It's the start of another week and you have that feeling again of not wanting to go to work.
 Have you ever wished you might never have to cope with the intricacies of working as a doctor? Not so much the patients themselves or even the mental challenge of taking their history, doing the examination, arranging appropriate investigations and deciding on the best treatment, but more the aggravation of too much to do in the day, the lack of co-operation from others, the demands made of you, all add up to make you wonder if you really want to carry on for many more years.
The dilemma is this: do you really want to give it all up, pack it all in and if so for what? Do you really want to let go of all those years of specialised training and start again with something entirely different and new? Whatever your age, if you decide that you've had enough and are moving towards the decision to leave Medicine then what might be stopping you actually leaving might be that you feel that you must also decide what to do instead.
However attractive it may seem to 'do nothing' you may well find the thought of the change from a hectic life as a doctor to doing nothing too big a crossing to make.
So before you take the plunge and decide to leave the profession think carefully about what you really would like to do.
That might be what you would have done if you hadn't been to medical school or what you might have given up in order to study medicine.
Examine practical issues such as whether or not you will have a pension and how much you need to earn to have the lifestyle you want.
In order to make that life-changing decision to leave the profession, be clear about what you want instead.
Of course it's better if to be as specific as possible yet even recognising what sort of thing you want will all enable you to make the transition smoothly.
Ask yourself what's in your way to doing what you want to do and instead of remaining stuck in a state of no action, think of as many possibilities for ways to remove those obstacles.
Either on your own or with the help of a coach or mentor you may find that many of your perceived obstacles are in fact as a result of your personal belief system which will need to be challenged for you to understand and change.
 Have you ever wished you might never have to cope with the intricacies of working as a doctor? Not so much the patients themselves or even the mental challenge of taking their history, doing the examination, arranging appropriate investigations and deciding on the best treatment, but more the aggravation of too much to do in the day, the lack of co-operation from others, the demands made of you, all add up to make you wonder if you really want to carry on for many more years.
The dilemma is this: do you really want to give it all up, pack it all in and if so for what? Do you really want to let go of all those years of specialised training and start again with something entirely different and new? Whatever your age, if you decide that you've had enough and are moving towards the decision to leave Medicine then what might be stopping you actually leaving might be that you feel that you must also decide what to do instead.
However attractive it may seem to 'do nothing' you may well find the thought of the change from a hectic life as a doctor to doing nothing too big a crossing to make.
So before you take the plunge and decide to leave the profession think carefully about what you really would like to do.
That might be what you would have done if you hadn't been to medical school or what you might have given up in order to study medicine.
Examine practical issues such as whether or not you will have a pension and how much you need to earn to have the lifestyle you want.
In order to make that life-changing decision to leave the profession, be clear about what you want instead.
Of course it's better if to be as specific as possible yet even recognising what sort of thing you want will all enable you to make the transition smoothly.
Ask yourself what's in your way to doing what you want to do and instead of remaining stuck in a state of no action, think of as many possibilities for ways to remove those obstacles.
Either on your own or with the help of a coach or mentor you may find that many of your perceived obstacles are in fact as a result of your personal belief system which will need to be challenged for you to understand and change.