Welcome to “The Great Reprioritization”

Taking time for recovery, reflection, and reprioritization is not selfish, but rather sanity and ultimately good stewardship of your life energy.   Me

It’s being called “The Great Resignation,” a phrase coined by Texas A&M management professor  Anthony Klotz, who believes that as we transition to the post-pandemic workplace, people would rather vacate their jobs than just resume the “old normal” of slogging to the office every day.  The Gallop organization is calling it the “Great Discontent.”  I’m calling it “The Great Reprioritization.” 

Indeed, after many years of working long hours and sacrificing other priorities while being dedicated to a noble but demanding and seemingly insatiable profession, the past 18 months and counting of the pandemic has caused many who work in healthcare to ask an important but often disorienting question:  “Is this worth it?!”   And the answer that many are hearing is, “not in its present form.”  This doesn’t necessarily mean resigning from present jobs (though it could), but more likely not being content to accept previous patterns of work and the often ridiculous demands of them. 

But where in our professional upbringing did we learn how to determine when we had worked “enough” – when we had done “enough?”  As I reflect on this question, my personal answer is “nowhere and never.”   There are certainly things that can be done to resist and reframe this “never enough” mentality, including not making productivity and achievements the sole metric of self-worth, not constantly looking for external validity, setting reasonable standards and goals that are in line with values, defining what success looks like and working from there, and creating and protecting explicit boundaries.  And perhaps most importantly, inviting someone into your professional life to help hold you accountable.  For you, that “someone” could be your PeerRx partner. 

We have now been given the impetus to ask these questions with more urgency and to each determine the answers for ourselves.  But doing so will take time, space for reflection, and likely some others with whom to process to the often-conflicting voices chattering in our heads.   

So this week consider scheduling some non-working (and not thinking about work) time soon to ask yourself how your work is aligning with your values, priorities, and life goals.  For some, this may mean scheduling some longer periods of time devoted to answering these vital questions – perhaps even hiring a professional coach. 

That’s what I’ve done.

After all, the opportunity has been handed to us to pause and reconsider the pattern our life is weaving.  That is a gift.  Do you like what you see?  If not, now’s the time to do something about it.  The stakes are too great to not do so.  Welcome to “The Great Reprioritization …. “