Career Transitions and Life Balance in Vet Med | Episode 78 | Reviving Vet Med

For many veterinary professionals, there comes a moment when the path ahead feels uncertain. Burnout, loss of purpose, or a yearning for change can leave you wondering: Is this still the right fit for me? And if not, what’s next?

In this inspiring episode, we speak with Sophie Gilbert, a Veterinary Surgeon, qualified Executive Coach, and Reviving Vet Med coach who specializes in emotional resilience, career fulfillment, and sustainable life balance. With decades of experience in primary care emergency practice, Sophie understands the intense pressures of veterinary work, and how daunting it can feel to navigate big transitions.

Sophie shares her own story of moving from the UK to New Zealand and shifting from clinical practice into coaching. We explore the early signs it might be time for a change, how to clarify your personal values and use them as a compass for decision-making, and the common fears that hold people back from making bold moves. Sophie also offers practical advice on setting healthy boundaries, reconnecting with your sense of purpose, and taking that all-important first step toward a more joyful, balanced career.

Whether you’re actively considering a transition or simply curious about what fulfillment could look like in your professional life, this conversation will leave you feeling supported, encouraged, and ready to explore new possibilities.

Watch the Video Version of this Episode
https://youtu.be/UCak-vjwZDA

Resources
Learn more about Sophie and the other coaches at Reviving Veterinary Medicine: https://revivingvetmed.com/meet-our-coaches 

Book a 20-minute introductory coaching call with Sophie: https://scheduler.zoom.us/coaching-rvm-sophiegilbert/20-minute-discovery-call 

Follow Sophie Gilbert on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/trivetmindset and Instagram @tri.vet_mindset

Brene Brown’s Living Into Our Values (exercise and podcast): https://brenebrown.com/resources/living-into-our-values/ 

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Transcript

Dr. Marie Holowaychuk - Hi everyone, it's Dr. Marie Holowaychuk here. If you're like me and love staying up to date on what's happening in Vet Med beyond just cases and clinical pearls, you'll want to check out What's Up Doc, the new podcast from Scribenote, hosted by Dr. Katie Gallagher, veterinarian and co-founder of Scribenote, what's Up Doc dives into the real conversations happening in our industry, from the latest trends in tech to mental health and the everyday challenges veterinary professionals face. I had the chance to be a guest on the show to talk about all things veterinary wellbeing and trust me, it's not your average vet med podcast. So wherever you listen to your podcasts, search Whats Up Doc by Scribenote, hit follow and join the conversation. Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Reviving Vet Med.

Dr. Marie - Today we are diving into one of the most common and often most challenging questions veterinary professionals face. What's next for me in my career and my life? Whether you're feeling stuck, burned out, or simply curious about new possibilities, this conversation is for you. Joining me is Reviving Vet Med coach Sophie Gilbert, a veterinary surgeon and qualified executive coach who specializes in emotional resilience, career fulfillment, and sustainable life balance. With decades of experience in emergency practice, Sophie understands the pressures and emotional toll of veterinary work, and she's passionate about helping others navigate transitions with clarity and confidence. In this episode, Sophie shares her own journey from clinical practice to coaching, the pivotal decisions that shaped her path, and practical tools for identifying when it might be time for a change. 

Dr. Marie -  We also talk about aligning with your personal values, setting boundaries without guilt, and finding purpose, especially if you're feeling disconnected from the work you once loved. If you've been wondering how to create a future in Vet Med that feels joyful, balanced, and truly your own, you're going to get so much out of this conversation. So let's get into the episode. This is the Reviving Vet Med podcast and I'm your host, Dr. Marie Holowaychuk, and my mission is to improve the mental health and wellbeing of veterinary professionals around the world. 

Dr. Marie - All right, thank you so much for joining me today on the podcast. Sophie, it's great to see you. 

Sophie Gilbert -  It's great to be here. Thank you for having me, Marie. 

Dr. Marie -  Yeah, well, let's dive right in. I would love to hear more about your story. What brought you into vet medicine? And how has your career evolved into coaching and supporting other people? 

Sophie - This is a really interesting question because I think whenever people ask me why I went into vet medicine in the first place, honestly, I can't remember now because I think probably why I do it now and why I'm still in the job now is probably quite different from why I wanted to do it when I was 13 or 14 years old or, you know, however old you are when you start to get these things. But yeah, like I say, I can't really remember what started that passion for me, but I went straight into university from school and then straight into my first job from vet school. So it was quite sort of a, a quick transition for me from that perspective. 

