Podcast
Ending Physician Overwhelm
Hosted by Megan Melo, Physician and Life Coach · EN
I'm Megan Melo, board-certified Family and Obesity Medicine Physician and Physician Coach. In this podcast we talk about the many ways that burnout shows up in our lives, and what we can do about it. I'm on a mission to help Physicians take steps towards to heal burnout by unlearning the habits of perfectionism, people-pleasing and limiting beliefs so that we can lead healthier, happier lives.
The healthcare system is broken; but you don't have to wait until it's fixed to feel better. I'm here to help.
Thank you for tuning in! Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review. Until next time, take care.
Connect with me:
- Website: www.healthierforgood.com
- Instagram: @MeganMeloMD
- Email: megan@healthierforgood.com
- Bookshop.org Book Shop: https://bookshop.org/shop/meganmelo
41episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
"How Am I Supposed To _________?!?"
3d ago00:41:53Tap to summarizeSend us Fan MailThere is no algorithm for being everything to everyone. There is no version of you that can close every note, remember every modifier, sort every piece of garbage correctly, and never make anyone unhappy. And yet somehow we keep walking around asking ourselves how we're supposed to do it all, like the failure is ours instead of the expectation being the problem.This week I want to talk about a question I hear constantly, from my clients, in physician Facebook groups, in my own head some days: how am I supposed to do this? How am I supposed to remember that, attend to this, keep everyone happy, and still function as a human being?We dig into a real story from a session with a client, one that involves a shame-based email about note closure rates, a naughty list of underperforming physicians, and, somehow, a fight over which garbage can is allowed to hold what. It sounds almost funny until you realize how much mental bandwidth these invisible, ridiculous burdens actually take from us. We walk through why we keep landing in this stuck loop of self-blame, and I give you eight questions you can come back to again and again to figure out what's actually yours to carry and what isn't.This is not a one-time fix. This is a practice. And once you have it, you will never look at your own overwhelm the same way again.If this resonates and you want support actually living it, let's talk. Schedule a free discovery call here: https://calendly.com/healthierforgood/coaching-discovery-callThe eight questions, so you have them ready:What is my load like right now?What feels truly important to me right now?What are the external goals, tasks, or priorities that others are putting on me right now?Which of these, if any, feel important to me?Which of these feels unimportant to me?What feels like it's not mine to carry?How do I want to show up if others don't agree with my priorities?How am I going to have my own back? (Don’t skip this one!!!)Connect with Megan:Instagram: @MeganMeloMDWebsite: healthierforgood.comEmail: megan@healthierforgood.com Support the showTo learn more about my coaching practice and group offerings, head over to www.healthierforgood.com. I help Physicians and Allied Health Professional women to let go of toxic perfectionist and people-pleasing habits that leave them frustrated and exhausted. If you are ready to learn skills that help you set boundaries and prioritize yourself, without becoming a cynical a-hole, come work with me.Want to contact me directly?Email: megan@healthierforgood.comFollow me on Instagram!@MeganMeloMD
Transcribe →Reimagining The 3rd Place
1w ago00:25:03Tap to summarizeSend us Fan MailTell me a place in your life that is not home and not work where you feel fully like yourself. And no, sitting in your car in the driveway does not count.This week we are talking about the idea of a third place, a concept that is part physical space and part something you do, a hobby or an activity that lets you show up as a full human being instead of Dr. So and So. Think the coffee shop from Friends. Not home, not work, just a place where you get to exist without your degree attached to you.We walk through what makes a third place actually count (there are five characteristics, and yes, they matter), and I run through a long list of ideas to help you figure out what yours might be, whether that is running, gardening, artisanal cooking, a book club, or getting out on a paddleboard. I also get real about three things that feel like hobbies but usually are not doing what we actually need: credit card points, online shopping, and scrolling.If you have let this part of your life shrink down to nothing, this episode is your permission slip to bring a piece of it back, even in a season where it can only be small.If this resonates and you want support actually living it, let's talk. Schedule a free discovery call here: https://calendly.com/healthierforgood/coaching-discovery-callResources mentioned in this episode:The concept of the "third place" comes from sociologist Ray Oldenburg, from his 1989 book The Great Good Place.Connect with Megan:Instagram: @MeganMeloMDWebsite: healthierforgood.comEmail: megan@healthierforgood.com Support the showTo learn more about my coaching practice and group offerings, head over to www.healthierforgood.com. I help Physicians and Allied Health Professional women to let go of toxic perfectionist and people-pleasing habits that leave them frustrated and exhausted. If you are ready to learn skills that help you set boundaries and prioritize yourself, without becoming a cynical a-hole, come work with me.Want to contact me directly?Email: megan@healthierforgood.comFollow me on Instagram!@MeganMeloMD
