Women in Healthcare: Building a Business That Doesn’t Burn You Out

Quieting Your Inner Critic

Burnout in healthcare doesn’t usually happen overnight. It builds slowly, through pressure, responsibility, long hours, and often an internal voice that never quite lets you rest.

If you are a woman in healthcare or business, chances are you know that voice well.

Almost all of the female clients I’ve worked with have struggled with their inner critic at some point. Women especially seem to have a harder time remembering their value and putting aside the stories that may have protected them at one point in their lives, stories that kept them safe, but no longer serve who they are becoming.

Putting yourself out into the world as a woman in business can be scary. I do think it gets easier as we get older and more self-assured, but it’s still an ongoing exercise of recognizing which part of the inner critic is helpful and which part is damaging.

A simple filter helps:

Ask yourself, Is this advice I would give to my best friend or my adult child?

That question usually brings the message back into perspective.

Protect Your Boundaries

Women are often guilty of pleasing others, taking care of everyone else, and putting their own needs last. Doing this for too long doesn’t allow you to be your best for your business or for the people you care most about.

Protecting your time, your energy, and your health is crucial to the work you do.

Set office hours and stick to them.

Schedule white space in your calendar to just be.

Indulge in self-care.

Sleep. 

Exercise.

Fuel your body with good nutrition and positive messaging through books, podcasts, and friendship.

When you do, you may be surprised how your creativity and capacity expand.

Stay Rooted in Your Why

There is passion behind whatever it is you are doing. That’s easy to forget when the necessary tasks of running a business start to pile up.

When you feel overwhelmed, pause and ask yourself:

What about this work brings me fulfillment? What brings me joy?

It’s typically the simplest things that make a business attractive to others… your authenticity, your care, your passion. When patients can feel that threaded into everything your business stands for, it becomes a place they want to patronize and root for.

The rest really is just details.

Find Integration

I dislike the term work-life balance because I don’t believe it’s realistic for things to ever truly feel balanced.

There are different stages of business that require more or less of your time and energy. Recognizing that, and not expecting some perfect rhythm, takes the pressure off.

Know what your “rocks” are. The most important tasks that allow your business to succeed and remain profitable. Allocate time each week to accomplish those.

It may look lopsided at times. Maybe you work on a Saturday morning because you played dominoes with your grandma on a Tuesday. Maybe you answer emails from your car while waiting for soccer practice to end.

The more you can integrate what needs to be done with the life you want to live, the easier productivity becomes. It does take forethought. But it’s worth it.

Nurture and Honor Yourself

I can’t say this enough.

The love and compassion you show others must have a place for you personally as well.

You are the most valuable part of your business. When you feel taken care of, the rest of it can shine. If you have a team, modeling this behavior gives them permission to be kind to themselves too.

Especially in healthcare, how can we expect to care for others when we are struggling ourselves?

Lean into the natural cycle of womanhood. Research how your energy, creativity, and charisma shift throughout your cycle and adjust what you can in your life and business to work with it instead of against it. If you haven’t read “Do Less” by Kate Northrop you are in for a treat.

When you see women who simply glow, this is often what they have mastered.

Do things you love.

Romanticize your life.

Appreciate the mundane for the gift that it is.

When you nurture your soul and your femininity, it shows in everything.

Burnout doesn’t always require a dramatic overhaul. Sometimes it starts with quieter shifts:  softening the inner critic, protecting your energy, remembering why you started, and honoring the woman behind the work.

You are allowed to build a business that supports you, not one that slowly drains you.