did we do this again?"

So change that intention, and give yourself permission and compassion to be like, "I'm just wanting to see what's out there. I'm just wanting to gain more knowledge, not necessarily find this perfect job."

And I think when we can do that, that is huge because it takes a lot of that pressure off, right? You can, you can always go back to what you were doing. You can always. I don't fucking care what anyone

[00:40:00] says, especially in the climate right now. I know people will say, "Oh gosh, pet owners are spending less money," et cetera, et cetera.

But I also think that there's such a high turnover rate overall in practice that I think at this point you'll always have a job truthfully. Um, so again, that's all or nothing thinking. That's the scarcity mindset of, well, if I do this thing and it doesn't work, I g- if I go back, maybe I will... Like, we already are catastrophizing all these things that have never and may never happen.

[00:41:00-00:42:00] Your Job Might Not Be Your Purpose

And the last piece is, and this is important, know that your job might not be your purpose So we've always been sold the idea that your job is, like, your purpose in life and what you're doing on Earth. And through a lot of personal development, I've realized that for some

[00:41:00] people it is, but some people it's just a job to pay bills, and then they have time and energy to do the thing they really love outside of work, and that's okay, too.

And sometimes our purpose is very general, like it's there to support other people. It's there to... You know, we're there to, give people, um, compassion, whatever it is, right? It doesn't have to be, "I was put on this Earth to be a veterinarian." Okay? So your job might not be your purpose, and that's okay.

So it's not a big fucking deal. I know it seems like it. I know you put a lot of time and money and effort into it, but that's where we have to, like, pull back a little bit.

[00:42:00-End] Closing Thoughts and What's Coming Next

All right, guys. I hope this was helpful for you. Drop in my DMs on Instagram and let me know what part did you not think of listening to this episode.

You're like, "I didn't even think of that. That's a great idea. I need to know more." Drop me a DM. It's @dr, for doctor, period, amberparks, [00:42:00] A-M-B-E-R-P-A-R-K-S. And also, you guys are gonna want to stay tuned for upcoming podcast episode. I have something really exciting that I'm gonna be talking about probably next week.

Um, but stay tuned. You'll wanna listen in. And I hope you guys have a good rest of your day or night, whenever you're listening to this, and I will see you on the next episode.