Fuelling with curiosity (not anxiety)
What is your bar for success with a patient? In other words... how do you know you did a good job?
If the requirements for success sound a bit like this...
☑ I didn't make any mistakes
☑ I knew exactly what the diagnosis was & what to do about it
☑ The treatment techniques went smoothly
☑ The patient was happy & grateful
☑ Their symptoms completely resolved
...then my guess is that the emotions following you around most of your work day are some version of anxiety and pressure. Not to mention the disappointment, shame and feeling like an imposter when you don't tick off the items on this checklist.
And you might be thinking things like: well, I just have high standards! Lowering the bar of success would just make me a worse clinician. Anxiety is just the price I pay to be good at what I do (someday).
But if you pay closer attention to what ACTUALLY happens when you feel pressured & stressed all day, and the result of sinking into a negative spiral when you fall short - you'll start to notice that it doesn't actually improve the standard of your care.
In other word, it's not ACTUALLY creating higher standards.
All it's doing is making you miserable and in fact, it's getting in the way of the exact things that are going to help your standard of care improve: feeling curious, being present, learning from your mistakes and being willing to try new things.
So what's the alternative?
I've found that the clinicians who feel CURIOUS rather than anxious and pressured in their work day (besides those who don't seem to care at all about their standard of care) have an internal dialogue that sounds something more like this...
💬 It's so exciting that I'll be endlessly learning for my whole career and never get to all of what there is to know!
💬 Oh, that didn't work like I thought it would... hmm, let me figure out why that could be.
💬 Oh, that didn't work like I thought it would... hmm, let me try this other thing.
💬 My role is to meet the person where they're at and help them as much as I can.
💬 Ooh, that's fascinating.
💬 Thinking about my own insecurities or spiralling into a negative emotion takes me away from being present with my patients; this time is for them.
💬 It feels uncomfortable making a mistake or not knowing something, but I'm willing to feel that in order to learn.
The perspective you take and the thoughts you think on a daily basis MATTER for how happy and fulfilled you are in practice, and how well you're able to genuinely learn & develop as a clinician. They are everything.
In the latest podcast episode on this topic, I go a bit deeper into ways we might start to shift this internal dialogue - you can check that out by clicking the button below:
