Dr. Stephanie Stoddart, MBA's Linkedin Analytics

When my 3 year old called me out after a long day at work, “We ate without you because you came home late … again,” my world crumbled. I started wondering if it was worth missing out on my kids’ lives in order to have a good job, squeezing out every extra dollar of income to “enjoy” our lives. If I was honest, I wasn’t enjoying my life - I felt like all I was doing was working and paying bills. Yes, my kids had nice sneakers, but it hardly seemed worth it. I was riddled with mom and wife guilt. Yet, I kept pushing through because I felt pressure to live up to my privilege as a doctor and also fulfill my greatest earning potential because I was the sole breadwinner. That comment from my 3 year old made it clear that I wasn’t the only one suffering - it was all of us and it was time to change. I felt like I was playing small, living at 5% which meant I was failing and I started to feel resentful. That comment made me take a step back and do the math on what living at 100% could look like. I knew I could have it all if I chose it. Experiences as a family. A great relationship with my husband. Time with my kids so they knew they were seen, heard, and loved. A career that allowed me to serve my patients and community. And… time to take care of myself. It was clear, living at 5% didn’t meet my expectations of this lifetime. I had created this 5% life and I was ready to make different choices to create my 100% life. I set boundaries with my schedule at work, my husband, my kids, and myself to carve out time and effort for each so that each part felt at 100%. I forgave myself for my previous choices that put me at 5% and leveraged the lessons to make better choices into my future. I gave myself space to live for myself - putting my oxygen mask on first so that I wasn’t desperately gasping at the end of the day, being no good to anyone, especially myself. It took intention, hard conversations, and digging deep into figuring out what I really wanted from this life, and it was worth it. From discussions with fellow female healthcare colleagues, I know that my situation was common. What isn’t common is doing something about it. If you are ready to live a 100% life by your standard, let’s hop on a call: