Click here to download the transcript.
Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors. We suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.
I’m Dr. Cathy and welcome to this week’s episode of Empowering Women in Chiropractic, brought to you by ChiroSecure. This week, I want to dig into a topic that is coming up everywhere you turn. And if you are a woman in chiropractic who has been watching social media, you know that Big topic of discussion in all of the groups.
is burnout. How do we avoid burnout? And oftentimes this question is being asked by women who are younger in the profession, newer in the profession, recent graduates, two, three, four years into the profession asking how do they avoid burnout? And then you have women like myself who’ve been in the profession for 25 or even 30 years that are saying, what do you mean burnout?
Click here for the best Chiropractic Malpractice Insurance
Let’s just keep going. But you know what? There’s got to be a happy medium because if our younger docs Newer docs, and I’m not talking young in age, I’m talking young in the profession, if our younger docs are getting burned out and our more advanced, more experienced docs are saying, what are you talking about?
There’s a disconnect here. Now, one of the big disconnects that’s constantly being brought up is it’s the associate model. If it’s not structured right, then you feel like you’re working and you’re working and you’re working and you’re never getting a chance to breathe and you’re also not getting a chance to grow or build what you want and build.
Get a Quick Quote and See What You Can Save
But then there’s also those of you who are out there who are running the practice by yourself, maybe without a team, maybe you are it. You are the owner, you are the doctor, you are the phone answerer, you are the billing person, you might be doing it all and you feel like when is this ever going to get easier?
If you are in that position right now, if you feel like you’re getting close to being burnt out or if you’ve ever been burnt out before, let’s get together and have a conversation on this because this is so important because if you get burnt out, what ends up happening for so many people is they leave the profession.
And then they’re gone. They’re done. All that education, all those years, all that time, effort, energy, all those goals you had are gone. And listen, I’m not saying that if you want out, don’t get out. If you’re ready to retire, If you’re ready to make a change. But if you’re making the change because you feel like you can’t make enough money, or you feel like you’re not having a big enough impact, or you feel like you’re in the wrong position, or you’re just getting so burned out because somebody else is putting you through something, that’s not necessarily what you want to do.
Or you don’t know how to get to the next level where you can hire staff or bring somebody in. to support you then listen up because it doesn’t have to be that way. If you’re going and you’re going and you’re going and you’re never taking a break you are going to get burned out. So how do you take a break when you feel like I can’t afford to take a break or there’s too much going on or I’m spinning every single plate and if I stop for one second they’re all going to come crashing down and you’re thinking I can’t do that I have to keep going.
How do you do it? You take a break. The universe sometimes will just force you to take a break. Sometimes you’ll get injured. Sometimes you’ll get sick. Sometimes you’re no longer performing well in your current position and you need to go find a new position. But the universe will oftentimes force you to take a break.
So you know what? Before you’re forced to, why don’t you plan to? Why don’t you plan to take a break? For me, I travel. That’s where I spend my money. I spend my money on experiences, not things. I want to go, I want to do, I want to see, I want to experience, I want to feel it, smell it, touch it. I want to be all up in a different place and have that reinvigorate me.
And when I do, I come back more excited, more on fire, and more ready to serve. And if you haven’t done that yet, I will tell you this. So many times, I’ve told this story a million times, so many times people say to me, Doc, I can’t take a break. Dr. Cathy, I can’t take a break. I’m so busy. I’m so behind schedule.
I don’t have the time. I don’t have the money. The kids schedules are, I can’t afford to take a break. I just can’t do it. And I look at them and I say, You can’t afford not to. When you’re at that point, you can’t afford not to take a break. Why? Because if you’re chopping wood, and you’re chopping wood, and you’re chopping wood, and you keep going, and you keep going, and you keep going, eventually your axe gets dull, you get tired, and each time you try to chop that wood, you are less and less effective.
You are doing less. Good for the community. You are having less benefits for yourself. You are making less progress than you think you are, and you’re exhausted, you’re tired, you’re frustrated, you’re aggravated, and people are going to start picking up on that. So you have to stop. You have to take a break.
You have to rest, and you need to go sharpen that axe. For me, that means vacation. For you, that might mean a day at the spa. For somebody else, it might mean go sit on your couch and read a book. For somebody else, it might mean go to the I don’t know what you need to do, but you need to do something that honors you and serves you.
