Sunset or Sunrise?

Florida - 2010

Proactive Planning Will Reveal the Date

For most of you, the end of your career is an event that you really look forward to. It’s a time of joyful anticipation. It’s the opportunity for you to create and begin a new lifestyle. Yet, as it happens with major life events, there are important questions that must be answered. They can be a source of preoccupation.

You know that this is major life event that you are not familiar with. You may also sense that it will probably affect you personally, deeply.

A very common concern is the need to answer the question: “When is the right time to stop practicing?”

What I Know

In the course of my experience consulting and coaching clients on numerous matters related to the End of Career Transition, I have observed that it’s natural to focus on the obvious: the end date. 

What is not so readily apparent are the myriad of matters that must be planned for and accomplished in advance...

Balloon Flower (Pandion haliaetus)

Home, Florida- 2005

The Creation of Order in Your Universe 

I have previously described the End of Career Transition Plan as the third element of a triad of plans that provide a structured, yet flexible approach to executing your End of Career. This customized approach is applicable whether you are a solo practitioner, a member of a group practice or otherwise employed.

It is my hope that your Transition is one that you have initiated of your own volition, that is, a developmental transition. This will allow you to plan well in advance, thereby promoting an optimal Transition experience. This is in contrast to a reactive transition, which is thrust upon you by a sudden, unanticipated change, as I experienced.

Another Kind of Transition

Regardless of how the transition process comes about, once it has begun both types of transition share similarities. There is, however, a major difference: in the case of a reactive transition, the timeline that...

The Snake River and the Teton Range - 2008

Grand Teton National Park, WY 

 Change and Transition: How They Can Affect You

Change and transition are words that are often used interchangeably. However, these two words have different meanings and what they describe have distinctly different purposes.

My personal experience with change and transition illustrates this point.

Lessons Learned in My Journey

Years ago, I was diagnosed with colon cancer and then developed other medical problems. Together they created a change that ended my Plastic Surgery career and triggered my End of Career Transition. Thankfully, years later I am cured, renewed and fulfilled in my new career. 

My successful Transition did not occur spontaneously. It was the result of sustained, focused and deliberate effort over a period of time.  That effort was directed at a particular envisioned outcome: to achieve renewal and experience fulfillment. The means for achieving that outcome was the...

Bursting with Expression

USA - 2011

An Often Unspoken, Yet Real Personal Concern

The anticipation and experience of your End of Career is a major life Transition. It will present you with number of unfamiliar challenges in addition to financial concerns. 

Whether you undergo a succession, sell your practice outright, close it or give notice to your employer, there are numerous matters that will require your attention.

Some of the challenges will be obvious to you, others not so much so. They are profound and common, yet often unspoken. Some can actually cause you to delay key decisions and will impede your progress.

Reasons I Encounter 

As a consultant and coach to medical professionals and other highly accomplished individuals concerning their End of Career Transition, I know there are obstacles that prevent individuals from ending their career and transitioning to the next phase of their lives. These are some of the less evident, but important reasons:

• Not knowing how...

Expression of Love

Home, FL - 2009 

Honor Mom…from me to mine, from you to yours.

Summary:

• I am confident that each of us has reasons to be grateful. Beyond life itself, there is our world of people that each of us can think of that warm our hearts and cause us to smile.
• Sometimes, we want to thank them personally, in the manner that we were taught when we were growing up. To express our heartfelt gratitude. To do so brings joy to those who have given of themselves for our benefit, as well as satisfaction to ourselves.
• Our expressions of heartfelt gratitude graces those who have given of themselves that we may live a fuller life. It is in saying thank you, without reservation, that we help reaffirm their belief in us.
• To gracefully express genuine gratitude it's one of the core gestures of a wholesome life.
• We benefit others and ourselves by reorienting ourselves from passive awareness to affirmative, grateful expression.
• Be confident that as you express...

North Shore, Kauai - 2021

Your Freedoms, Your Choices…To Do or Not to Do

Your end of career is approaching. 

Your vision of this new phase of your life is becoming ever more clear. 

You are growing more confident that the dreams born of your imagination will become a reality. 

Your smile reflects joy of anticipation. 

You take a deep, deep breath that parallels the satisfaction you feel for what you have accomplished in life.

You feel deeply the conviction that you have earned the life that your aspire to live…and it really feels awesome! 

Well earned, well deserved!

 As I wrote these words, they seemed to flow easily. They describe my own life experience and that of others I have guided through this phase of their life’s journey. 

 A Time for You and New Feelings

This is your time for dreaming, planning, executing and experiencing the emerging reality of it all. Amidst the excitement, it is also a time to apply the skills...

Tranquil Flow, Madison River - 2004

Yellowstone National Park, WY

On Transforming Visions Into Joyful Reality

One fine morning with coffee in hand, you still savor that last sip of your custom brew.  You feel peaceful. Then a fleeting thought stirs up an awareness that you are thinking more and more about your future End of Career and the next great phase of your life. You smile and feel warmer inside…and then you feel a twinge of angst.

These are mixed emotions: joy and apprehension. They swirl around your mind stirred up much like the sweetener you blended into your coffee.

You wonder whether this is a common experience and how other successful colleagues deal with it. You might ask when is the right time to begin to deal with your ever increasing questions. 

You sense that you must do something. 

A Fictional Character that Reflects a Real Person 

This is the familiar story of Alex, a physician like many others you may know.

Alex is at that time of his...

Your Path, Your Destination

Buffalo River, Idaho - 2021

When to Create Your Strategy and How to Execute the Tactics

Your future End of Career is an event about which it is natural to experience feelings of excitement as well as some concerns.

As the time nears, your concerns may become more prevalent. A major reason is the recognition that this is an unfamiliar process.

But how do you know when is the right time to start planning, let alone what the end date will be?

As you try to answer that question, it becomes apparent that it is very difficult to determine when to begin to prepare when the necessary scope and duration of preparation is unknown.

The reality is that because this is a such a personal and professional matter, with so many different facets, it is impossible to predict how much work and time it will take. You can only anticipate so much…and there will probably be more to do than you thought necessary. 

The best way to know is to engage the challenge by...

Springing Forward, Bougainvillaea

Florida - 2004

How the Unnatural Origin of Words Render Them Meaningless

The purpose of language is to communicate ideas effectively. The use of words best serves that goal when their meaning accurately describes reality. Throughout millennia, mankind has strived to deal with the successes and failures of communication.

One example of the inaccurate use of words is the term “retirement.” 

My Encounter With “Retirement”

For many years I used that term as commonly used in the United States. That is, until the time came that I faced the unexpected end of my career as a Plastic Surgeon.

The diagnosis of cancer, its treatment and aftermath had a vivid way of broadening my perspective about life. The good news, is that am cured, healthy and well!

Questions as Teachers

Questions and answers have a way of broadening one’s perspective. Questions like Why and What?

It is especially at times of triumph, tragedy and transition...

Long and Winding

Madison River

Yellowstone National Park - 2021

Critical Questions to Ask Yourself…and Answer

You have decided to begin to prepare for your End of Career and have probably asked yourselve a variety of questions. They may include how to begin to prepare and more specifically, what to do and in what order.

Some of these questions are about professional matters that will vary according to your type of practice. Others are personal in nature, as I have discussed in a previous article.

It is important for you to reflect on these questions and create clear answers. It is so important that I suggest you write them down and review them. They will not only add clarity to your lifestyle plan, but the answers are essential for preparing yourself professionally.

In this article, I address some of these questions as examples that I know are professionally important to you. I use the setting of a physician in solo practice as a point of reference. Many of these...