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Welcome to the Ambitions Nurse podcast

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, where I provide tips , tools

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and resources for the experienced nurse

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to put in your career bag to

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help you be a better person , a better

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leader , a better professional and

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, most of all , a better nurse . I'm

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your host , bonnie Meadows , a career

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coach and a clinical nurse specialist

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with over 18 years of experience

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in healthcare and nursing . It's

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my passion to help experienced

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nurses develop their careers to

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impact healthcare and their communities

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. So

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my next podcast it's called

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Getting Over Perfectionism and

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I kept thinking , gosh , what are the bullet points

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that I'm going to have for this

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particular podcast ? And it came

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to me that I should just get

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over perfectionism and just

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talk . So the first thing that comes

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to my mind when it comes to careers

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and getting over perfectionism

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is the fact that

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a lot of times we want especially

1:10

when we're leaving some type

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of clinical position and

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going into a five

1:17

day a week job or

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four day a week job we just

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want all the pieces to be lined up and we want

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to know exactly what we want to do . Well

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, guess what ? You're not going

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to know . You're not , because even

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if you already had a plan

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of what you wanted to do , sometimes

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God has a totally different plan

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for you , but you've got to step

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out there and take a chain . So

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the first thing I want to tell you is you're

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not going to have all the answers and

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you're going to have to try something , but

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in that trying something

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and trying to make a decision on what that

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something is , that's

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where your self awareness comes

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in , that's where your reflection

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comes in , that's where that time

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comes in . Where , in my

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career builder workbook that I offer

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, where I'm asking you to step

2:10

back , like these sound like simple questions

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, but they are important

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to know what are your

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string , what are your opportunities

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? What do you want to grow

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and become a little bit better at ? When

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I left the bedside , I was at a pivotal

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point in my career where I

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decided that I did not want to go to

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med school but I wanted to make the most

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out of my nursing career , and

2:35

that made me and helped me to

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really think about well

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, what else do I want to do ? What else do I

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like ? What do I like in this

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current space ? Like where I am

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, and I knew that I wanted

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to expand in hospital

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business . What does that really

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mean ? And , of course , that was 2011

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. Those were terms that we used

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back then . But I knew

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I got a taste of quality improvement

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. I'd liked the idea

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of helping out with problem

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solving and coming up with processes

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to help improve things

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. I was involved on different things on

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the unit and that was helping

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me to introduce me to different things

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within the hospital . But

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I knew I wanted to be

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involved in hospital business and in particular

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I wanted to work in quality . But

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I didn't know what that was . I'd

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seen one particular person who worked

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specifically with cardiac surgery to

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help improve their quality outcomes and I

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thought it was a fascinating job . Thankfully

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, I actually wasn't picked . I was like

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an alternate because somebody else couldn't go

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to . The Institute of

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Healthcare Improvement fell in love

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with quality , which that is like the

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backbone of healthcare quality , so

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I fell in love with it there . But

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I didn't know that I was in love

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with it at that time . I just knew I really

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liked it and would like to do a job

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of such things . I

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did know that I did not want

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to be a nurse manager and I

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never even touched the clinical supervisor

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route . I just knew that

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that wasn't the path for me . That

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will be the path for some of you and

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you will be excellent nurse

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managers because your heart

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is in it and you have

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a heart for the people . I have a heart

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for the people , but I have a heart for the people in a different

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way and I've always been this way , even

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when , at some point in time

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, when I was in nursing school or in

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high school , I thought I wanted to

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be the dean of a

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nursing school or I wanted to teach

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. But what I did know is

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that I did not want

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to teach new nurses . I

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wanted to teach nurses who were

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masters prepared . It

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just wasn't my goal to work with people on

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that level , and that's okay . There

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are certain areas where you need to

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kind of just slot yourself into

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, and I've even gotten to a point now

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to where the information

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that I speak to . Yes , new

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nurses can use it . Nurses

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with a master's degree can use it . Nurses

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with a master's degree can use it . Nurses with a doctorate

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degree can use it . But

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my career path coaching

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goes in the direction of

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degree attainment . Or

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either , after you've gotten the degree

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and you're in these certain

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salary jobs that are not necessarily

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management jobs , with their leadership

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jobs , how do you operate

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in those sectors ? So , leaving

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the beg side . I knew that I wanted

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to be in hospital business

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, so I interviewed for several positions

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that I knew were hospital business

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like positions , but I didn't know

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, I didn't fully know what those positions

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entailed . I interviewed

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for case management position . I

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interviewed for patient safety coordinator position

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. I was upset that I didn't get patient safety

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coordinator position . However , I should not have been

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, because I was not prepared for that interview . So

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much so to where they asked me a

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question about universal protocol

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and I'm like what is that ? And I didn't say

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it exactly like that Y'all , I am very

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professional . I am like consummate

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professional . So I'm more than likely

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responded in I'm not sure

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what you mean by that . So they had

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to go into detail about it . And

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then I went back to the bedside and

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I was what is universal protocol ? It's

