Several months ago, one of my blogging buddies asked me to write a guest post for her blog, Practice Shifts. Since I love her blog so much, I immediately said yes. Then guess what I proceeded to do? Absolutely nothing! Yep, that’s right. I can be a huge procrastinator, especially when under pressure to deliver. I was frozen, but after a little prodding from her, and a little brainstorming, I finally pulled the trigger. So pop on over to her blog and read my post, will ya? And while you’re there, check her stuff out too. She sure does have...
Changing my approach and attitude about the new career search took the edge off. There was less pressure to get myself somewhere. Under pressure. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Then the opportunity I was looking for fell into my lap. I just didn’t know it yet. I’ll admit, sometimes I’m a little slow. Here’s what happened: One day my husband had received a call from an old chiropractor friend of his who he knew well and trusted a lot. He wanted to introduce Nick to a weight loss program he had successfully been using for himself and for his patients throughout the...
In my search for change, the Paradise Hunter contest was THE turning point for me. When it ended, I felt different, empowered to keep working to move forward. Having this blog helped me get through the tough days (which was everyday by this point in my career) because I had something else to focus on. I wasn’t defined by being a dentist. Blogging provided the missing link for me to feel whole through all of this. It not only gave me the creative outlet I was craving, but it also gave me a voice. I had shut that voice down...
With this new project of mine, I found a new diversion obsession. I spent my time brainstorming skit ideas, practicing my spiel (that I wish I was clever enough to have written, but was actually written by a very talented friend of a friend,) and being entertained by the other wannabe travel show hosts. Once I posted the video, I spent my days sizing up the competition and being that annoying person on Facebook who asks everyone for votes day after day. It’s a good thing the real professionals didn’t post their videos until after I posted mine, or I...
It wasn’t as if I made a decision and my life just changed in an instant. The process to change careers dragged on. It continued to be a lot of talk and no real action, just as it had been for the past few years. But it’s not that all that “planning” had no purpose. It laid the groundwork for me to gain the courage to act. Then one day, my husband suggested something crazy to me. In the newspaper he spotted a small blurb about a contest to become a travel show host. He read it to me and...
Is it obvious enough that the career choices I was exploring couldn’t be any more different from being a dentist? I mean, cookies and beer are a far cry from drilling and filling. My knee-jerk reaction stemmed from the need to get as far away as possible from anything related to my current job. I wanted something lighthearted and not too serious; something that had nothing to do with providing a service to people having my face 6 inches away from another person’s for 8 hours a day. (more…)
For many years travel was a way to escape myself and a life I hated. Some years I found a way to take a week-long vacation every 3 months. It was brilliant. I always had something to look forward to. Even sitting in front of the computer for hours daydreaming and researching for a trip was enough to give me the escape I longed for. It was the one thing that kept me going. But as excited as I always was to go away, I was equally as depressed at the end of a trip. The knowledge that I...
If you’ve followed along my blog for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed that what started out as a blog about food and travel turned into a blog about my career change. Food and travel are big passions of mine, but so was getting out of dentistry. When I started writing about my career change, there seemed to be a story there for me to tell. Writing about it has been the perfect culmination, and I plan to do more. But it’s time to take a break because I recently went to New Orleans, and it’s time to have...
My new dream job mostly turned out to be a big nightmare. The possibilities of a new future were there, of course, along with all of the standard challenges you would expect from starting any new job. Change is hard. It’s scary. It’s uncomfortable. It makes you feel vulnerable and insecure. To get by, I just continued living in the future instead of the present; thinking if I pushed through the hard times, it would eventually be right. I was coming up on my 5th year in practice, and I was sure that at year 5 it would all become clear. ...
As I mentioned last week, work stress really started taking its toll on me. For the first few years, I was distracted by friends, a new lifestyle, and dating. Back in dental school, most of my friends were guys. They often shared funny dating stories and jokes about how every 28 year-old woman wanted to get married. They were fine dating 27 year-old gals, but those 28 year-olds were on a mission, and these guys wanted no part in it. I laughed right along with them and made fun of how desperate these women seemed. That was never going to...
