Why is change so hard in our career?

You wish you had a better situation at work. 

You want to see more of a certain patient.

You wish you could have flexibility in your schedule for things that are important.

You want to make more money than you are now, but you aren't sure how to take action or what to do next. 

In this video, Jenna and Phil discuss why change can be so hard in our career.

Phil:  All right, Jenna, I've got a question for you.  A lot of times in people we coach and people we work with, it really takes a lot for change to occur. Meaning they'll be in a situation that they don't like, with patients they're not really excited about seeing, or they don't like their employer, they don't like their manager, whatever the case may be, but they don't do anything about it. But they're frustrated beyond all belief. Why is change so hard? What makes it so difficult to be able to make that leap?

Jenna:  I think part of it is knowing what the leap is. Okay, I don't want my caseload or I want flexibility or whatever, But everything leading up to that point is not defined at all.  No one told you ever how to change your caseload or how to change your schedule or how to fix necessarily anything that's in your job without changing jobs. And sometimes you might find improvement when you do change jobs, but a lot of times you're not. So I think why it's so hard is because you just don't know what direction to go in or what to do. And then when you do go in a direction, it's not super quick where it's like, okay, I started doing X, Y or Z and now I have the perfect caseload. So it's kind of like when you're out on your own, you start doing something, you don't see the progress you want and maybe assume that that's not the way to go.

Phil:  So what would your specific advice be for someone? So they're sitting there right now, they're saying, gosh, I don't know what I want or what I have. I kind of know what I want. What do I do?

Jenna:  If you're the type of person that can sit down and get a game plan and execute the game plan and, you know, persevere through it not necessarily going exactly as you expected. And that's awesome. I think for a lot of people, myself included, I needed someone else to help me, to give me the perspective that I needed or to tell me you're going in the right direction, keep going, or you know what you actually might want to try this. So one of the best things I can tell someone is to find perspective, whether that's within the clinic you're at now or seeking it elsewhere.

Phil:  That's a really good point. I think of negotiation. I teach negotiation courses. I coach a lot of people on very specific job negotiations and quite frankly, they're very successful at it. But when it comes to negotiation, I'm the worst negotiator for myself. I do a horrible job. I'm like, I just won't push it. You know, I don't want to be viewed, you know, this way or that way. It's probably just fine, you know, what was offered first and all that. So I think it's probably the same thing. You know, it's just we just don't do a good job by ourselves knowing . . . you know, I think it's a confidence that comes from having someone else to really bounce those ideas off of. I guess the one piece of advice I would give then is make sure that the person you're confiding in is able to give you that advice in a good way, is able to push you and is also able to give you a little bit of reality and say this is what needs to be done. Here you go. You're right. Let's go with it versus maybe someone else who is stuck in a job. So maybe have someone who is doing what they want to be doing rather than who's also stuck because that can be pretty bad.

Jenna:  Yes, I agree.