Imagining Your Ideal Practice

So many of us absolutely dread going into the office, clinic, or hospital on Monday mornings (or whenever your work week typically starts).

We hate our jobs and believe “this is just the way it is.”

We stop imagining anything different.

Today I’d love for you to imagine with me. We’re going to imagine your perfect practice.

Side note: This only works if you actually DO it.  You can’t just read about it! The same way we go about doing a procedure for the very first time. You read about it, double checked in a different manual, watched your attending do it and then jump in and actually go. Feels awkward and uncoordinated but you complete it. Same with these exercises... get yo' paper and pen and write this out! :)


Let’s suspend disbelief for a moment and imagine that someone came to you and offered to pay you your ideal salary for practicing medicine in your ideal setting. What would that look like?

Ask yourself these questions, and take time to come up with and write out your answers:

  • What would my perfect practice look like?

  • How would I feel working in my perfect practice?

  • What would be my practice's mission?

  • What patient types would I care for?

  • How would my typical perfect day go? (Include an actual schedule)

  • What is the culture that I want surrounding me?

  • What is your ideal amount of hours?

  • What does my vacation time look like?

  • When are your days off?

  • What other responsibilities would you gladly perform? (On-call? Nursing home rounds? Volunteer activities? Medical trips? Additional education or teaching?)

  • Where, in your perfect practice, is there space to grow?


Where can you make one small tweak this week to make your current position closer to your ideal position?

Can you trade additional responsibilities with someone?

Offer to focus solely on one or two patient types?

Make a small change to your schedule, like blocking of break time, lunch time, or time to catch up on charting?

How can you live your ideal practice’s mission in some small way this week?


I’d love to hear about your ideal practice and help you explore more ways that you can start bringing that flavor into your current role. SIf you’d love to take this exercise a little further and want help dreaming up more creative possibilities, I’d love to talk. Schedule with me HERE

I got your back!

Errin