When my children were young, I always homeschooled them. During COVID, the three of us decided they wanted to go to public school. We made that decision. My two children started going to public school. But when I was homeschooling, Tuesdays were insane. Crazy, like pulling your hair out, don’t bother me, don’t talk to me, this is like the day to get it all done.
The first Tuesday in public school, after I put them on the bus, And I had no one to answer to and nothing that had to be done. I didn’t even know what to do with myself. And I coined a term for myself for a little while that I called it To Me Tuesday. That was my day to do whatever I wanted to do to me.
If I wanted to go get a massage, I went on Tuesday. If I wanted to get my nails done, I went on Tuesday. If I wanted to go try out some funky new. Workout or whatever I did on Tuesday and it charged me back up. It fueled me back up. It refilled my bucket. So whatever it is that works for you, you have to find a way to stop, take a break, sharpen your ax.
Because when you do that, When you come back to chopping wood, you are so much more effective. Your blade is sharper. Your aim is truer. Your results are better. You’re going to have a greater impact in your community. You’re going to be happier to serve your patients. You’re going to be more excited to see people have wonderful transformations, and you are going to be just absolutely on fire for chiropractic.
But if you’re getting to the point where you’re already like, Hey, I’m burned out. What do I do? You waited too long. You’re out of time. You have to stop now. You have to take a break now because we cannot have our doctors in this profession getting to the point of burnout where they’re out. They’re out of the profession because we need you.
Your community needs you. Your patients need you. The people you have yet to serve, who will only connect with someone just like you, they need you. They need your energy. They need your stories. They need your experience. They need your knowledge. They need your heart. They need your compassion and they need your passion for chiropractic.
They need you. But they can’t have you if you’re burned out and you’re out of the profession. So it is not selfish to take a break. It is the most selfless thing you can do because if you don’t take a break and you implode, you’re going to, you’re going to implode all over the people that you love. And then they’re going to end up having to help you, which is not what you want to do.
And it’s okay to ask for help, but I know if you’re getting to the burnout point, you have not been asking for help because you probably don’t know how. Because as women who have come up through the 80s, the 90s, the 2000s, who have come up in the era of I am woman, hear me roar I can do it. I can bring home the bacon and fry it up in the pan and never, ever let you forget.
If you have come up in that mentality, then you don’t know how to ask for help because you have spent your whole life pushing, growing, overcoming, doing more, and then doing even more than that, because that’s what has been taught to us. We’ve been taught that you can cook and you can clean and you can be the wife or you can be the mother, or you can be the daughter, or you can be the sister.
And you can be the aunt. You can be the leader in your community. You could be the stay at home and go to work at the same time somehow. We’ve been taught that we can juggle it all, and we all want to prove that we can. And so we have gone through school, most women, not asking for help. Most of us have gone through school not admitting when we’re struggling.
Not admitting when we don’t understand something. Not admitting when this isn’t working for us. How many of you have gone through school, and you had instructors teaching you how to adjust in a way that didn’t honor your body, that didn’t make sense based on your size, right? Because if you went through school and you had somebody that did not look like you, sound like you, be built like you, have the muscle structure and the size and stature like you, teaching you how to adjust, you probably had to figure that out on your own too without asking for help.
So to get to this point when you’re three years into the practice, Six years in, 10 years in, 15, 20 years in, 30 years in, and you’re like, I am burnt out, but I don’t even know how to ask for help. Then it’s time to stop. And you’ve got to take that time for you. And it might mean reaching out into these groups, but be careful about the answers you’re seeing in these groups because a lot of the answers I’m seeing are like, go sell this or go do this, or add this to your office or add this product or add this service or do another thing and do another thing and do something else.
And you know what? If you’re gonna put all your time and effort. into doing something else in the hopes that’s going to grow and eventually make you a passive income stream? What if you took all that time, energy, effort and put it first and foremost into yourself and then put it into growing your practice or put it into growing your associate or independent contractor position or put it into marketing yourself better in your community or put it into going out and doing talks in your community or you put it into something that’s going to absolutely help you feel successful?
