42// Don't Overthink It: The Power of Action in Advancing Your Nursing Career

Are you stuck in analysis paralysis, endlessly weighing the "what ifs" of your nursing career? In this episode, Bonnie Meadows, MSN, APRN, ACCNS-AG, shares her own experiences with overcoming perfectionism and fear to take decisive action.

Bonnie challenges the "checklist mentality" many nurses adopt, urging you to shift from procedure to strategy. She emphasizes the importance of embracing imperfection, asking the right questions, and gathering data to inform your decisions. It's time to stop overthinking and start taking strategic steps toward the career you deserve.

Ready to break free from overthinking and unlock your true career potential? Book a career clarity coaching call with Bonnie today and discover the next right step for you.

Want to continue the conversation? Send me a text right here.

Ready to take the next step in your nursing career with confidence?
The Nursing Growth Starter Guide gives you proven strategies to move past uncertainty and advance with clarity.

Grab your free guide today! Click Here


Join me for a **1:1 Nurse Career Clarity Coaching Call**—a 1:1 coaching session where we’ll get you unstuck and find clarity to make the next move in your career.

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Are you feeling stuck in yourcurrent clinical environment?
Do you want to make a change inyour nursing career but not sure
what to do next?
Exhausted, burnt out, and maybeeven ready for different
leadership?
I'm Bonnie Meadows, a BoardCertified Nurse.
Clinical Nurse Specialist,Influential Leader, Career
Coach, and Well Being Coach.

(00:24):
Being in the nursing andhealthcare profession since
2004, I have felt stuck andunsure about what was next for
me.
I wanted to be fulfilled in mypurpose, to have a voice at the
table.
And to be a resource for others,I kept telling myself I wanted
more, but didn't have thedirection I needed until I found

(00:46):
clarity and career growthstrategies for experienced
nurses like me.
In this podcast, you will find.
Simple tactical steps that allowyou to gain the clarity you
need, solutions for how to groweven without supportive
leadership, and guidelines forsetting boundaries at work so
that you can grow purposefullyin your career as a nurse with a

(01:09):
graduate degree who makes a hugeimpact in the profession.
So get ready to trade yourscrubs for yoga pants.
Pop in those earbuds and let'schat.
So this week is a little bitmore conversational.
This is something that I hadactually written down a while
ago.
A lot of times when I, and maybewith our driving or in the

(01:32):
shower, There are subjects thatcome to me or either I have
coached someone I've had aconversation with someone.
And there are things that, um,and subjects that come up.
That I believe more people needto hear.
Um, outside of just that oneperson.
That is one of the main reasonswhy I created this podcast is

(01:55):
because I realized that there.
Where, some things that I talkedabout that no one else really
talked about.
But when I brought it up inconversation with other people,
they're like, oh yeah.
That's oh yeah, you're right.
Um, not that I'm right abouteverything, but I just realized
that I have a unique perspectiveon.
The nursing workforce and how togrow.

(02:17):
But also.
What you deal with on that pathto advancement and growth.
I'm just had a lot of time tothink and reflect on that.
As would most introverts.
Do cause we just do a lot ofthinking.
Um, in our time.
However.
That's what this podcast episodethis week is really about.

(02:42):
How do we not?
overthink it.
This past week.
At the end of last week, goinginto this week.
I decided to, do more of anofficial launch of.
My one-on-one nurse careerclarity coaching.
And many of you probably heardthe announcement not that the

(03:03):
coaching is going away.
You can sign up today if youwould like just the incentives
or the bonuses doing that.
Provides an opportunity for meto highlight those services to,
help you to.
I understand what comes with it,how it benefits you.

(03:23):
Really and more so.
What is the transformation orwhat is, What is the benefit of
you signing up for theirservices?
It's a good time to say, Hey,this service is here.
And I've got some things to gowith it.
If you'd like to sign up Idecided to do what we would call
a launch.

(03:44):
I started thinking about it backin, may and I was originally
going to do it in August.
But then I started looking at mycalendar.
And I was like, oh, this is notgoing to work.
Until I do it in October.
Which is an important pointbecause as I'm going through
this entrepreneurial journey, Ialso have to realize that I'm

(04:07):
balancing it with I work fulltime, I still need to pay my
bills.
But, I balance it with, otherthings that I am doing.
In my growth in my career,outside of my full-time work
like I do within my full-timework.
I'm still giving a full pressCorps effort.

(04:28):
I don't have a desire to quitanytime soon.
I love the work that I do.
And I want to grow in that.
My growth though, in that workprobably looks totally different
than anyone else's.
Because my advancement.
I am looking to do outside ofwork.

(04:49):
My advancement I look to do inthis, entrepreneurial journey.
I look to advance inprofessional organizations.
And grow.
In my full-time work, I'mlooking to grow.
And expand my skillset in thatwork.
Back to the subject at hand.
I decided to launch the product,or the coaching, to do a special

(05:11):
highlight of it.
And within that.
Had to make sure that I chosethe right time, where I wouldn't
be stressed out and wouldn'thave other strong priorities
between full-time work and mywork within professional
organizations.
Plus, I liked the opportunity tomake more nurses aware of these
services.
To help you grow in your careerfaster.

(05:33):
And with less time, I waited tothe last minute to get a lot of
it done because I knew generallyall the steps that I needed to
do in order to do this project.
But time-wise I just didn'tknow.
When you are getting coachingfrom entrepreneurs who don't
necessarily work in another jobfull time, their timeline looks

(05:57):
different than someone who worksfull time and they're building a
business on the side.
And so I had to decide that itjust wasn't going to get done
perfectly.
Because honestly, my goal was.
I would like to form or morenurses to be aware of this
opportunity.
And to go through the processmyself.

