How to Get Unstuck in Your Medical Career | Ep1

[00:00:00]

Welcome to the very first episode of Better Physician Life: How To Get Unstuck In Your Medical Career.

I'm Dr. Michael Hersh, and I'm so glad you're here. Whether you're driving to the hospital, finishing up charts, or just taking a walk to clear your head—this space is for you.

So, why Better Physician Life?

There are so many podcasts out there for physicians—ones about finances, side gigs, optimizing our charting, and fine-tuning our clinical skills.

But this one? This one’s about your life.
Your fulfillment. Your sense of purpose beyond the pager (if anyone still uses one of those) and the EMR.

It's about what it means to be a whole person who also happens to be a physician.

I created this show because I’ve lived the experience of waking up in the middle of what’s supposed to be success [00:01:00] and feeling stuck. Like something was off. Nothing catastrophic. Just a low-level hum of restlessness. A whisper in the back of my mind asking: Is this really it? Am I really just doing this every day for the rest of my life?

That whisper didn’t start loud. It crept in slowly—on the drive home after a long day, during the in-between moments in the endoscopy lab, realizing I still had 10 more colonoscopies to go before my day was over, or while listening to my kids laugh in another room and realizing I was too mentally spent to join them.

At first, I ignored it. I told myself to be grateful, to stay focused, to push through.
Because that’s what we do in medicine, right?

But over time, that whisper got louder. And eventually, I couldn’t un-hear it.
[00:02:00]
I was exhausted—not just physically, but emotionally.
The joy I once found in patient care began to feel dulled.
The pride in my work was still there, but something deeper felt misaligned.
It was like I had followed all the directions but ended up somewhere that didn’t quite feel like home.

If any of this sounds familiar, I want you to know—you’re not alone.
You’re not broken. You’re not ungrateful or weak for wanting more.
That longing for something more? That quiet ache for something different?
That’s not a problem to be fixed. It’s a sign.
A sign that you’re ready for the next version of you.

One of the biggest shifts for me was learning that being “stuck” isn’t always a crisis.
Sometimes, it’s just a pause. A recalibration. A chance to ask: What do I really want now?
An opportunity for reinvention.

[00:03:00]
(Which is a fascinating topic. We’re going to begin to tackle it in the next episode. In fact, I almost called this show The Physician Reinvention Podcast because I think it’s such an important concept for doctors...)

But I digress.

The truth is, no one teaches us how to reassess our lives after we’ve achieved our goals.
We’re trained to go from milestone to milestone—med school, residency, fellowship, attending life. But once we get there, no one hands us a manual on how to keep evolving.

So many of us stagnate.
We accept our current reality as “as good as it gets.”
We keep performing a version of success that no longer fits the life we want to have.

But life after training isn’t linear. It’s dynamic.
It bends and curves and changes. And so do we.
You’re not the same person you were when you wrote that med school personal statement.
And that’s not a failure—it’s growth.

[00:04:00]
There’s a quote from Bruce Lee that I really love:
"Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own."

That’s the heart of this podcast.
Not telling you what to do, but helping you discover what’s useful for you. 

Maybe it’s a mindset shift.
Maybe it’s a boundary.
Maybe it’s a conversation you’ve been avoiding.

My goal isn’t to give you a blueprint. It’s to help you figure out what you truly want.
And to offer you tools to try on—just like if you’re trying on clothes to see if they might fit.
There are no rules to follow here.

[00:05:00]
Because most of us, if we’re honest, are living on autopilot.
We wake up, we go to work, we move through the day with practiced efficiency. We’re good at it.
But somewhere along the way, many of us stopped feeling like we’re driving our own lives.
We became passengers—successful, competent, for the most part respected—passengers. But disconnected nonetheless.

This podcast is your invitation to take the wheel again.
To slow down, reflect, and ask:
What’s still useful? What no longer fits? And what direction makes sense for the kind of physician and person I want to be?

And I want to be clear:
This isn’t about walking away from medicine.
It’s not about dramatic reinvention—unless that’s what you want to do.
It’s about reconnection.
To your values. To your energy.

[00:06:00]

To the parts of you that you might’ve forgotten about along the way.
Or maybe, that you never knew were there in the first place.

For me, that reconnection came through physician coaching.
It gave me the tools to examine my thoughts, get curious about my patterns, and notice where I was operating from fear instead of intention.

It helped me realize that joy isn’t optional.
That rest isn’t indulgent.
That creativity doesn’t make me less of a doctor—
They all just make me more of a human.

I used to think I had to choose between being a good doctor and living a life that felt good.
Now I know that’s false.
In fact, when I feel more whole, more aligned, more grounded—
That’s when I do my best work.
That’s when I show up more fully for my patients, my family, and myself.

[00:07:00]
So in this podcast, we’ll explore what it looks like to live and work with more intention.
We’ll hear from physicians who’ve made meaningful changes—not necessarily because they were experiencing a crisis, but because they were ready for something new.
Something more.

We’ll talk about burnout—yes—but also about belonging.
About self-doubt and courage.
About creativity, exercise, and possibility.

There’s no formula here. No one-size-fits-all solution.
Just honest conversations, thoughtful questions, and space to reflect.
Because often what we need most isn’t advice—
It’s the permission to pause and listen to ourselves and what we truly want.

[00:08:00]
We’ll explore the power of questions—and how the answers can transform our lives in ways we never imagined.

We’ll ask things like:
What if nothing has gone wrong?
What if the version of success you’ve been living has run its course?
And what if that’s not failure? What if it’s a sign of growth?
What if you’re not stuck—just in the middle of figuring out what’s next?

And maybe most importantly:
What would a better physician life look like—for you?

Not a perfect life.
Not a dramatic overhaul.
Just something more aligned with who you are now—not who you were ten or twenty years ago.

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There’s no single right answer here. No checklist to follow.
But you don’t have to figure it out alone.

That’s what we’re doing here—together.
Slowing down. Asking better questions.
Making room for honest reflection—so you can decide what makes sense for you, going forward.

So as we begin this journey, I want to leave you with one small, powerful idea:

You have permission to change.
To adapt what’s useful.
To let go of what’s not.
And to bring forward what is specifically and uniquely your own.

You don’t have to burn it all down.
You don’t need a five-year plan.
You just need a little curiosity, a little courage, and the willingness to take one honest step at a time.

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This is the beginning of a better physician life.
Something new.
Not because everything that came before was wrong—
But because you’re ready for more.

And I’m so glad you’re here with me for it.

Thank you so much for being here. See you next time on Better Physician Life.