Be more effective and deliver the greatest results in your community so that you don’t get that burnt out feeling, but instead you get that, another miracle happened in my office today feeling. Because when you have that feeling of wow, we just saw some incredible miracles in our office today, that alleviates the sense of burnout.
But if all you’re doing is the same thing over and over and over and over and over again, and everybody comes in and they’re like, ah, this bothers me or that bothers me or it hurts over here. It hurts over there. This is, that gets to be burnt out. That gets to be where you don’t even hear Charlie Brown’s teacher just wah, wah, right?
So change the conversation in your office, change the dance, mix it up. You lead, they’ll follow. Change the conversation. So there’s so many different things that you can do to avoid burnout. But they all start with you. They start with you either taking a break away from the practice. Whether it’s a day, an afternoon, a weekend, or however long you need.
It may be asking for help. Maybe that’s from your staff. Maybe that’s from your co workers. If you have co workers, maybe that’s from your family. It may be you just saying, hey, you know what? How do I find the magic? Why did I become a chiropractor in the first place? Tap back into your why, your reason, your purpose, your mission for doing what you do.
What is your mission? What is your vision? Do you see me? A world where babies are checked for subluxation shortly after birth? Do you see a world where all women are under chiropractic care prior to conception? Do you see a world where all men are under chiropractic care prior to getting married and starting a family?
What kind of world do you envision? And when you can attach to something that’s bigger than you with a bigger a massive vision, a vision that’s so big that if you wrote it on a piece of paper and somebody found it, you’d probably deny it was yours because you’d be like, Oh God, that’s not mine.
No, that’s not mine. That’s too embarrassing, right? That’s what I’m talking about. If you can attach to a vision that’s so big, That it’s beyond you. Now you’re not focused on you. Now you’re not focused on the day to day. You’re focused on what is the long term goal. Where is it that I want to take this profession?
Or where is it that I want to take my practice? Or where is it that I want to take the people in my community? And if you find While you’re doing this, while you’re taking time for yourself, while you’re reconnecting to your purpose, while you’re figuring out how to sharpen your axe, while you’re figuring out how to communicate chiropractic so that you can have a broader, more impactful result on your community, if you find that you’re not in the right position, Then change that position because don’t blame chiropractic if you’re just in a bad position.
Look at it and say, you know what? There’s a reason why I did this. There’s a reason why I chose this pathway. There’s a reason why you went to school. There’s a reason why you missed funerals and weddings and family events because of school and boards and Oskies. There’s a reason why you kept persevering and there’s a reason why you need to connect.
So that you can continue to persevere. And when you understand why you do what you do and how you can do it better so that you can serve on a greater level. And it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to do high volume. I’m done with those days, right? My shoulder said, long time ago, but it means that you have to connect with people on a way that fulfills you.
If you’re not walking into the office, excited to serve and leaving, feeling rejuvenated, Feeling you know what? My body may be tired, but my soul is filled up. Then you’ve got to stop and you’ve got to reconnect to your why. And if you can’t do that on your own, then ask for help in how do I reconnect?
How do I reconnect to my purpose? Forget the burnout. I get it. I know that there’s so many women in that stage right now because you’re doing way too much. Forget the word burnout just for a minute. Just put it aside for a minute and ask someone, Not how do I avoid burnout, but how do I reconnect to my purpose?
How do I reconnect to what truly matters to me? How do I reconnect to my vision, my desire, my goals? How do I reconnect to who it is I want to be, how I want to serve and the type of life I want to build? And when you start really thinking in those terms, that whole burnout concept just becomes a little blip.
A little stumbling block, a little bit of an obstacle, not a roadblock. It’s not a dead end. And don’t let it become one. Let it become the thing that transforms your vision. Let it become the moment in your career that transforms the direction of your vision. And the destiny that you have, as well as the impact that you’ll have on your community, your people, your patients, or even on this profession, because it all comes down to how you see things, because how you see things is going to determine how you respond to things.
If you feel burnt out, everywhere you look, you’re going to see things weighing on you, dragging you down, extra stuff for the kids, extra stuff for the house, something’s going to break in the office, or somebody’s going to not show up, or a patient’s going to move, or they’re going to cancel, or they’re going to want to, get out of their care plan, or whatever it is, you’re going to see everything is more things, more daggers coming at you to keep you burned out.
