For the People Who Always Want to Be Somewhere Else

Patient after patient after patient with no breaks.

That’s what my day looked like when I was a clinical audiologist.

My schedule was booked solid from 8:00 am until 5:00 pm with a 30-minute lunch that I almost never got because it was eaten up by late patients & squeezing in people without appointments.

I had to choose between working with a full bladder or running to the bathroom knowing every second I was in there was delaying my next appointment. 🙄

It was exhausting.

But, I never felt like I could say no.

Maybe you’re not a clinician, but you still know this kind of day. Is it a schedule full of back to back meetings and finally at 6:00 pm you start actually doing your work?

Or maybe it’s juggling ALL the family needs & then trying to figure out how to get 4 kids to 3 different places at the same time.

Or maybe it’s both…running to the kids to multiple locations on top of your day that was full of meetings.

How much of that frustration seeps into your evening? Your weekend?

When you’re at home are you thinking about work?

In our 1:1 session my client Kathy told me that she has about one minute to herself each week.

She knows that’s not actually true, but it feels true.

How much energy do you think you expend worrying about work or replaying scenarios or deadlines in your mind?

On the weekends I used to ruminate on all the charts that were sitting on my desk waiting for me to update them and write reports. I drove my husband crazy…especially when I wouldn’t make plans on Sunday nights because I had to get up early on Monday.

There was a lot of what I like to call mind drama going on. I had stories on repeat in my brain about how we clinicians were overworked, not treated with respect & I was frustrated.

Some of the drama may have been based in truth. But, what was even more detrimental or added insult to injury was me taking all of that home and wasting my precious time off mentally living in the space of being disrespected and frustrated.

I was disrespecting myself, my time, & frankly my husband’s time too. He had to listen to me complain A LOT.

Do you know this feeling?

When are you mentally living somewhere else?

Does this help you in any way or is it stealing precious time from you like it was for me?

I really invite you to let this sink in and watch for it as you go about your next few days. Then come back and let me know what you’ve seen. It might surprise you what you learn.