Sophie -  Started off in mixed practice, always wanted to be a farm vet actually, specifically, and then after about three or four years realized I really enjoyed sort of emergency medicine, particularly small animal. So went into a job where I was doing night work. So straight into kind of the ECC side of things from there, which I was told at the time was too early, you're too young, you know, you're not going to have the confidence or the basic skills to get into that. But hey, ho, 11 years, 11, 12 years later, I'm still in ECC, something must have been right from that perspective. But yeah, so went straight into ecc and then from there I joined a corporate company in the UK and was doing sort of night shift work. 

Sophie-  And really from there it was actually there was a person who worked at the company who was really inspirational for me and she'd mentored me when I'd come into the company and she'd been sort of that person who had encouraged me and made me see, actually, you know, there's some other things you can do or get involved in this and sort of started getting me really involved. She was sending vet students my way to mentor and when we had new starters in the company who were sort of joining, even if it wasn't our clinic, she would send them to our clinic. So I got started doing sort of quite a lot of mentoring and teaching quite early on, which was a bit scary because I thought, oh, I still don't really know what I'm doing, but hey ho. 

Sophie- And then I took on a senior leadership role within that clinic. So a senior vet there, which obviously then comes with those sort of management responsibilities, but also sort of Vet leadership leading the others in the clinic. And I think what I actually realized was that for me, the joy that I got out of working with people actually wasn't specifically about teaching people sort of clinical skills, it was about that, almost more that pastoral support piece. So it was about that you're coming into this clinic, you're coming into this company or this job and how can I support you to make that joyful for you? What do you need to make it a great career or a great job for you? How can we manage your stress levels and. And all of those different things? So I guess for me, sort of that. 

Sophie -  That pastoral side sort of happened quite early on. And then I actually went through quite a period myself where I had a lot of questions about what I was doing, was I in the right career? I actually came to quite a point where I had to sort of start asking myself quite a lot of questions. And I reached out for both coaching and counseling support at that time. And whilst the coaching support actually really helped me answer some of those questions, what it also did for me was it really inspired me and the coach that I had at the time, I was like, wow, I love this process. I'm really fascinated by this process of coaching and how this works and how we move through this process together. 

Sophie -  So that's then why I got into sort of coaching more specifically outside of my leadership roles at work, because I just found it such a. An interesting process as to how you can support somebody through that. So, yeah, I guess that's sort of a bit of a wiggly career through there, but, yeah, it's been better than good. 

Dr. Marie -  I love that. I think you and I are such kindred spirits in that we share so many passions together. We both love emergency, we both really enjoy teaching and mentoring and, you know, have made this transition into coaching as part of what we do. That has just felt so natural, really, with this desire to really help individuals to love this profession. Incidentally, we both have done some pretty big relocations in our lives. I know for me, with my training, it brought me across the Canada US border to Washington state, to North Carolina, to the other side of Canada, and now back home. You navigated a big transition in your life and career by moving from the UK to New Zealand. 

Dr. Marie -  And I'm wondering maybe that was it, but what was one of the most pivotal decisions that you've made in your life and how did you make that choice? 

Sophie - Yeah, I think actually for me, one of the most pivotal decisions almost came before I decided to move to New Zealand. And moving to New Zealand was actually almost a consequence of that decision for me, I think. So I worked for this corporate company for a very long time. I was there for sort of eight, nine years and I went into quite a senior leadership role within that company. So I'd stepped a little bit back from clinical practice. I was doing all sorts of amazing things and really learning a lot, but it was a really, really full on role. And yeah, there was a lot of pressure behind that role. And I think at that point in time, I remember speaking to a friend about it at the time actually and I said to them, I really want to continue progressing. 

Sophie -  I really, in my head I was like, I kind of want to see what's next. Could I get to the board, could I be the medical director? Could I even, you know, one day be CEO or something like that? And that was kind of in my head where I really thought I wanted to go with my career. Having said that, I felt like I was sacrificing a lot, being there even at that point in time. And I felt that I knew I would continue to have to sacrifice more. So, for example, my passions, I guess outside of work, are the outdoors, are hiking and I enjoyed spending a lot of time being active outside with my dog. 

