Emily Shaw

the timing was
...just right

• I'd been wanting to be a life coach for doctors ever since medical school when I found 2 articles on coaching while doing a PubMed search.
• The timing, for me, was perfect. I finally had a little more bandwidth after our younger daughter turned 1. And it perfectly coincided with what appeared to be the beginnings of a culture shift in medicine. There were some public statements and changes being made within big academic institutions and the government where they, and the mainstream media, acknowledged that we had a major problem in healthcare and that we urgently need to do something about it.
• By then, there was even Randomized Controlled Trial data (from just the prior year) showing reductions in burnout and improvements in resilience and quality of life. Forward-thinking organizations in a few places around the country re-structured their leadership and hired Chief Wellness Officers. Medical societies, medical schools, and other institutions were paying for coaching for their employees and learners. The AAMC had even developed a publication (and now a book) with recommendations and guidance on building coaching programs for medical students because the data was becoming so robust.
• A groundswell had begun to form. And I wanted to be a part of it. So I talked with Laura, my wife, and we decided it was time for me to embark on that journey of my dreams...to get certified and start working as a life coach for physicians. And to really live aligned with my values. To be the change I wanted to see in the world.
• So off I went! I reduced my FTE a tiny bit and I signed up for a certification program that I knew would be great. It was very expensive. An even more of a time commitment than I had thought. (I was still working my regular job right?!?!). But it was exactly what I needed.
• The crazy thing is that at the time, my life was great. And while I knew intellectually that everyone could benefit from coaching, I didn't expect that coaching was going to have as big and as great of an impact on my own life in that moment as it did. Before my certification program started, I had never actually been coached myself!
• For sure the biggest period of personal growth in my life occurred during my coach certification. I was learning, yes. But mostly I attribute the growth to the fact that I was getting coached myself, working through a lot of hard stuff, multiple times each week. For an entire year.
• Getting coached is what helped me hone the vision that I started dreaming about 12 years earlier. Getting coached is what helped me get as brave as I needed to get to take the leap of faith and walk away from that very secure, financially stable, enjoyable doctor job that I had...in order to achieve my dream. Getting coached is what helped me learn from all my failures. And coaching, along with the 100,000% support of my wife, is what helped me create this amazingly fulfilling career.
• And now that I've been doing this for years and have built a really nice, thriving coaching practice, a lot of people look at me and say, "I could never do something like that...just change careers and do something completely new and build something like this from nothing." And to those people I say, "yep, it was really challenging. And I had to be really courageous. Over and over again. But it wasn't hard. Because all I had to do was remember why I was doing it. Why I was committed to doing this no matter what." Cuz I truly believe that I was meant to do this. And I really am good at it. And I enjoy the heck out of it.
• I get to coach physicians who care deeply about the communities they serve. And in doing so, I get to continue to grow and cultivate my own dreams while helping others do the same. It's the most fulfilling thing I've ever done in my whole life. My goal is to lift up the health of our communities by focusing on helping the helpers. That's you and me! It's my friends. It's my teachers. And all the other wonderful doctors out there in the world! I'm so lucky.
• Coaching has been and continues to be life-changing and totally transformative for me and for my clients...and by "clients" I mean each individual client of mine AND for each organization that I work with as well.
• So what are you waiting for? Let's make some CHANGE!