But if you shift your focus back into why did I go to school in the first place? Why did I want to become a chiropractor? What was the miracle I witnessed? Or what were the miracles that I saw other people witness? Or what was the reason that I chose to become a chiropractor? What is it that I wish I would have received when I was younger?
Or the care that I wish I would have been exposed to? Or that I wish my family members had? Or what is it that connects you? For me, I believe that babies are in pincushions. I believe that no mom should ever have to bury a child due to SIDS or vaccines or, a preventable illness. I believe that we are all made in the image and likeness of perfection and therefore we all have the opportunity and the ability to do that.
To live an extraordinary life, but sometimes we’re just locked and we don’t know how to get out of that locked area, whether it’s a jail cell, whether it’s a mentality, whether it’s a physical body, that we don’t know how to get out of that. But if you truly believe that we’re all designed to For greatness, and we all have all the tools and the abilities right here within ourselves, to be extraordinary and you get to help people experience that.
Wow, like you get to unlock people so that they can go out and live their best life. But you got to be living your best life too, because you can’t be saying one thing and doing something different. My quest for you. Right now is to not get sucked into these conversations about feeling burned out.
What can I do to make more money? How can I do something to supplement my income and instead go back into what is it that truly matters to me? And why did I start this journey in the first place and how? Do I reconnect to my purpose, to my vision, to my mission, to my why? Why do I do what I do? How do I reconnect to that?
Sit down, journal, write out your goals, look back on old goal sheets that you have. Whatever it takes for you to reconnect to you. So that you can then serve in a way that is appropriate for you, that is serving you, that is fulfilling you, that is lifting you up, filling your bucket so that you can then pour it out all over to share with other people and be refilled and replenished.
If you’re feeling that way, and you don’t know where to turn, first and foremost, turn inward. If you need help, and you don’t know who to ask, reach out to people who you look up to, or people who seem to have it together, whether they do or not, and ask them, because they’re probably, Pedaling underwater like this, but swimming on top looking graceful.
Ask them what they do. How did they do it? How do they keep going? How do they persevere? How do they stay focused on their vision? How do they stay connected to their patients? How do they give Love and serve to others and still honor who they are. If you don’t have somebody, reach out to me. I’m happy to talk to you.
If you don’t know where to go, ask someone else, but please don’t try to go this alone unless you’re ready to. And please don’t. Listen to any of the naysayers who tell you just jump ship. It’ll be easier over there. No, it won’t. You’ll still have to work. You’ll still have to figure it out. You’ll still have to do everything.
And you’ll be abandoning what your passion, what your heart, what your soul and what your education brought you to. So I’m going to urge you when I see these messages in these burnt out posts in all these forums to stop for a minute and say, you know what? If I could use a different word, what Maybe I’m tired.
Maybe I’m not connected. Maybe I’m disconnected. Maybe I need to be adjusted. Maybe I need a mental adjustment, right? Use a different word and find a way to honor yourself. So that we don’t lose you because this profession needs every one of you. It needs every aspect of women chiropractors that we can get.
It needs short. It needs tall. It needs big. It needs small. It needs white, brown, orange. I don’t care what you are. I don’t care if you got green hair, blonde hair, black hair. It needs all of us. around the world so that we can serve all of the diverse people around the world. So I’m urging you, I’m begging you, I’m pleading with you.
Please do not get burned out. Do not let yourself get burned out. Do not let yourself leave this profession. Find out how to reconnect to your purpose. And when you do that, you will recreate a pathway to take you in the direction that you want to go so that you can serve in a way that honors not only your patients, but also your Not only your profession, but you personally.
And when you do that, I hope that you reach back out to some of these other women and say, Hey, if I can do it. You can do it. Ladies, I am so grateful for all that you do in this profession, for all that you do in your corner of the world, and for all the lives that you touch, which are collectively making this world a better place.
Let’s keep doing it because I know we’ve got a lot of work to do, but together we can make this place a better world. I love and appreciate you. I hope to see you on the journey somewhere soon. Take care, ladies.
Join us each week as we bring you the best in business growth, practice management, social media marketing, networking, leadership, and lots more. If it’s about women in practice and business, you’ll hear it here.
This has been a ChiroSecure production.
Click here for the best Chiropractic Malpractice Insurance
Get a Quick Quote and See What You Can Save