Sophie -  And I do triathlons outside of work and where everything was so focused on that job, I felt like I was having to sacrifice and I wasn't really getting that work life balance and wasn't really sure that I would be able to get that work life balance with that. So I actually, it was at that point in time where I sort of was starting to think, do I want to be the, you know, the big CEO? Do I want to do that kind of thing? Or does something that allows me to get more active and do the other things that I enjoy more aligned with what makes me happy? That was where that point of asking myself, why am I actually doing this? Why do I want to continue pursuing that career? 

Sophie -  And thatwas quite an uncomfortable process actually, because I think I sort of realized that I almost wanted to do that. Not necessarily because it aligned with my values of helping people, but more because it was that drive for perfectionism or that drive to kind of be the best at what I was doing and actually being the best. What I realized is it wasn't really going to make me happy. So yeah, that was difficult and it was quite an uncomfortable realization. But it was at thatpoint where I was like, okay, now I need to figure out how I can make these things work together. 

Sophie -  And actually what bits of being a vet and being in the veterinary industry do bring me joy and how I can build that work life balance to actually, like I say, as a consequence of sort of that thought it was the. Okay, well, actually the opportunity came up to move to New Zealand. And in New Zealand, obviously you've got the outdoors all there. It's kind of the perfect country to do all those things and it allowed me to sort of take a little bit of a step back, go into more of a clinical role again and yeah, try and achieve that work life balance that I was looking for. So it almost wasn't the decision to move to New Zealand that was the tricky one. It was the piece before that deciding actually which direction do I want my career to go in. 

Dr. Marie - So yeah, that's so interesting. You know, I'm so curious what you felt leading up to that recognition that this wasn't working for you. Like maybe I don't want to be in this CEO role or I, I'm not getting the work life balance I want to achieve. I know a lot of coaching clients and just individuals in the profession who come to me and I'm sure come to you as well for coaching and advice. They say that they feel stuck. 

Dr. Marie -  Like this doesn't feel right. I feel stuck. It doesn't feel good. I don't know what to do. What do you think are some early warning signs that it might be time for somebody to make a shift or a transition in their life or their career? 

Sophie - Sure, yeah, I think that can be quite a difficult one because I think that does take quite a lot of self awareness to recognize. And I think the really important thing is that actually for some people and for myself as well, I really got myself in a position where I probably was pretty burnt out and actually I was quite far down that road before I started to recognize those signs.

Sophie -  I think really early on, even just starting to recognize if you have a bit of a curiosity about something else or you just have a bit of a, maybe a bit of a yearning to make a bit of an impact in a different way to what you're doing now, that in itself can actually be an indicator because it's your sort of, is your body and your brain kind of, I guess, telling you that what you're doing now isn't enough. It's not quite fulfilling all the needs that you have. So I think it's actually really important to listen to that little voice that says, oh, there's something I want that's just. I'm not sure what it is, but maybe what I'm doing now isn't quite there. So that's really important for sure. 

Sophie -  I think again, the other thing is everybody have bad days at work, right. Nobody goes to work or nobody lives every single day being in a fantastic mood and feeling joy in every single moment. That's not realistic. But I think if you start to realize that you are having a more persistent feeling of either, I guess, dread of going to work or frustration or you're starting to find things that  never used to bother you are starting to annoy you a little bit about what you're doing again. Those can all be warning signs that perhaps your environment or what you're doing is not quite aligning with your values or what you want to be doing at that stage in time. And that's okay, right? Because everybody changes with time. 

Sophie-  What you wanted five years ago or a year ago isn't necessarily what aligns with you now. But it's important to recognize those signs, I think. And, and yeah, I guess those can be some of the earlier warning signs before you get to that point where you're really fed up. 

Dr. Marie - That resonates so deeply with me. It reminds me. Growing up, my mom owned a companion animal practice in the town where we lived. And I always thought, even decades before I went into vet school, that I would graduate and I would join my mom's practice. And it's exactly as you describe. Where I got to my third year and I started to learn about like specialties and emergency practice and all of these other things that I'd never been exposed to. And it just felt for me like joining my mom in her practice. And I don't want to say it wouldn't have been enough of a career because I think GP is amazing and just really important work that individuals do. And at the time it just felt like something was missing. 

