If you’re feeling overwhelmed during your transition to a new clinical or non-clinical career, you may have hit a roadblock.

Even though roadblocks are expected along the road to career change, they have a sneaky way of taking you off the road and into overwhelm.

Roadblocks are stressors you cannot control but they threaten to derail your focus.

Examples of roadblocks:

• Life events: Parents, children, and partners get sick, you’re a single parent for a weekend, there’s a tragic event in the family, colleagues resign, and you must pick up extra work.
• Colleagues question your plans to leave clinical medicine.
• The economy tanks.
• Companies have hiring freezes.
• The timeline to your first interview is much longer than you thought it would be.
• Your loved ones get impatient with your decision-making and don’t seem to understand.

What roadblock are you facing now?

How can you move through roadblocks?

Consider taking 2 steps: Reconnect with your motivation and define what you can control.

1. Reconnect with your motivation.

What motivates you?

Why do you want to leave your current job situation?

What’s it costing you to stay where you are (emotionally, physically, interpersonally, etc.)?

2. What can you control?

Examples of things you can control:

• Craft your resume to make sure you’re connecting the dots for the recruiters.
• Find out as much as you can about the jobs you’re applying for.
• Apply to a certain number of jobs per week.
• Reach out to a certain number of people per week you want to build relationships with.
• Spend time with people who understand your journey and can help you get where you want to go.
• Give yourself a hefty dose of self-compassion.

If you’ve hit a roadblock and feel overwhelmed, I invite you to sit down and make a list of things you can control, and things you can’t control.

Let the things you can’t control just be there. Then concentrate your efforts on the things you can control and move through the roadblock.