That’s not my business. I’ve had to get accustomed to hearing and accepting this phrase from myself since the pandemic began. It’s tempting to think everything I care about it is my business. That mindset rarely serves me.
For clarity’s sake, let me state I consider my business to be what God has both gifted me and guided me to do at any given time. I am blessed to have many gifts. How and when I’m guided to use them is what makes something my business. I’m a believer God prepares and shows each of us the best way we are meant to be used.
I also believe everyone on Earth is connected. However, a connection doesn’t automatically make your thing my business. It may exist so I can help you do your business better.
Even believing all that, minding my own business was a challenge in 2020. As the severity of the pandemic became more evident in the USA, my desire to be more useful overwhelmed my thoughts and spirit. I read stories on social media from clinician colleagues across the country about how overtired, under-resourced and stressed they were taking care of the sickest COVID patients.
Initially, I thought I could use the medical license and board certification I had maintained over ten years of not seeing patients to jump back in to clinical care. In the end, there were numerous practical reasons why that didn’t work out. I had to accept taking care of patients was no longer my business. Instead, I had been divinely directed to help physicians get grounded in well-being. That was where my experience and gifts were needed in pandemic times.
At one point, I decided to expand my coaching to support people dealing with the pivot to working from home. The angst associated with the uncertainty of early days in pandemic life was not limited to healthcare workers. Eventually I came to recognize that while I am capable of doing that type of coaching, that particular shift wasn’t my business at that time. Instead, it was distracting me from necessary attention to my actual business.
There were physician trainees navigating the transition out of the structure of residency and fellowship into the autonomy of attending life, all while dealing with the increased disconnectedness of healthcare in the middle of COVID. They needed to know there was support for approaching that process with intention and well-being. That was my business for 2020.
Finally relenting to minding my own business allowed me to experience two of my favorite things – doing what was right for me and connecting others to what was right for them. Multiple areas of my life are better for it.
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Dr Jattu Senesie is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist, certified success coach, physician satisfaction specialist and speaker. She blogs about issues of self care and well-being in an effort to help her fellow altruistic high achievers find satisfaction in their success as early in their careers as possible.