Dr. Marie -  Like you said that there's something more out there for me and that's what led me to make the decision to not go to practice with her and instead pursue an internship. You brought something up, I think that's really important for us to talk about, which is this concept of values. How can people get a clearer idea of what their personal values are? And why does this alignment with values matter when a person is considering a big life or career decision? 

Sophie - Yeah, I think some people are already really clear on their values, but I certainly wasn't. And I don't think I even really knew what values were until I started actually working through that process to figure it out. So I guess first off, values are kind of our core beliefs, I guess, aren't they? They're sort of what guide us in and help us in our decision making actually without even knowing it. The decisions we make on a day to day basis are usually kind of guided by that and our core beliefs to a certain extent. But I think what we can see happening is if we're not really clear on what our values are, and we start to make decisions that don't necessarily align with that. There's always going to be an emotional impact, right? 

Sophie -  So if you make a career change and you make a decision and you say, well, this is the next step because of this reason. So say you go into a job and actually financially it's much better off for you, but. But actually one of your values isn't necessarily financial stability. Maybe that doesn't actually matter to you that much. Ultimately, if the job itself doesn't align with what you want to be doing or what feels right for you are going to just start feeling that emotional impact. So it's almost like that cognitive dissonance, isn't it? It's like just something's not quite right. And again, you might not be able to put your finger on it, but initially you might be able to rationalize the decision over time. What might happen is you might actually start to regret that  decision a little bit. 

Sophie -  You might even start to resent the reasons you made that decision in the first place. And actually that's really stressful. And having those sorts of feelings can lead to a huge mental toll for us. And we don't necessarily always recognize that. But yeah, you might start to feel that loss of joy and not enjoyment. You know, we spend a lot of our time going to work and we spend a lot of our time at work. So if we don't get some sense of joy with what we do, then that has a massive impact on us. And I think it's really important to recognize that. 

Sophie - So being really clear on our values when we're making big decisions around our career or decisions around our job can help us be really a confident in the decisions that we're making, but also confident that those decisions are right for us and that they're sort of, we can have clarity around. Okay, yes, this is the right thing. This aligns with my values and this is something that I feel good about doing, I guess, in order to, I guess get clear on our values. That's actually quite a challenging thing, I think. And again, like I said before, that's something that can really change with time as well. So something that we can feel is really important to us at the beginning of our career is going to be completely different in five years time, in 10 years time, in 15 years time, and that's okay. 

Sophie - And it's important to recognize that. So again, I think being clear on our values, but being open to knowing that they can change with time as well is really important. I think if you're sitting at home listening to this and you're intrigued and you want to do a little bit of work on your values, there's loads of sort of coaching tools and things that can help with that. But one way you could start is just by finding a list of values. So I know Renee Brown has a list up on her website that you can download that's quite useful. And one way you can actually get started to kind of understand what resonates with you is look at that list of values, but then ask yourself some questions. 

Sophie - So think of a time that maybe you felt really proud of yourself or that you felt really a lot of joy in what you were doing or fulfilled and ask yourself, what were you doing? Who were you with? You know, what were you doing at that time? And figure out what values you were honoring at that time. Because again, that can really help us with. Okay, well, I found joy in that moment. I think the other thing is as well is on the flip side is notice actually what triggers you. Because when we have really strong emotional responses to something, that can be a big sign that actually that's one of our values not being honored. So noticing what we are. Yeah. What we really reacting strongly against can help us identify those values as well. 

Sophie -And then, yeah, asking yourself questions like, what do I want to be known for? What would I want other people to see in me? Just really help you start to pick out and learn which values resonate with you and what you identify with. But yeah, it can be a bit of a work in process. 

 Dr. Marie -  Yeah, no, thank you so much. That's such a great explanation. And again, so much of that lands. I know Brene Brown's values exercise well and I will link to that in the show notes as well as a conversation that she had with her sister on her podcast where they actually break down how their values have changed over time and even more importantly, how they really lean into when they know they're in alignment with their values versus when they're deviating from them. And you know, when I talk to veterinary professionals, I often use the example, clinical practice example. For example, let's say that you're in GP and you've just joined a practice and it's a very high volume, low client touchpoint practice. 

Dr. Marie -  And if one of your values is connection, communication, forming deep bonds with your clients, I guess connection is really the value that comes up for me probably because that is one of my core values. So it's top of mind for me. Then when you're in that situation for a long period of time, you can really start to feel like you say that uneasiness, that resentment, that frustration, because that value is not being met. And you might find yourself better positioned in a practice where it's lower volume, high touch point, lengthy workups, lots of opportunity to really connect and get to know your clients and that can then inform those decisions. And when I look at this from a burnout researcher perspective, there's a lot of research to demonstrate that values in congruence in the workplace is a big predisposer to burnout. 

