The Pursuit of Fulfilling Your Potential is a Lifelong Journey

Ethereal Tranquility - South Fork, Madison River, MT

You Will Benefit Now and After the End of Your Career

I believe that if you reflect upon your personal and professional development over the course of your career, you will probably validate that it paved your path to success. You may also discern that it is a prelude to your ongoing evolution as you begin to envision and prepare for your end of career.

Not so much to somehow brightly, spontaneously illuminate your new path. Rather, to use your skills and wisdom in the service of learning anew. To learn with deliberate purpose about a very unfamiliar, yet promising grand experience.

The end of career. It is a new experience for all of us. For most, it is an exciting time. You will likely have more than one dream…and each will be accompanied by many questions.

To question, to dream. To find answers and bring dreams to life is the essence of your path to a renewed and fulfilling lifestyle.

This is an extraordinary time that comes to us in various forms and have struggle as their companion.

My Sudden End

I experienced a sudden, unexpected end of career as a Plastic Surgeon. The details of my experience, which I have described on this website, are unique.

Like my colleagues, I had extensive, structured training that provided the basis for me to serve others with excellence, succeed in my profession and life in general. But it did not, indeed it could not, prepare me for what I suddenly faced.

My life events were unexpected and unusual. Fortunately, for most, the end date is anticipated and can be planned well in advance.

Either way, there is a vacuum of knowledge about the unknown and it is unique for each of us.

The Answers to the Most Critical Questions Are Within Us

There is, however, a certain commonality to our experience that is punctuated by major questions marks.

These are a few, personal questions that feel heavy to most that I serve:

• Now What?
•  Who am I? Am I What I do for a living? Or am I Who I really am, my internal identity? 
• What is my purpose, my Why in life? How can I continue to express it in other endeavors?
• How do I achieve clarity to reconcile Who I am and What I do?
•  And, how do I describe myself?
•  Why is it that while my professional title and all the skills that came with it, enabled me to achieve great things, really do not provide all the answers I need now?
•  How do I develop the insight, the courage to live with the sadness and grief over what I am leaving behind? 
• How do I reconcile my desire for fun yet fulfill the necessity to persist in the realization of my potential?
• How do I apply my hard earned skills, indeed my harder earned wisdom, to this critical task of designing and living an awesome new life?
• And then you may wonder, how will my example serve my spouse, children and grandchildren?

You can wonder eternally as deep inside you know that the seeds you sow will continue to benefit your family for generations.

These are cardinal questions for which it is critical you to develop clear answers.

You will then feel the permeating satisfaction of confidence in your convictions.

These convictions will serve as sentinel guides that facilitate the myriad of questions you will answer…your way, for your purpose.

Of Duties and Gifts

As I have thought about my Transition and that of many others that I have guided, I am more than ever convinced of this:

To strive to realize your potential all the days of your life is simultaneously a duty and a gift to yourself and your loved ones. This is so, no matter what stage of your life you are experiencing.

You have considerable skills that you worked hard to develop. Without a doubt, most of these skills will be very helpful as you progress through your Transition. It is also true that these skills may need to be adapted to these new challenges. You will also need to develop new skills to conquer new, unfamiliar horizons.

I encourage you to marshal your resources, to focus your sustained and deliberate efforts upon your purpose. You will then reap the rewards and enjoy them with your loved ones.

PS: Would you like to learn more from me about how to create and experience a fulfilling end of career Transition and beyond? To help you, I provide consulting services tailored to your specific needs. Click here to apply for a complimentary strategy session.

Exuberance Amidst Change - Sierra Nevada, 2017

© Enrique Fernandez, M. D.