How to think about making mid-career pivots and life changes.
I am 18 months into a mid-career pivot that took more than 3 years to achieve.
I made my first serious enquiry about becoming a Pain Specialist in July 2019 before eventually starting as a Pain Medicine Fellow in February 2023.
As a married father of 3 boys embedded in my local community and committed to my career trajectory, the decision to make this pivot was simple but hard to achieve.
Let’s start with “hard to achieve” because this is the main reason that some may not ever take the first step to consider what a career and life pivot may look like.
For me, this meant considering all the big “rocks” that would impact our lives:
- Moving from our idyllic country life to the city
- Taking a significant pay cut
- Becoming a trainee doctor again
- Losing autonomy
- Needing to study and pass a Fellowship Exam with a full-time job and children
- Placing our financial goals on hold (mortgage, retirement etc)
- Losing certainty about the future — what will happen when I finish
These are the thoughts that Kylie and I have wrestled with since we began this journey.
This is not insignificant because these are the real issues that keep people tied to a career trajectory and lifestyle even though they may yearn for change.
And this is what happened to me.
I knew that I wanted to contribute more as a doctor.
This was the “simple” decision to make and it came down to two things — regret and meaning.
Dan Pink suggests that as we get older we regret what we did not do much more than what we did. The regrets of inaction easily outnumber the regrets of action.
As my wife summarised it to me “Jonathan, I know you and you will regret not giving this a shot,” and so the decision was made.
However, most importantly, the decision to make this life pivot was about meaning.
What is the purpose of our years at work?
What will be the legacy of our contribution?
And I say this with the privilege of being able to ask this question because I know that this is not universally the case.
Thus, I recognised that although my work in Palliative Care brought incredible purpose and meaning, I saw that people with Chronic Pain especially in the country were suffering and underserved.
I wanted to help.
I knew that with the handful of time that I had been given, I wanted it to matter and so we as a family moved to Perth.
It was “simple” to recognise that I did not want to live in regret and that I wanted to re-align with meaning.
This is what made the “hard” achievable although it took 3 years.
Kylie and I want to live as examples to our boys, bringing them on the journey, and showing them that hard things are achievable.
If you are thinking about a pivot, consider the meaning behind your desire and the cost to you if you continue to brush it aside.
I’d encourage you to journal about this, talk to your spouse and visualise what it could look like.
It may be hard to achieve, however, living regret is much tougher.
Live intentionally.
Love relentlessly.
Enjoy your health!
Dr. Jonathan Ramachenderan