Dr. Marie -  It's one of the biggest workplace creators of burnout. So like you said, you can find yourself in this position that is where you're burnt out because you're working within a role that isn't aligned with what you hold most important to you. 

Sophie -  Yeah, absolutely. And I think that goes back to sort of what were saying at the beginning, doesn't it? About recognizing those early signs before you get to that point where you're really resenting either the workplace or the people within the workplace or even your family or your close relationships, whatever. What it. Those feelings of resentment can really build up quite significantly, like you say, and cause that emotional distress and impact. 

Dr. Marie - And I think sometimes again, going back to that stuck feeling when people don't know why they're feeling that way, maybe they don't even recognize the feelings. But let's say they do recognize those feelings of resentment, frustration, whatever it is boiling up. If they don't know why, or they can't see what other opportunities might be available that would be in better alignment, then it's easy to see how a person could start to feel stuck. And just like this is just that Med, I've committed to this job, it's going to be like this forever and I just have to kind of suck it up, which is of course not the way that it is and not the way we want people to feel. 

Sophie -  Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. 

Dr. Marie - I think sometimes people get scared of change and certainly there can be other barriers holding people back from making change. You know, I think about people who are partnered or they have children that are in particular school or competitive sport and they may not have the capacity to move a great distance for a different job or whatever it is. What else do you see holding people back from making these changes even though they're deeply unhappy or unfulfilled? 

Sophie -  Yeah. And I think actually fear is probably one of those biggest barriers that I think, like you say, there are going to be sort of certain physical barriers or whatever that come up for people about being able to move their job. But I think for a lot of people what it comes down to is what if I'm making the wrong decision? How do I know that if I make this huge decision or what can feel like an absolutely huge decision, that actually what's next is going to be any better or that's what's going to be right for me. So again, that's where it's really important when we're making these decisions. Being quite aligned with our values and ensuring that, you know, we are, we have some around that and that can really help us with that side of things as well. 

Sophie -  I think for us, particularly in this profession as well, there's this thing called a sunk cost fallacy, right? We talk about that in business and in business what it means is you might have put all of this time, energy and money into a project and actually the project isn't really working that well, but you've already put all of this money into it, so you're going to just keep putting money into it because ultimately that's better than just stopping and wasting all of that money, right? We don't want to waste everything that we've done and actually I think we can really feel that particularly in this profession, right? We have worked so hard to get to where we are. 

Sophie -  We, for most people in the veterinary profession, be it vet, nurse, whatever role that you pay within the veterinary profession, you've either wanted to do that for a very long time. You know, those ambitions came from when you were maybe a young teenager or maybe even younger than that. You've gone through your pre vet school study, you've got through vet school itself, which is really long. So you've put a lot of your time, energy, effort, money, commitment into doing this thing. And then you go, well, I'm not quite sure about this and do I really want to stay in clinical practice or is this. And, and I think that student cost fallacy could really come into play there because you think, well, if I leave, that's a complete waste of everything I've done, right? 

Sophie - So I think again, people can get really sort of wrapped up and I think there's societal pressure there as well and social pressure from your friends and family as well. It's not just our own feeling like that. But again, working with somebody to recognize that investing in your future self is always going to be worth more than sort of continuing in a space, even if you have invested quite a lot in that. It's always going to be worth more investing in your future self and bringing that joy back. So I think again that sunk cost fallacy can be quite a big driver for some people as not wanting to leave the profession if they feel that that's what's right for them. And then I think the final one that  I see quite commonly and resonates with me as well, again, this loss of identity. 

Sophie - So again, as a profession, I think for a lot of us what we do is what we are, it is who we are, it's our identity. Right. I am Sophie and I am a vet. That's, that's me. And if somebody was to ask me then that what I would say and if I'm not a vet, then who am I? What am I? And that's a really, that's quite a scary thing to actually start the face and think, gosh, if I don't do this, what does that mean for me? So again, even if I think people don't necessarily recognize that, I think that's a huge driver for some people worrying about coming out of the profession or doing something with their skills that is not directly in clinical practice. 

