157 | Detaching from identities that keep you stuck or stifled in your career growth

Diane van Staden: Welcome to Life Beyond Clinical Practice, a podcast for health professionals who've outgrown their clinically defined identities and are ready to explore multi-dimensional ways to contribute, lead, and grow within or outside of healthcare. In the show, Dr. Diane unpacks why so many mid-career professionals feel restless and become curious about opportunities available to clinicians beyond the walls of traditional career paths. So, if you know you're meant for broader impact and more expansive expressions of your expertise, you're in the right place. Sit back, relax, and let's listen to Dr. Diane. In the previous episode, we explored identity foreclosure and how our professional identity can sometimes limit what we believe is possible for our careers. But what happens when you've achieved success within that identity? When you've built credibility, established a reputation, and invested years into becoming the professional you are today. Expanding beyond that identity can feel particularly complicated. And that's where we're picking up today's conversation. So here's where I think things get particularly interesting because most mid-career professionals have achieved a reasonable level of success. And I mentioned a few episodes ago how success in itself can be a trap because people who are successful in their careers can struggle to detach from the very thing that created the success. So success can make expansion more complicated, and it's important to acknowledge that upfront, because success creates attachment to professional reputation, to financial security, to the expectations of others. And most importantly, like we've been emphasizing, it also creates attachment to the identity you've worked so hard to establish that's earned you the success you now enjoy. So often that success also creates attachment to the story you've been telling yourself about who you are. For example, you may have said to yourself, I'm the person people come to for this particular expertise. And that's what you believe about your professional value. So when new interests or opportunities emerge, it may feel like a threat to that story, the story you know to be true. The story others know you by. And breaking free from that can feel threatening. Often we wonder what people will think, whether we've lost focus. Will you disappoint anyone in your world that questions your commitment if you suddenly start going down a different path? But today I want to throw this question out to you. What if professional growth isn't always about becoming more established? In the profession that created your success, or within the identity you've already built. What if sometimes growth means allowing yourself to become more than the identity that first brought you that success? And I'd like you to sit with that. Because embracing a different way of seeing career growth. Doesn't require you to reject your past or abandon your expertise. It simply means recognizing that what you've already achieved, what you've already built, can be a foundation for something much more expansive. Because the goal isn't to replace who you are, or even necessarily to redefine who you are. It may simply be to create more room for who you are becoming. Now, recognizing that your professional identity may be limiting what you believe is possible for your career is useful. But awareness alone isn't enough. So I want to challenge you today as I bring this episode to a close. You can spend a ton of time thinking about your career, your career options. You can read articles, listen to podcasts much like this one. You can take numerous assessments and even research podcasts. possibilities endlessly. At the end of all of that, you can still remain exactly where you are and feel stuck. Now closer to your goal of redefining what's possible for your career. Because sometimes we tell ourselves we're exploring when all we're actually doing is just collecting information, trying to let ourselves believe that we're taking action. But really we're stuck in the mud. The mud of identity constraints. And while there's nothing wrong with learning, at some point exploration needs to become experiential. You need to give yourself opportunity to discover something about yourself through action. So I'm gonna leave you with a simple exercise I'd like you to try. And I challenge you to take a few minutes after this episode or Before bedtime or in this week to complete these three statements. And the first one is: I am known professionally for. And you're going to complete the sentence. To answer that, think about what people associate with you. What expertise, experience, or contribution have you become known for? And write it down. The second question I'd like you to Answer or second statement is I am increasingly curious about. And you're going to complete that statement. The questions I'd like you to reflect on to complete that statement are what interests have been emerging for me? What subjects do I keep returning to? What kind of problems do I find myself wanting to solve? And I don't want you to think about whether these fit into your current career. No. Just Answer those questions objectively. And don't worry about whether they're practical or not yet. That's not the goal of this exercise. I just want you to identify them. So please don't overthink it at this stage. And the third and final question or statement you're going to complete is if I didn't have to abandon everything I've already built, I would explore dot dot dot and complete that statement. Questions you're going to answer to yourself are what would I give myself permission to investigate? What might I try? What could I create? What conversations could I have? Or what small project could I undertake? And here's the important part when you sit down to complete these three statements. Don't turn this into another exercise of trying to figure out your entire future or the next chapter of your career because you don't need to make A career decision today. Instead, I want you to choose one possibility and design a small experiment around it. Talk to someone who's already doing something related to that area of interest, whether it's writing an article, developing a presentation, exploring a research question, volunteering your expertise in a new setting, collaborating with someone outside of your discipline, or trying to teach something. That you're an expert in in a different context. The point isn't to prove that you found your next chapter, the point is simply to generate evidence about what interests you, what you're capable of, and what others might value. And whether this possibility deserves further exploration. That is your homework for this week. Because oftentimes clarity doesn't come from thinking harder, it comes from Action. In order to get clarity around what other dimensions of yourself are seeking expression, start with these exercises because action will build clarity. And so my hope is that when you delve into this exercise, that it will help you uncover what could be possible for you. That it will lead you to opportunities for career identity expansion. And that is especially true. When you're exploring dimensions of yourself that your current professional identity hasn't given you much room to express. So here's your expansion question for this week. Conventional career change advice typically starts with what do you want to do next? But as we've addressed in this episode, if your professional identity has become so tightly connected to your sense of self, that question may be harder to answer than it appears. So I'm proposing this expansion question in this week's episode. Ask yourself what else could be possible for me if I stop treating my current professional identity as the full definition of who I am? And I want to encourage you to give yourself permission to explore possibilities that don't fit neatly within the identity you've already established. Because that's where the magic happens, I believe. And understanding that your career isn't a single destination just opens up a whole new world of opportunities. So the next stage of your career may be more about expanding who you're willing to become outside of Of the bounds of your professional identity. And that's the work that I do in career identity expansion. So start essentially asking yourself: what part of me has been waiting for an opportunity to exist professionally? Until next time, remember you don't have to start over to create something new, because often you simply need to expand what's possible. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to Life Beyond Clinical Practice. If today's conversation resonated with you and helped you to see what's possible beyond your current role, then your career identity expansion has already begun. You can follow Dr. Diane on LinkedIn and Instagram at Dr. Diana Van Staten, subscribe to the Life Beyond Clinical Practice YouTube channel, or follow its social media pages for more content that helps you get clear on your next chapter. And if you're ready to explore more ways your expertise can be shared, then join the Career Identity Expansion Lab waitlist for an opportunity to design your next chapter together with Dr. Diane. Until next time, remember, your career doesn't have to stay confined to your professional title, because there are broader ways to contribute, create, lead, and grow. And this podcast exists to help you discover just that.