Aspirations for an Ideal Future in Medicine: Your Ideal Practice

We spent a moment last week dreaming about a positive future for medicine. Today, I want to hone the focus down to you as the individual physician to foster your ideal practice.  I will walk you through a few activities over the next couple of weeks for you to develop your plan.

Purpose Reflection. It will be helpful for you to dig out your purpose in your career statement. If you haven’t written one in a while, you can review how to do that here.  Take a minute to reflect on it.

Priming your Mindset. Next, an activity to get your mindset ready.  Make a list of 10 things you want. These can be big-picture aspirational ideas (world peace), experiences (travel across Europe by train), or tangible items (my favorite ballpoint pen). After making that list, we will add a little twist. Make a list of 10 things you want that you ALREADY have.

It’s healthy to remind ourselves that we already have something we desire. Comparing which list seemed easier to compile often offers some interesting reflection. It’s different for everyone. Nothing has gone wrong; you have a human brain. But we want you to be able to stretch your mind in all directions as you begin to plan for the future.

Mindset Hurdles. There are four parts of your mindset that, if left unchecked, can hold you back from a more ideal future

1. Small dreams and not unpacking the vision. (We will cover this today).

2. Fear.

3. Limiting beliefs.

4. Your inner critic.

Addressing Small Dreams. Michelangelo is credited as saying, “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too big and we miss it but that it is too low, and we reach it."

Step 1. Dream Big. I am lending you my remote, invisible magic wand. Wave it toward the future, get out your paper and pen (or keyboard), and start dreaming big. Again - dreaming from a place of abundance - not the escapism driven by feeling a little 'crispy.' 

What’s an ideal clinical practice for you?  What patient populations are you serving and where? Think geographically and building type – inpatient, outpatient, L&D, nursing home, the ED, home visits, homeless camps, a multi-purpose healthcare setting with a gym, nutritionist, etc. What percentage of time are spent on various types of encounters? -Include acute care, chronic care management, preventative care, procedures, etc.  What kind of staffing and other supports exist? Picture your day – what’s the flow like? Think about your team’s interactions and engagement—hours, days of the week, partners, etc. Think through the details. What things are you not doing?  How do you feel as you wake up and head to work? (If it’s not fabulous – work more on your dreams, revisit your purpose in your career statement, and remember your why.) Write it all down.

Step 2. Unpack the Vision. Once you have listed as many details as possible, you can consider each a separate goal. 

For the things you listed – write beside each one what it will do for you. For example, if one of the things you want in your ideal practice is 30% acute care, why do you want that? It may be one thing or multiple. “It will provide variety. It gives me some less complex issues to deal with. It helps me ‘catch up.’ “

You then can go a bit deeper by asking what it will do fo you, and what will the answer to that do for you? What’s important about variety for you?  “It keeps me from being bored.” What’s important about that? “It keeps me engaged so that I can enjoy it more.” What’s important about less complex issues? “They’re easier, and I can often give some quick fixes.” What’s important about that? “Easier cases provide my brain a little rest and recovery during the day.” “Quick fixes are nice because I like to see that I’m helping people more immediately.” What’s important about ‘catch-up time?’ “Again, some rest and recovery, I’m not behind, I have more meaningful time with patients, and I leave the office on time.” What’s important about that? I have time to work out and spend with my family and friends.  – Okay, you get the picture.

Usually, during this portion, you will see that several of your goals lead to common parts of the vision.

Now write out the vision of your ideal practice in a sentence or paragraph. You can still keep your specific goals, but you will realize that you can achieve the vision through various means, giving you flexibility moving forward.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will tackle the fear, limiting beliefs, and the inner critic, as well as start developing a plan. 

Until then, Have a joy-filled week!  Tonya

My private coaching course for individual physicians walks you through detailed steps of ditching unnecessary suffering, protecting, and increasing your energy, and fostering your ideal future with me coaching you along the way. 

Originally published 2/2023, updated 11/2024.