Sophie -So yeah, working with a coach and identifying what your transferable skills are and understanding that actually what you've been doing all this time is not a waste. It's just supporting you in taking a different path and I think it's really important. 

Dr. Marie - Yeah, it's so easy to get comfortable in the knowingness of the misery that we're currently experiencing versus the unknown of what might be different, but that we just can't put our finger on yet. That's really great. And yeah, incidentally, we do have an episode on professional identity where I chat with Dr. Melody Chan and we talk exactly through that around transitioning out of clinical practice into a different job where you're still a veterinarian or you are still trained as a veterinarian, but you might not be in Vet clinical practice role. And not that we're suggesting everybody leave clinical practice, please don't because we need you. But you know, recognizing there's so much more that we can do with our degrees. 

Dr. Marie - Hey there. Are you feeling stuck, overwhelmed or just ready for a change in your veterinary career? Coaching with Reviving Veterinary Medicine might be exactly what you need at Reviving Vet Med. Coaching is a transformative partnership that helps you reach, connect with your purpose, set meaningful goals and create a sustainable, fulfilling career in veterinary medicine. You can book a free 20 minute introductory call, no obligation, no pressure. Just a chance to see if coaching could be a good fit for you. Visit revivingvetmed.com/coaching to learn more and schedule your free call today. 

Dr. Marie -I want to switch gears now and talk about boundaries because I know that this is a conversation that you and I have had offline as you transition into life in New Zealand and wanting to enjoy all of these activities outside of work, especially when it comes to transitions. What role do you think boundaries play and how can we get to a place of setting them and not feeling so guilty, if that's even possible. 

Sophie - Yeah. Is the. Without guilt that, isn't it? That's actually the really challenging thatI think for most people. Yeah, that's a really great question, Marie. And I think you could ask different people the same question and everybody would have a different answer and a different response to that. And I think boundaries is one of those things that I think comes time and time in our job, particularly with the type of people that are in this profession. For the majority of us, we're quite caring people. You know, the majority of people are those type A personalities. They put other people before themselves. They would actually rather support another person or help another person over and above looking after themselves. And therefore, the concept of boundaries and the ability to set boundaries is deeply uncomfortable for many people, including myself in this profession. 

Sophie - I will certainly raise my hand to that one. And it's really interesting you bring up about my personal experience and moving to New Zealand because I actually took a job and realized I've only been here sort of eight, nine months. But I have already realized that I have overstepped many of my boundaries with this job that I've taken and that it's not serving me. And I've had to sort of really reevaluate and we use the term sort of recoach myself to recognize that and actually suddenly go, oh, whoa, hold on a second. You know, I've made this transition for a reason, to get my work life balanced better. And all of a sudden I'm saying yes to all of these things at work. 

Sophie - I've taken on a more senior position already, and all of these things don't actually align at all with why I came out here. So I've really had to take that step back and reset and reframe a lot of things for me. So that's actually been quite challenging. And I think understanding what a boundary is, I guess a good first step. So a boundary, I guess, is like a guideline or a limit. And it's that part between where you can Say this is okay for me versus this is not okay for me. And actually where that line is crossed, that is your boundary. And boundary is different for everybody. Right? So you know, what I feel comfortable with is going to be different from the next person. 

Sophie -But I think what's really important is having a clear understanding of our boundaries can help us make those decisions that do fully serve us. And it's almost like if you look at it in context with the values piece, isn't it? Your values are what guide you towards kind of what you do want and what feels right to you and your boundaries on the other side of things. This isn't what's right for me. And somewhere in the middle you have to find that middle ground, that kind of happy ground, as it were. And I think when we're transitioning or trying to make decisions about having a new job or doing something different within our job, it's really important we recognize that. 

Sophie - Otherwise it is so easy, as I've learned myself, to make decisions and to say yes to things and to make these decisions and then realize sort of six months down the line that actually you've put yourself in a position where you've overstepped your boundaries already. So I think really being clear with that from the very beginning, whether it's starting a new job or taking on a new role within the job that you currently have, it kind of doesn't really matter what transition you're making. If you are really clear with what matters to you so you know what your time boundaries are, what your financial boundaries are, what your emotional boundaries are, then that can help you to stay. 

Sophie -No, from the very beginning and set those expectations rather than having to reel it back in sort of six months, a year down the line when you realize it doesn't work for you. Yeah, I think that's, it's a really challenging thing to do, but it's really important. 

