3 helpful reframes.
This post is close to my heart.
It’s for (and about) the hard-working, caring health practitioner at the height of their expertise who feels swamped or tapped out, and would like to create more impact in less time.
If you're such a practitioner, or care about one as a partner, family member, or friend, then this is for you.
Today, I’m here to bust assumptions about the nature of the problem (why + how practitioners tap out) and offer helpful game-changing reframes.
My goal in writing this post is to offer the kind of insight that can FREE you.
Aha #1: I want you to see that things don’t have to stay the way they are.
Aha #2: You'll gain new insight into a remedy (what could truly make things better), because you’re now able to name the real issue or root cause at play.
NOTE: the assumptions I’m unmasking are sneaky.
They’re neither visible nor easily flagged as assumptions when you’re in the midst of your work. That’s why super-smart talented folks can get snared, and tapped. Enough of them that I’ve found it to be a pattern among health practitioners + experts. While I’ve seen it hold true across many types of practice settings, I’m highlighting the implications + opportunities for practitioners who own or co-own their practice.
So here’s what I see from my front row seat—in work and life. (I come from a family saturated with dedicated, progressive physicians and healers of all stripes so I’ve been observing for a long time).
Pour yourself a cup of tea, and put your feet up. Here we go:
Assumption #1: It's a hustle problem, where harder + faster is the answer.
How this looks in the day-to-day:
You have patients or clients, referrals, even a small waitlist, and a positive reputation. Yet you have an uncomfortable, initially low-grade + vague, feeling that your work is draining more than sustaining you, especially if it stays at this pace. It all feels relentless.
Along the way, you (or folks you work with) get the idea that this is a hustle problem, and if you could do your existing work more quickly or efficiently, you could get on top of, or out of, your overwhelm. In a clinic setting, betting on continued hustle translates to debates about appointment times + types, cycle times, tetris scheduling, and work flows.
Why it’s a dangerous assumption:
Because it assumes you can push through the problem of overwhelm, by applying more effort or force. [While it can sound like a fools’ errand when you say it aloud, it is a pervasive, deeply internalized, belief that practitioners put on themselves, or allow others to put on them.] When a belief is held this deeply, we forget that it’s a belief, not fact. And we don’t give ourselves permission to pause and figure out what really is going on.
Why it happens, in the first place:
Hustle, in the past, has been your friend. You’re ambitious, and high-achieving. You’ve put your foot on the pedal, and powered, with some personal cost, through your training, setting up practice, and building professional relationships. And thus, you fall back on a go-to habit that here does you more dis-service than good.
Reframe: This is not a hustle problem.
Say it often, in full voice. Tattoo it on your arm. Hustle is not the answer. It’s a brute force approach, and one that’s not sustainable. In fact, betting on hustle can bring you to your knees, especially when you’re already working hard. (I’ve seen it—not pretty.)
Sure things can benefit from being optimized, but that’s not the key to get you from drained to hopeful.
What is? Read on.
related to this bet on hustle is...
Assumption #2: It’s a revenue problem, where more money is the ticket out of overwhelm and drain.
How this looks in the day-to-day:
Your revenue meets expenses and you draw a salary, but wonder if more revenue could remedy your tapped-out-at-the-height-of-your-expertise-feeling by affording you an assistant or another team member to do some of the work. You love what you do, but the days are too long.
Why it’s a dangerous assumption:
An autopilot, unexamined focus on more revenue leads you reaching for more clients. And there’s a slippery slope between more clients and more hustle. More clients usually means more time on your part, not less—and that means, before you know it, pushing harder and faster.
Why it happens, in the first place:
Because revenue is a single, straightforward number—that measures what's coming in. It’s also incomplete. Revenue doesn’t require you to account for the time, energy, money, or other resources it took to acquire it.
You can see more deeply into the nature of things if you calculate revenue in relation to resources in a way that a single-minded focus on revenue leaves out. In economic terms, we’re talking profit.
Reframe: It’s a profit problem.
Profit in the healing professions can’t be a dirty word. You need to think profit first, so you can sustain yourself for the long haul. Without profit, we lose your expertise, and that’s not good for anyone.
Your clients and patients want you to profit, not at their expense, but so you can be there to care for them when they need you.
How to get there?
Insight to Action: Ask yourself: What new opportunities could you seek out that pay on a different scale, away from trading time for money?
For example, I just had a client return from teaching for a week at a destination spa in Mexico, for which she was comped a week’s full stay with a guest, clocking in at just under $10K for her efforts. While that example may sound wildly out in left field, it gets you thinking: Which clients? What offer? With what inputs? And how to make that happen? (This is just a beginning—I have much more to say on this in the coming weeks.)
For now, allow yourself room to ask: What if?
Fire open an evernote, and let yourself go wild. Instead of one idea, try for ten. What might bring you a higher effective hourly rate (something more than the $150-$250+/hour you’re currently charging), because it requires less prep or actual time, or creates more value for your clients, or puts you in front of a higher-end market?
[Reframe #3 below will get you thinking creatively of more profitable offers within your current office practice, too.]
Assumption #3: That’s how the industry or field is, where industry custom dictates how you share and sell your work.
(Note: here I’m talking industry custom, not law or government regulations. No you can’t ignore HIPAA, or standard-of-care, but it’s critical to cleave apart custom from law.)
How this looks in the day-to-day:
You accept extra unpaid hours as the natural state of affairs, because that’s what you see around you, and/or hear about on the news: practitioners abandoning primary care, low reimbursements, a “broken” system.
Why it’s a dangerous assumption:
You cede agency to a set of “shoulds.” This me-too thinking that prevents you from standing out in a competitive market. (Standing out, or differentiating, is critical—our brains perk up at contrast—it’s just how we're wired.)
Why it happens, in the first place:
We want approval, to feel legit + respected. Me-too thinking is safety, a way to nod, “yes, I know how things are done in my field—or, this is the way my mentors did/do it."
Reframe: I am not beholden to my industry.
There is always more room for insight, creativity, and imagination. Bet on yourself, not your industry.
Insight to Action: Again ask yourself, “what if?”
Here’s something for you: When I last saw my brilliant acupuncturist, she mentioned that she and her husband (also an L.Ac) had brought her mother-in-law to stay with them for several weeks and work with her intensively, daily I think, on several digestive, nutrition, and geriatric issues.
Ever since, I’ve been thinking about intensives. Here, I’m saying test out an idea, pilot it, offering it to one to three clients. What could be the equivalent for you of a “mother-in-law intensive”—who would be the client that would receive the most benefit working this way? Think about how valuable that offer could be for the right type of client, and the kind of premium you could charge for that additional value.
And even if you’re working fully within the tricky payment architecture of the insurance system, there are folks doing it differently—for example, Tom Lee of One Medical.
So ask yourself, what could you bring new to the table that could make you indispensable—someone’s saving grace?
Remember my goal stated at the outset: to offer the kind of insight that can FREE you.
1. To see that things don’t have to stay the way they are.
2. To gain insight into what could truly make things better, because you’re now able to name the real issue or root cause at play.
Kudos for reading through. It shows me you’re serious about understanding what’s happening, and identifying your opportunities + priorities.
I’m going to leave it here for this week, as I want you to have the opportunity to absorb, and reflect. These are confronting ideas, ones that can create a window in a wall where there was none before.
Next time, I’ll uncover the two final assumptions (for a grand total of 5), that prevent us from making things better—because they cause us to miss the problem, and thus waste our time and energy.
I’ll also continue championing the importance of communications. How you present your work and expertise to the world is a vital lever in making more impact, with less time.
To our collective health!