You Are Not A Frog

You know something needs to change, but you just have no idea what, how, or where to begin, and your lack of a plan may be starting to feel like failure.
In this Quick Dip, Rachel unpacks why the belief that you need everything mapped out before you're allowed to move is the very thing keeping you stuck, and introduces the AB-Z method: a simple framework that replaces the impossible task of knowing your whole future with a far more manageable one.
This episode is about how to craft your work, not how to leave your job completely or blow everything up, but how to get a genuine say in the shape of your working life - one honest step at a time.
Key Takeaways
You don't need the whole career plan - you need A, a sense of Z, and B - the very next step.
Z is not a job title. It's how you want to be: internally, and with the people you love.
Recovering from burnout is not the same as arriving at Z. The absence of burnout is a step, not a destination.
Comparing your Z to someone else's is one of the most reliable ways to stay stuck.
Crafting your work and career can happen alongside your current role, not instead of it - and it can start at any grade, any stage.

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If you have ever ended a clinical day exhausted not from the medicine itself but from the weight of everybody else's feelings, this episode might hit home.
Josh Connolly, resilience coach and author of ‘It's Them Not You’, joins me to explore why many healthcare professionals take on so much of the emotional load for everyone - and how that pattern almost always began long before medical school.
Key Takeaways
People-pleasing at work usually has roots in family roles from childhood. The 'high achiever', the 'mascot' and the 'scapegoat' all carry those patterns into adult professional life.
Holding space for someone is not the same as absorbing their emotions. The moment you start feeling what they feel, you have crossed a boundary - and your ability to help them actually decreases.
When you are about to say yes under pressure, ask: 'Who have I become right now?' If the answer is your childlike self desperately seeking approval, that is the moment to pause.

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Resources mentioned:
It's Them, Not You: How to Break Free From Toxic Parents and Reclaim Your Story by Josh Connolly
The Shapes Academy

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Download Your Free Overwhelm SOS Guide

Discover the simple, step-by-step process you need to calm your mind, take control of your tasks, and get yourself out of overwhelm.

If you’ve ever thought to yourself ‘if I don’t do it, no one will’ this episode is for you. You tell yourself something important will go wrong if you don't do it all - but what if that's not what's actually driving your decisions?
In this Quick Dip, Rachel suggests something uncomfortable: that the decisions running your workload might less to do with patient safety than they are to do with who you believe yourself to be.
Because the question 'if I don't do it, who else will?' is often not about the risk of harm to patients, customers or colleagues – but more about the question ‘who am I if I don’t?’.
And learning to spot the difference between the two will give you back some choice over your workload.
Resources Mentioned
The Shapes Academy
You Are Not a Frog: The Over-Responsibility Trap series
Part 1: Why Responsibility Keeps Landing on You
Part 2: When ‘Can You Help?’ Doesn’t Feel Like a Question
Part 3: How to Stop Feeling Guilty When It’s Impossible to Do Your Job

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Mentioned in this episode:
Download Your Free Overwhelm SOS Guide

Discover the simple, step-by-step process you need to calm your mind, take control of your tasks, and get yourself out of overwhelm.
⭐️ Book Your FrogFest Ticket Now

You're working hard, doing excellent clinical work, and genuinely trying to make things better for your patients - so why does it feel like no one's listening? So many healthcare professionals hit a wall where their ideas get talked over, their proposals stall, and their careers plateau, even when their track record is strong.
In this episode, Rachel is joined by Sam Pearce and Sally Powell, co-founders of Impactful Women, to talk about political intelligence - what it actually is, why it feels uncomfortable at first, and how building the right relationships strategically (and with integrity) is the real skill that gets things done in the NHS and beyond.
Key Takeaways
Your career is your responsibility - waiting for someone to notice you or advocate for you is the most common career trap there is.
Influence is relational, not hierarchical. The person who has been in the department 15 years with no senior title can have more sway than the clinical director.
Decisions get made before the meeting. Building relationships and having conversations in advance isn't manipulation - it's how things actually work, and others are already doing it.

Resources Mentioned
Diary of a CEO podcast
Impactful Women website
Impactful Women on LinkedIn
Free resource: 10% Braver

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Mentioned in this episode:
Download Your Free Overwhelm SOS Guide

Discover the simple, step-by-step process you need to calm your mind, take control of your tasks, and get yourself out of overwhelm.
⭐️ Book Your FrogFest Ticket Now

Every day in healthcare, a meeting ends, and a problem that was never formally handed to anyone lands on the person who cares most - you.
If you've ever walked out of a room carrying something that somehow became yours without anyone asking, this Quick Dip Episode gives that experience a name, explains exactly why it keeps happening to people like you, and gives you the language to start pushing back on it.

Listen to other episodes in the Over-Responsibility Trap series:
Part 1: Why Responsibility Keeps Landing on You
Part 2: When ‘Can You Help?’ Doesn’t Feel Like a Question

Learn more about The Shapes Academy here.
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