Dr. Marie - It's so important and you hit the nail on the head. I think when we start a new job or we transition into a new team or whatever it might be, we have this desire to amalgamate, be part of the team. People, you know, that's where the people pleasing tendencies comes that come out. I don't want to be seen as off putting or rigid or not a team player or I want to seem eager and enthusiastic and that can get you into trouble if you don't really adhere to what it is that you need at the end of the day. I certainly encourage with coaching when individuals come to me and they're really feeling challenged with boundaries to look at a transition as like a clean slate. Here's where you get to come in. 

Dr. Marie - Whether it's a new job, a new role or after you've had a baby, or maybe you've relocated to a new home and you have a different commute, whatever it might be, these are opportunities to come in and say, okay, now that this is happening from here forth, here's what I need or here's what I'm willing to do and here's what I would like to stop doing or let go of. And I know we're really oversimplifying it. There's so much more and you know, there's the communication piece and that as well. And you know, I always joke when people ask, okay, I've like figured it out, how to communicate it, how do I stop feeling guilty? I think unless you're, you know, a sociopath and you don't care about other people, you are going to feel guilty. And it's about really leaning into those values. 

Dr. Marie - Like you said, this is what is so important to me. If family is one of my core values and I am at work every day, two, three hours past the end of my shift, that's just not going to work for me. And what's important to me. And so leaning into that, I know for me too, leaning into this is what I need to show up the best version of myself at work, at home, with my daughter, whatever it might be. Anyways, I'll link to a couple of episodes on Boundaries that we've recorded as well. But I love your take on that and I think that's going to be really helpful for people. Oh my gosh. I have so many questions and I know that we're running out of time. 

Dr. Marie - I do briefly want touch on purpose and meaning because I think these are things we aspire to experience. This is why we came into Vet Med, right? We had a purpose of like helping animals or helping pet families or farmers or whatever it was. And I think we get into our careers and that starts to feel elusive. It feels like a long lost dream that we had. How do you help veterinary professionals reconnect with their sense of purpose even when they might be in a state of burnout or disillusionment? 

Sophie - Yeah, absolutely. I think this profession is really one, like you said, that people come into because they have that initial sense of purpose and we can get a little bit lost in that and a little bit lost in their sort of the day to day things that happen around that and again, I think this actually comes back to the values piece. Again, I think a lot. And for me, I think the work I often tend to do with people is revisiting those values. Try and think about why you got into veterinary medicine in the first place, or even if you can't think that through, because again, I'm the same as sort of is different for me now than it was 10 years ago. 

Sophie - What moment have felt meaningful to you, even if they have been rare or you don't have to have those meaningful moments every single day. And that's, again, that's not reality. But if you can identify those moments at work or in your career where you have felt that there has been some meaning behind what you're doingTo Sophie Gilbert for being our guest, and most of all, thank you for listening. Until next time, take care of yourself. Bye for now. , then pick those out, pick up on that. And then can we expand that definition for you? So actually, if you think, okay, well, I'm in clinical practice and I'm still doing clinical practice, but I'm just, I'm a little bit lost. Are there ways within your current role or within clinical practice that we can refine that meaning that aren't necessarily just focused on the specifics of clinical practice? So again, for some people, that might be actually. 

Sophie - Well, what feels purposeful for me is I'm really passionate about educating clients and I really want to support clients from the very beginning. So you might be the person in your practice that volunteers to run the puppy parties, or you might want to write some educational material for the website or some leaflets or something so you can find meaning in doing other things within your clinical sphere that really bring back that and speak to what you want to do. And then again, if we're talking about, okay, well, actually I'm in clinical practice and I'm not still finding so much meaning within that. Could you find ways outside of that to speak to that? So could you volunteer for, I don't know, within the UK there's like the Bsaba or there's local groups that run sort of like CPD events and things like that. 

Sophie - So could you volunteer for that? Could you run a local CPD event? Could you set up a local hiking group for veterinary professionals in your area? Just other things that, again, kind of, they're within the sphere of what you're doing, but perhaps they're just outside of what you might have thought about specifically. That speaks to you as clinical practice. And again, I think our purpose can evolve just in the same way that our values can evolve. So something that you feel is purposeful for you at one point in your life is going to change over time and again. That's fine. So sometimes it's just about reconnecting with that re-understanding and looking outside the box and thinking actually, are there some other ways that I can find that within what I'm doing?

