To Survive or Thrive? The cautionary tale of 2 careers….
I loved being near the ocean growing up. The freedom, creativity and challenge it brought me moulded into my DNA, it felt like a spiritual part of my being came alive whenever the ocean was close, it was a big part of my childhood in the country. I went to local school and was quite good at it, I was a young athlete competing in many sports, life was simple and fun! I went through school supported by an adoring, nurturing family and by the time I left high school I joined my brother on the Gold Coast. It was time to get serious about my future. I was taught as a kid that hard work was the only way to get ahead. That it needed to feel challenging and not always in a good way, I was led to believe that was normal. I was unsure of what to do but I was kind of smart, good at sport, interested in sport and I got in, so Physio it was!
Life on the coast was amazing, I met so many people, loved my study, accessed the ocean often, enjoyed my athletic pursuits and was outside a lot. Life felt like a dream…. Youth! I graduated well and I was fortunate enough to gain a very exciting opportunity as a grad. The challenge of learning my new craft was stimulating and challenging, the work hours felt long and at times overwhelming, but I was taught this was how it should feel when earning a crust! My career was taking me, I wasn’t sure where or why but figured I didn’t need to know.
Life continued this way for another 10 years, I was married now with 2 great kids that I didn’t see enough, a mortgage, I became a partner and eventually l gained majority share of the practice in 2013. I had lost touch with the meaning of the things from my youth that settled and calmed me. I was managing a full case load of patients and running a business. This was always what I wanted right? What an achievement! I felt exhausted, a bit stuck and I powered through, surviving at best. I never stopped once, other than 2 weeks annual leave year, which was often hectic but fun with the kids. I just pushed on, not reflecting, not stopping, with my blinkers on. I thought it was normal to feel this way. I wasn’t sure why I was doing what I was doing at this point. My career/work was still taking me in a race to the never-ending finish line. I just thought that was what was expected of me.
Turns out, that expectation was a myth and a limited belief in my head. My career has now changed, and I have the privilege of working in personal development coaching, specialising in the industry I loved and served for 22 years. This affords me the pleasure of speaking with and sharing the experiences of previous peer mentors, coaching clients, graduates and young professional athletes in the hope this may provide some relief or insights into the perils that our profession can bring about without a clear vision.
One of these people I had the pleasure of speaking to recently was Trish Wisbey-Roth. As a previous business owner and practitioner, I have great respect for how Trish has remained energised, thriving for more than 30 years as a Physio. Talented, revered as a clinician and business owner, her work history and professional experiences speaks volumes. I recently chatted with her about how she has managed to maintain her passion for our industry.
The conversation of our respective careers opens; “Physio’s don’t give up! Knowing when to give up, seems much harder than pushing on against the brick wall” this resonated with me and Trish agreed. The work we are charged with doing; to serve and solve for others before ourselves, can take its toll. We push through the pain of dissatisfaction to fulfil a notional idea that only we can solve the needs of the patient, this is what we have been commissioned to do from study through to practicing as a clinician. We agreed that it manifests like a disease, not being able to say “no” or reinforce boundaries when the patient load, commercial load and learning load is so intense it feels like there is no space to pause and review so we push through. We both experienced this and tackled it differently.
Trish counts herself as very fortunate, able to achieve professional milestones I feel many only dream of. Attending several Olympic games with these being both highlights and lowlights, but both brought reinvigorating moments within her career that enabled her to continue with passion. Trish always managed to have the awareness to turn the lowlights into opportunities. At the Atlanta Olympics, poor results and mismanagement of athletes saw her lose faith in the profession. Her role, the capacity for support and difficulties of being female in a male dominated arena, became too much and Trish took a self-imposed break rather than push through. She said, “Giving up often provides a means of opening new opportunities” The pause gave her the space to reassess everything, and she made a commitment to herself if she wasn’t missing the challenge, she possibly wasn’t on the right track to begin with. The courage to do this was not lost on me and I wondered why I felt I didn’t give myself the same opportunity through my career? I kept pushing through, surviving.
