The PA Is In | Tracy Bingaman | Physician Assistant/Physician Associate/PA-C/PA-S/PA Student

How to I Quit my Job!
& How You Can, Too!

with Tracy Bingaman, PA-C

It’s Episode 018 of Fulfilled – the Podcast! We are diving deep into the logistics of how to quit a job! Ultimately the first thing you need to decide when quitting your job is that you believe that whatever comes next for you is likely to be better than where you are! It’s not concrete, there’s no quadratic formula that you can use, there’s nothing that you can Google to tell you if quitting is right for you. It’s a gut-check. It’s something that you feel, believe, but it’s not something that you know for certain. You don’t need to know where you are going at the point in which you make this decision. Don’t get bogged down in the details, the what-ifs, or the negativity. You just need to decide, then go about the business of getting things in place to make that change!

The first thing to consider when you are considering leaving a job is the financials. Work backwards, take a look at your current financial situation, including your savings, the amount of debt you have, if there’s another income coming into the household and determine how many pay periods you can go before you need income coming in. Once you have that number, you have the financial deadline, so to speak, and this informs your decision about lining up the details of your next position. Be realistic about your current financial position and make sure that you are identifying the opportunities and limitations here.

The second thing to consider when you are looking to move on is the logistics. Logistics includes things like insurance coverage, childcare discounts, commuting, and changes to your family schedule. This is a fact finding mission and ongoing discussions, thinking of what the schedule for the family would look like, and so on. Human Resources is typically a great place to start when researching options for transferring insurance, ongoing coverage, or COBRA.

The third and possibly the most important category to consider is your relationships. This is a big one! You want to think about relationships with your current colleagues, supervisors or other people who may endorse you in the form of a verbal recommendation or letter of recommendation as you are moving on. Tread lightly here to make sure that you don’t tip your hand too soon to your colleagues and your current employer.

Your relationship with your partner is going to be affected by both your desire to leave your position, looking for a new job, and the tactical approach to when this change will happen. Start these conversations early and often, keeping in mind your partners love language, the way that they process and come to decisions. Note that it is likely different way than the way that you process and come to decisions. All of the information your partner has is second hand from you and from seeing you experience this job.

My story with leaving my job: I made the decision to leave a position that was threatening my health, my sanity, time with my family and my sacred sleep! I found myself last year working 11-12 hour days, 5 days a week, being paid salary for 40 hours but working 50-60 hours per week. I wasn’t being compensated from an overtime perspective, this added work and time and responsibilities were simply deemed “other duties as assigned.”

When I say that this job was jeopardizing my health, I truly mean that I acquired an autoimmune disease while working so hard, so fast and so long. My care team and I decided that the best course of treatment was a combination of traditional medications and get more sleep and have less stress. My job was stretching and stressing me to the max. It wasn’t conducive to more sleep and less stress.

When I say that this role was jeopardizing my sanity, I’m speaking of the undercu

Making Space and Ditching Guilt

Prioritizing Self-Care as a Working Mom

Tracy Bingaman, PA-C

Being a Mom is hard. Work is hard. Being a working Mom is hard. Do you know what makes it easier? Taking care of yourself makes it easier. As the caregiver of patients, spouses, kids and even parents… Moms are putting themselves last on the list of people who matter. We are neglecting our own needs. We aren’t making space for ourselves. We are feeling guilty about taking the time we need to make ourselves healthy and happy.

Make space – we need to make space in our homes, in our hearts, our heads and in our calendars. Carving out a space that is, largely, or at least when you need it to be, kid-free. A space where you can go to eat a bite of food or take a deep breath or just exist on your own. It doesn’t have to be fancy – it can be throw pillows on the floor of your walk in closet or can be you retreating to your bedroom for some space and room in your home.

We need to change our hearts and our minds to prioritize taking care of ourselves. It’s not serving our families to be at the bottom of the list of priorities. On our calendars – day by day and week by week – we need to be scheduling in time to take care of ourselves!

Now, Mom Guilt – we need to eradicate Mom Guilt! Mom Guilt isn’t serving us, our kids, our peers or our spouses. Urban dictionary defines “Mom Guilt” as the guilt a mother feels any time she takes time to do something for herself, outside of work, that does not involve her children.

What in the actual World?! Feeling guilty for any thing a Mom does outside of work or parenting! I don’t want to set this example for my kids! I don’t want to live this life of feeling guilty. We need to, together, but starting with you, and me – ditch guilt. We need to become confident in our reasoning and leave that guilt in the gutter!!

When we start making space for self-care, meeting our basic needs and taking care of ourselves and when we ditch Mom guilt once and for all… that’s when we can start living into our purpose! That’s when we start showing up as the Mom we want to be. When we do these things we are reclaiming the person we were, the woman who exists inside this Momma, it’s a major win!

You are so much more than a Mom. Motherhood can feel all consuming, but investing in yourself is often the thing that helps you to show up as a better, more refreshed, more fulfilled Momma!

MEET TRACY

FOLLOW FULFILLED – THE PODCAST

If you’re looking to re-establish your values and re-align your life – check out my Free Resource to Clarify your Core Values. It’s 3 Simple Steps to Identify your 4 Core Values!

Winter 2021 Fashion Challenge – Polished Plaid Winter Fashion Challenge 2021 - Fulfilled Podcast

3 Simple Steps to
Identify your Core Values

Tracy Bingaman, PA-C

It’s a New Year! A time of reevaluating what you’ve been doing and what you want to do more or less of in the coming year. A time where individuals set down new goals and set “New Years Resolutions” as though there’s some magic about the changing of one year to another.

2020 was a doozy. As a Mom you had to pivot in ways you could’ve never imagined. You dealt with virtual learning, remote working, or maybe you you worked on the frontlines during the COVID-19 Pandemic. 2021 is shiny and new, the opportunity to refocus on what’s truly the most important in your life.

In order to head into 2021 living our best lives as the most fulfilled version of yourself, you have to get clear on a few things. You have to clearly identify your Core Values. Your Core Values are those things that are the most important, most vital, and most central to your life. Living each day in alignment with your Core Values is the foundation to a life of Fulfillment!

There are three steps to Identify your Core Values. First you need to Think, then Consolidate, and the third step is to Personalize.

Think First – about memories that bring you joy or times when you felt the most fulfilled. Generate memories and examples of times that are bright, shiny, happy and full. Assign each one of these memories Core Values. If you’d like a worksheet that includes these steps in detail and 100 examples of Core Values, you can find it here.

Consolidate – Trim your List – Down to just 4 Core Values. If you have difficulty narrowing it down, choose the one from your list you would select if you’re able to choose just one. Then repeat until you’ve identified the 4 Values that are most important to you.

Personalize – Define these Values in a way that is poignant and important to you. These Values have to be meaningful, visceral, and evoke an emotional and powerful reaction in you. We dive into the HOW of this in my Free Resource – the Quick-Start Guide to Clarify your Core Values.

You can listen in to Episode 016 – 3 Simple Steps to Identify your Core Values. You can Download the Free Guide Here.

MEET TRACY 

FOLLOW FULFILLED – THE PODCAST

FREE QUICK-START GUIDE TO CLARIFY YOUR CORE VALUES

Winter 2021 Fashion Challenge – Polished Plaid Winter Fashion Challenge 2021 - Fulfilled Podcast