What is the biggest barrier to change in your career?

 

Getting stuck in your PT career is common, but it doesn't mean that you can't do anything about it.  We get so used to hearing about the bad things about PT that we stop seeing the possibilities.  If you are stuck, it's not hopeless. The possibilities are there.

Phil:  Okay, Jenna, one question that always . . . when I see people miserable in their career, it really . . . it hurts.  I mean, that's why we do what we do because, you know, you don't have to be miserable.  But what are the biggest barriers to change?  I mean, it's a huge deal.  Why do we struggle so much with it?  Why do we struggle so much?

Jenna:  I think two stick out to me.  I'm sure there's more than that.  I'm sure there's a lot of reasons why we get stuck.  One is not knowing what's next.  As you know, a group of individuals who have gone to school for a really long time, we have to be high achievers.  That's in us to some extent, and to not know what's next or to get into your job and just feel like you're showing up every day, I think that can really bother a lot of people to not know what's next or to not want what's next.  So if the only thing that your company is offering is a management role and you don't want a management role, I think that could be frustrating, too.  The other thing that I think of is sometimes the people that you're around.  So if everyone that you’re around is either negative or complacent, I think that can often rub off on us.  If everybody's like, this is just how it is, you know, nobody really likes it, but it's like this everywhere.  And you keep hearing that message over and over and over again, I think it's only human nature to start to believe it because it's like, well, everybody I'm around thinks that this is as good as it gets.  So, you know, who am I to think differently?  But I think that's what we need, is we need those people that know that, you know, just going in to work every day is not the only way.


Phil:  Yeah, absolutely.  And that's the thing. I think my answers would be really similar in that I would say it's some component of fear.  And that fear . . . and it's a fear that I have as well, and I've had, you know, that it's not going to work out. If I make this change or I do something that I'm probably getting in the same situation.  And that fear gets compounded when you have made a change before and it didn't really help very much.  So I think that fear and I think there's strategies to help improve that.  And then the other thing is something you already touched on, is the idea that it is possible, the belief, you know, like . . . we're surrounded.  I think it's just gotten particularly bad in the past two years, not even just the people you're around, but the Internet that you're around. You know, social media. You would think, I mean, I know places are really struggling and people are really struggling, but that there's nowhere, anywhere to work that's good in physical therapy.  And that's just not true.  I mean, it isn't. Now, there are a lot of bad places, don't get me wrong.  And I feel badly for the people who are in those places.  But there are good places or you can create things or do different things.

 

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