Trish returned! Ready to thrive and missing the challenge of the industry. “What you are isn’t your environment, your makeup is intrinsic, it’s not dependant on your surroundings”. Meaning you can change things if you want, stay intuitive, create space, and listen to those internal drivers. There are more options available to you than you realise and you don’t see these, as I didn’t, when you keep pushing. Trish believes as do I, Physios are problem solvers. The task focussed nature of our profession and analytical nature of Physio can affect the brain, we are mentally working hard for long hours for years, racing against the clock. This physical, emotional, and cognitive load amounts to a heavy toll on the analytical brain and lateral thinking diminishes. You begin to feel exhausted, perhaps stuck? Is this the start of ‘burn out’ or is it a moment we should honour? To take pause, look at what it is we are working so hard for? Can it be different? Many keep going, as I did.
Trish was great at knowing herself, early recognition of the signs, acknowledging this is not a good way to be operating. She sought breaks and managed to work though this pain on her own finding new ways in the industry to thrive. I realised I was too exhausted to get through this on my own, I got help and realised I could no longer return to what I was doing. Trish along the way was adept at looking outside the square, what possibilities are there? How can I get around this? Decided on a way forward and then applied the action steps required. “The greater the discomfort, the more the learning and pivotal the moment” is her mantra! With the benefit of hindsight, we both agree we should not tolerate the pain, be curious, there is no need to feel ‘stuck’ ‘burnt out’, there are solutions. I didn’t do this soon enough! The final stage of my career could have could have evolved differently. I chose to survive not thrive.
I’ve since sold my practice and did something I should have done years before. I sought coaching (different to the business kind) to unravel my chaotic, exhausted, purposeless state. I remember being asked in my first session, ‘when do I feel most at peace and happy?’ My answer? ‘I only feel at peace when I am 2km out to sea on my surf ski chasing ocean waves’. It was clear to me at that point I had drifted so far from shore I was absent in many areas of my life. It was through coaching that for the first time in my life I was asked….Why? ‘Why was I was doing what I did and how that matched the vision I have for living the best version of my life?’ I simply did not have the answers! My curiosity to solve this lead me on a life changing journey in personal development. My coach said ‘what if we could create a life vision that allowed you to feel like you were 2km out to sea surfing the ocean every day? Yet you were living that vision on land.’ Was that possible?
I began to play around with my ‘life buckets’, understanding how my life is made up of different areas (buckets) of fulfilment, the things that I apply my energy, and resources to daily. I realised that I had no clear vision, my passions had changed, and I was not accessing them enough, I had no clue what my gifts were, and I was spending so much time in my career bucket my whole life felt like completely out of balance. I was stuck, languishing, feeling burnt out! I’m happy to now say, taking a career hiatus and understanding my vision, life purpose and accepting discomfort as an internal call for change is something I should have pursued a while ago. I’m now living my best life at sea, on land with no regrets. My commitment now to an industry that gave me so much, is to help others through the pain to create an exciting raft of possibilities in their life.
Trish and I have similarity and differences in our careers, and I believe that it’s the differences that illustrate the opportunity for many clinicians, business owners and graduates in our industry. Trish had a clear vision, she took time out, she looked to ways to re- ignite the passion, she was courageous and knew that it would always work out – she believed in herself. Her aim was that it needed to feel purposeful, meaningful, and fulfilling. Not exhausting, hard and chaotic. She never compromised. Thats why now she has built www.thephysioaccelerator.com . It's a resource built to support Physios through mentoring, clinical and whole person insights which aims to optimise them to a well rounded life. It includes free Podcasts and monthly Q and A where Physios can ask anything career/life-related.
I truly believe that the decade of my life I spent surviving could have been different, if I had sourced the right help and just applied these simple principles when the pain began:
Build a vision - a broad life vision not just a business/work/career vision
Set intentions - what is the end state?
Build a plan - add in measures
Act - timelines help here
Review, measure, be intuitive and adapt
Get the right help to support you
It’s easy and common to find yourself surviving or worse languishing. If you feel you are stuck, burnt out, or just unclear about what’s next, or where to? Please reach out. Sometimes a call is all you need to start the solution.
Email me at josh@purposeandflow.com.au or book in a call via this link by clicking here. I’m here to share how I turned my life around and how I can help you too!