Dr. Marie - I really love that. What I love most about that is that you really highlight the need to look outside of what your day to day might be. Right. We can't expect to be like, oh, you know, like aligned in our purpose every moment of every day. But if we can find snippets of that, even if it is outside of our job that we do on a regular basis, then that can still be very impactful. 

Dr. Marie - So that's awesome. 

Sophie - Absolutely. Yeah. 

Dr. Marie -Just a couple last questions before we wrap up. One is, if someone is listening to this conversation and they're considering a big change, but they feel overwhelmed, what would you suggest as one small step that they might take today? 

Sophie - So this is maybe going to sound like a really insignificant thing to do, but I think it's actually really powerful. And for me it's name that step. Name the thing that you're thinking about, write it down or say it out loud. Because I think for a lot of people, myself included, we have these thoughts and we kind of internalize them. Right. And it can become really stressful because we're thinking for all of these things and we've got all of these kinds of offshoots going off and we're worrying about this and we're worrying about that, but actually we keep it within our own head. 

Sophie - And sometimes I think just writing that down, just simply saying I'm thinking about leaving my job is so simple, but it gets it out of your own head and instead of it just opens up that door for you to be able to reflect on it a bit more, I think, and actually to start picking through and thinking about solutions rather than worries, which I think can happen when we internalize things. And I guess as a slight extension of that, then if you can write it down or you can say it out loud, can you journal about it for, I don't know, just set 15 minutes just to write about what you're thinking about and just to put those thoughts down on paper or maybe speak to a trusted friend about what you're thinking or feeling. 

Sophie - Because again, I think just verbalizing that can just help to concrete thoughts in our head and can get it out and can help us start making sense of some of those uncertainties. So it is a really small thing. Doesn't take a lot of time. And it's quite easy to do, but I think it's actually quite a powerful exercise to do. It sounds silly, but I think it works. 

Dr. Marie -Yeah, not at all. Sounds very impactful. Last but not least, one question that I ask all of our guests on the podcast is, what does the phrase reviving veterinary medicine mean to you? 

Sophie - Okay, so for me, I guess veterinary medicine is a really human profession. Right. And I think sometimes it's really easy to forget that. So what I mean by that is that we focus so much on clinical outcomes and technical skills and getting the pets better or making the clients happy or whatever it is that we're trying to do within our role. What we kind of, I think sometimes forget is that it's the people behind that are the ones that make those outcomes happen. And people aren't just machines. They're not just people that create outcomes. They have emotions and they have relationships with each other within the team, and all of that impacts actually how we produce those outcomes. So for me, it's about remembering that, I guess rediscovering that to a certain perspective and just remembering that matters. 

Sophie - You know, those emotions matter, people matter. And at the core of all of that is our wellbeing. Because if we're not showing up as our best self, then we cannot give our best self to what we're doing. So I think you said it quite well earlier. Yeah, you said pretty much that phrase, if we don't focus on what works for us and showing up as our best self every day, we don't necessarily produce our best outcomes. So for me, it's about remembering that and finding that importance again, how we can support ourselves, how we can support the people in this profession to be the best that they possibly can be. 

Dr. Marie - Amazing. It's a great place to leave off. Thank you so much for your time and all of your wisdom and expertise today. Sophie, it was great chatting with you. 

Sophie - Thanks, Marie. You too. 

Sophie - So that's it for this episode of Reviving Vet Med. I hope Sophie's insights left you feeling encouraged and empowered to think differently about your career path and what fulfillment could look like for you. Whether you're contemplating a big move, exploring new opportunities, or simply seeking more balance in your current role, remember, you don't have to have it all figured out before you take the first step. If this conversation resonated with you, I encourage you to share it with a colleague or friend who might be in. 

Dr. Marie - A season of interest transition. And if you'd like to learn more about Sophie's coaching or book a session. You'll find everything linked in the show notes or at RevivingVetMed.com. 

Dr. Marie - Please subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already done so that you never miss a future episode. 

Dr. Marie - You can also follow us on social media at Reviving Vet Med for more. Wellbeing tools, tips and resources. Special thanks to the team at Podcast Prime Solutions for producing this episode. To Sophie Gilbert for being our guest, and most of all, thank you for listening. Until next time, take care of yourself. 

Bye for now.