Dr. Nii Darko: Mindset Shifts to Help You Quit Sacrificing Your Life for Your Career

When your soul feels out of alignment with the work you’re doing, you’re more likely to feel stressed, anxious, and at odds. Not to mention the opportunity cost of working at a job that’s taking you drastically away from your life! Dr. Nii Darko is here to talk about how he made the hard decision to quit surgery, then go back to surgery, then quit again.

Nii is the host of Docs Outside the Box Podcast where he talks to medical professionals about other aspects of their life than medicine. He’s a locum surgeon who realized that he didn’t want to spend his entire life at the hospital. His podcast was born out of a desire to spend more time with his family while still making a positive impact on the medical community.

The true test for Nii came when he realized he was miserable working the equivalent of two full-time jobs. He didn’t trust himself enough to be able to provide for his growing family unless he was working as a surgeon, but the opportunity cost of this was a lot of time lost with his immediate and extended family. Nii was stuck in a fixed mindset when what he really needed was a growth mindset.

Nii knows now the importance of listening to and following your heart. Even when your head wants you to do the most logical thing, your heart doesn’t often steer you wrong. And just because you think you don’t have it all figured out, so you have to go the safe route, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t listen to your heart.

He learned the hard way what it felt like to live out of alignment with his values. Nii’s near chronic work at the hospital led him down a path he didn’t feel comfortable for happy in. He learned that he needed to balance his desire for money with his need for living his life to the fullest.

Where have you spent the time that didn’t bring you joy when you could have been with your family? Do you listen to your heart? What’s worth it to you?

In This Episode:

• What opportunity costs when you spend so much time working
• Why you should be confident betting on yourself
• What the difference between a fixed and a growth mindset is
• Why you have to listen to and follow your heart
• What happens when you don’t have it all figured out
• Why you need to fight for the things that are worth it
• What it’s like to be living out of alignment with your values
• How to balance your need for money with your need for life

 

Quotes:

“What are you made of? Do you really believe in yourself as a brand? Can you bet on yourself?” (7:12)

“It’s really important to notice how that mindset of how what you normally do on a regular basis can still just grab hold of you. Mindset is still something you have to practice on a daily basis.” (12:17)

“You have to understand what your pain poin