(06:19):
See how much time this.
Is going to take me so that as Iplan for 2025, What does that
process look like?
And how can I improve on it?
But I can't improve on theprocess until I just do it.
I had to do it and I had to doit messy.
One of the things that we haveto remember.

(06:40):
Is that even as nurses.
We come in with this one, we'restarting to do something
different when we're starting togrow our careers.
We have to shift out of thatmindset of it's.
Boom.
I need to check this off.
Boom.
I need you to like, it's aprocedure.
Growing your career is not aprocedure.

(07:01):
It's a strategy.
And because we are trained inthe way of.
I need to do things this way,this way, this way and this way.
There's not much gray in ourwork.
Unless we're thinking aboutinterventions and even within
the interventions, they stillneed to be.

(07:22):
Within the realm of making surethat procedure is done
correctly.
And safely so that you don't domore harm to your patient than
good.
We tend to think about ourcareers like that, which is why.
We feel like we need to have itall together and have all of our
boxes checked we have to move.

(07:42):
Carefully.
Before we move.
And don't take as much risk.
And so just keep that in mind,because as I went through this
project, I decided to go for it.
I knew it was going to be messybut I wasn't going to do it
perfectly.
Apple's going to have a glitchhere.

(08:02):
I was going to have a technicalglitch there.
I didn't get up life happenedand I didn't.
I had to skip a day of sendingout an email I realized that one
of my links, it expired, And Icouldn't get to it to be able to
update the link.
Like it's just little thingslike that.
But I was okay because it wasabout the process.

(08:25):
It was about the learning.
It was about the growth.
And we think we have to come toit already perfected.
And so in relation to yourcareer, you feel like you have
to make the next move alreadyperfected like it has to be
already perfected.
I have to have all of the skillset.
And it's like, well, yes, youdo.
You have the skills to translateto that?

(08:47):
But how do we get you to a pointwhere you are confident?
To translate those skills.
Into a different segment ofwork.
And so sometimes we just have touse.
What we have.
And then ask questions as we goalong.
So as I was working through thisproject, I had to use many of

(09:12):
the resources that I already hadpaid for.
These are all coaches who havegiven me resources to implement.
This project.
So I took that information thatI've gotten from coaches.
And implement it.
My project.
And so now I have something towork with to say, okay, here's

(09:35):
what I did.
Let's debrief and figure out howwe can do it just a little bit
differently.
Next time.
And so when it comes to yourcareers, I'm just here to tell
you.
Don't overthink it.
Yes.
You need to have a strategy.
Yes.
You need to think through theprocess.
I had to think through, well,how does this coaching, how do I

(09:57):
help them?
How do I help nurses tounderstand how this coaching
experience will help them?
How do I help them to get asexcited about.
Talking about it and developinga plan and being more strategic.
About growing your career.
I had to think through all ofthat.

(10:17):
So even though the work wasmessy, there was a lot going on
in my head of preparation.
I was cultivating.
What does that look like?
What does it sound like?
And even in your growth in yourcareer, it's really laying the
foundation of.
What do I want this to looklike?

(10:38):
I had to think about that evenin my own project, like what do
I want this to look like?
What is the end result?
And how do I get there?
Faster.
How do I, take the right nextstep?
And so I encourage you.
Yes.
Think about it.
Come up with a plan.

(10:59):
To be strategic.
But don't overthink it to thefact that you talk yourself out
of it.
And you decide not to doanything.
Because then when you don'tdecide to do anything, when you
don't decide to make a move intoa role that fits.
The direction you want to go,but it just might not be quite

(11:23):
what you want to do next.
But it's available at this pointin time, you know, you can grow
in your skills at that point.
And within that job.
When you stay stuck, you're justgoing off of fear.
You're just going off of the,what ifs.
But if you don't move.
You don't have any data to gooff of when you stay stuck and
not apply for the graduateschool program.

(11:46):
Then you don't know.
To say, ah, I don't think thisprogram is going to work for me.
My gosh, if you just.
Applied now, again, I'm sayingstrategic, don't just randomly
apply to some program, go in theright direction.
I am reading a book right now.
That's called the next rightthing.
It's by Emily P.
Freeman and it's like a New Yorktimes.

(12:07):
Best seller book.
And the one thing she talksabout is arrows follow the
arrows of what is thatdirection?
Follow those arrows.
And just remember don'toverthink it.
A few questions.
I want you to think about.
Because many times when we'reexploring our options in our

(12:29):
careers, we overthink how weshould approach the next step.
That could be out of fear ofrejection or because of
perfectionism.
And so either way we really needto move forward.
With just a few simplequestions.
Um, do I want to move forward?
And my specialty.
Or what I like to learn a newspecialty.

(12:50):
These are just baselinequestions.
Evaluate that.
And then.
Who do I know in this area thatcould possibly ask some
questions?
Is there a shadowing opportunitythat might be available?
You're just collecting data.
As you're growing your careerand you can't do that.

(13:11):
Unless you move forward in theproject.
And collecting the information.
And using.
What you have available to you?
To help you to make a decisionon the next right step.
I would encourage you to thinkabout, am I overthinking it?

(13:32):
Is the answer right there infront of me.
And if you need some help withthat, you know, I'm always
available.
For a coaching call.
Thank you for your time today.
I want to leave you with thosethoughts.
And I hope to see you next week.
I hope you enjoyed today'sepisode.

(13:54):
If so, would you take 30 secondsand share it with another nurse
who may be unsure of where to gonext in their career or maybe
need some career clarity?
Also, please leave a quickreview for the show on Apple
podcast.
It brings me so much joy and somuch encouragement to know this
podcast is helping you.

(14:15):
Now go get the career you wantand not the one you settle for.
And I'll meet you back here nextThursday for another episode.
See you soon!