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verification of procedure . Now I'm like good gosh

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, that's the same thing . We never

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called it that , so it's a different language

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. However , I did

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get the case management position , but again

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, I went into

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many of these interviews and read the

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job description . However , first

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I had a state of awareness about

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me . I was okay with going five days a week

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. I was okay with working salary

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. I was okay with moving away from

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clinical . I was ready to make that move

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and I knew that I wanted to do

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something in hospital business and something

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pertaining to the quality improvement

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of the patient or

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of a hospital process . Those

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are the things that I knew and so I

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would say for you that

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is an important piece , like I talk

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about self-awareness and self-assessment

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a lot , and I talk about it a lot

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because it's a very foundational piece . Knowing

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who you are , knowing what you want

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, is very foundational

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and it will take you a long way

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. Instead of ooh

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, maybe this , ooh , maybe that . In my mind

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, I think about like , ooh , maybe this , ooh

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, maybe that , but I know what I

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don't want to do . I know what I don't

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want to do , so why even go there

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? That's how people get into

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jobs , to where they end up doing

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what they don't want to do , because you've not

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really taken the time to sit back and really assess

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and do some self-awareness . And so

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I walk you through that in the career-vehicle

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workbook that I offer to really

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decipher , like , what are my values

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? What are my beliefs ? Do I even enjoy

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the company that I currently work with or is it

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time for me to leave this organization altogether

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. Do I need to move ? Do

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I need to go back and get another degree ? I

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knew that in order to make the moves that I wanted to

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make , I knew

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that I had to go back to school

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and I was okay with that . That was always

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my goal to go back and get my

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master's degree . Take an initial step

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and get over perfectionism

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. When you're trying to do it , just

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really thinking about what do

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I want , making a choice

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, narrow down your choices

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in making your decision and

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then stepping back and knowing I'm going

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into this , knowing that this is

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a dating situation Like

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, sometimes you're going to find the right person right there

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, the right job , the right whatever

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, and you're going to stay in it forever . And

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sometimes you are

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going to have to go through a few

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jobs that don't completely

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feel your need but they actually meet

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and meet in up , leveling

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your skills as a nurse so

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that you can be marketable for other

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positions later

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on . So that is an

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important piece in getting over

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perfectionism and just going

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for it . Making that next move in

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your career and not staying stagnant

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where you are just because

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you're overwhelmed by the choices

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that you make . You're taking action

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is what is going to get you clarity , because

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you're going to start to rule out what

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works , what doesn't work , what do I like

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, what do I not like . You're going to

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start to mold and make your professional

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brand . Your self awareness

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helps you to lead to what

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is my true professional brand

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and then you're going to be able to list

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out as I said in a blog

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post before , and even in

9:57

one of my previous podcasts , you're going to be able

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to list out those things of these

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are my non-negotiables . At some

10:03

point you're going to be able

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to list out these are my negotiables

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and non-negotiables when

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it comes to my career . But most

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of the time , it takes you moving

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through the profession to really figure

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out what do you want to do , or

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really figure out your professional brand

10:22

. And then , once you get your professional brand

10:24

, you can say , okay , well

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, the opportunities I'm looking for

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need to include this , this

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and this and this . And then

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, once you have identified

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those things and you say this is who I am as

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a profession , this is what I'm looking for

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, this is what I want to do , then

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that helps you to narrow down , like , okay

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, if this is what I'm looking for

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, then these are my options . You

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will no longer have to look at the field and

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be like , oh , there's so much to choose what . Like

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I don't even really know what I want to do . No

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, you will look at the field and be able

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to even go in when you're looking

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for a job . You can say , huh

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, well , that might be interesting because

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it includes the things that I

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feel like are part of our professional

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brand and will allow me to succeed

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in my career and help me to

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grow and help me to contribute to

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whatever role that may be

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. Thanks for joining

11:20

us this week on the ambitious nurse

11:22

podcast . To review the show

11:24

notes and any links mentioned in today's

11:26

episode , please go to the

11:29

ambitious nurse podcastcom

11:31

. You can download my nurse starter

11:33

growth guide If you want more information

11:35

about how to take the next step in

11:37

your career . It walks you through five

11:40

steps you should think through to start

11:42

working towards growing your career . Download

11:45

the nurse starter growth guide at the link

11:47

shown in the show notes . If

11:49

you enjoyed this conversation , follow

11:51

or subscribe so you don't miss a future

11:53

episode . Also , please consider

11:56

leaving a rating , review and or comment

11:58

about what you want to hear about . This

12:01

helps more nurses , just like you . Find

12:03

this podcast and remember

12:05

you don't have to grow your career alone

12:07

. As iron sharpens iron

12:09

, one person sharpens another . Thank

12:12

you for letting me sharpen you as

12:14

you take this knowledge to sharpen the

12:16

next . Thanks again for joining

12:18

me , bonnie Meadows , on the ambitious

12:20

nurse podcast . We look forward

12:22

to chatting with you the next time .