If you’re not happy with your job now, you won’t be happy with your job in 30 years. Think about that and decide if you’re really okay with spending the rest of your life doing something that doesn’t resonate with you. Today’s guest, Dr. Natalie Crawford, decided she didn’t want to spend 30 years doing something that didn’t make her happy, so she quit.
Natalie was in her first-year residency in emergency medicine when she realized that something was missing. Because of the type of life she wanted, she asked for and received advice from others that influenced her decision to enter into emergency medicine. She didn’t like the thrill of a new patient everyday and she actually found herself trying to follow cases through, even after they left her care.
She watched her peers thrive in this environment but knew it wasn’t right for her. Natalie approached her advisor and transparently let him know that this wasn’t the right career path for her. Facing her fear and speaking up allowed her to begin the search for what was right, and her advisor turned into her biggest advocate to get where she wanted to go.
For Natalie, putting that extra effort in was beneficial to her finding what type of medicine she actually wanted to practice. She knows that every step she’s taken, even the ones that weren’t right, were necessary to get her to where she ultimately wanted to go.
After all, what’s the worst that could happen?
Are you happy in your career? Have you pictured the worst case scenario if you quit? Do you know what you want out of life? Let me know in the comments on the episode page!
In This Episode:
Quotes:
“We only have this one life to make things matter and if we spend our time on something, it’s innately time away from other things: family, free time, other interests. So it needs to be worth it. And the only way to make it worth it is by knowing what really matters to you and making sure your choices are in line with that.” (1:39)
“Sometimes you have to be in something to get a better grasp of what is important to you or at least the things that are not.” (7:52)
“When you’re in that unknown period, that ‘this isn’t right for me but I don’t know what is,’ you start to doubt yourself.” (11:27)
“By quitting, sometimes you’re advocating for yourself in the strongest way that you can.” (26:33)
“The time is gonna pass, we might as well be happy while we do it.” (32:19)
Links
Find Dr. Natalie Crawford Online
Follow Dr. Natalie Crawford on Instagram | Twitter | Podcast
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Podcast production support by the fine folks at Counterweight Creative