Transcribe →How Your Values Help When Chaos Strikes
2w ago00:25:17Tap to summarizeSend us Fan MailI spent 48 hours trying to get home from a trip to see my mother in law. A canceled flight, a rerouted city that turned out to be smack in the middle of World Cup weekend, a storm system, and a whole lot of nothing I could control. And somehow, it turned into one of the clearest lessons on values I have had in a long time.Here is the thing. Most of us do not think about our values until something falls apart. We spend our energy on the to do list, the aggressive game plan, the five AM wake up call we are never actually going to sustain. But when chaos hits, and in medicine and in life it always does, it is not the plan that saves you. It is knowing what actually matters to you.In this episode I walk you through what happened when my well organized travel plans blew up in real time, and how a values clarification exercise I had done just hours earlier completely changed how I moved through it. No spinning. No fighting with gate agents who could not do anything anyway. Just clarity on what I actually wanted in that moment, and the ability to act on it.We talk about what this looks like when you bring it into your clinical world too. The quiet days that suddenly explode. The trauma bay. The board that is empty until it is not. You already know how to triage a crisis at work. This episode is about learning to do that for your life.If this resonates and you want support actually living it, let's talk. Schedule a free discovery call here: https://calendly.com/healthierforgood/coaching-discovery-callResources mentioned in this episode:Parents Who Lead by Stew Friedman and Alyssa WestringConnect with Megan:Instagram: @MeganMeloMDWebsite: healthierforgood.comEmail: megan@healthierforgood.com Support the showTo learn more about my coaching practice and group offerings, head over to www.healthierforgood.com. I help Physicians and Allied Health Professional women to let go of toxic perfectionist and people-pleasing habits that leave them frustrated and exhausted. If you are ready to learn skills that help you set boundaries and prioritize yourself, without becoming a cynical a-hole, come work with me.Want to contact me directly?Email: megan@healthierforgood.comFollow me on Instagram!@MeganMeloMD
Transcribe →What Area Needs YOUR Attention Now?
3w ago00:37:44Tap to summarizeSend us Fan MailQuick: without overthinking it, what area of your life could use some more attention right now? If your answer was "all of it," or if you just went completely blank, this episode is exactly for you.In this episode, we work through the five areas where I see physicians struggling most. Not in some abstract, general-public kind of way, but in the specific, trained-out-of-us, system-conditioned ways that make these particular struggles feel so hard to name and even harder to address. We talk about your health, your boundaries, your emotional well-being, your time, and your career arc. And we get honest about how they all bleed into each other while also being distinct enough that trying to fix all five at once is a recipe for fixing none of them.The point of this episode is not to give you a five-point plan. It's to help you identify the one thing that is actually calling your attention right now, in this season of your life, in these specific circumstances. Not the thing you should be working on. Not the thing you worked on six months ago. The thing that, if you're being honest with yourself, is where the energy needs to go.We also talk about why that single focus matters more than you might think, and how making real progress in one area tends to create ripple effects into the others in ways you don't always see coming.Grab a piece of paper. This one's worth sitting with.Want more of this in your inbox? Join the email list at healthierforgood.com and get weekly messages made for physicians like you.Connect with Megan:Instagram: @MeganMeloMDWebsite: healthierforgood.comEmail: megan@healthierforgood.com Support the showTo learn more about my coaching practice and group offerings, head over to www.healthierforgood.com. I help Physicians and Allied Health Professional women to let go of toxic perfectionist and people-pleasing habits that leave them frustrated and exhausted. If you are ready to learn skills that help you set boundaries and prioritize yourself, without becoming a cynical a-hole, come work with me.Want to contact me directly?Email: megan@healthierforgood.comFollow me on Instagram!@MeganMeloMD
Transcribe →Avoid End-of-Year CME Panic
Jul 700:30:26Tap to summarizeSend us Fan MailRaise your hand if you've hit December and suddenly realized your CME credits are nowhere close to where they need to be. Yeah. Me too. That particular flavor of end-of-year panic is incredibly common, and it doesn't have to keep happening.In this episode, we dig into the unsexy but necessary work of getting a handle on your CME, your board certifications, and all the credentialing requirements that somehow always feel like they sneak up on us. Not because we're disorganized, but because no one else is managing this for us, and we're already running at capacity.We talk through how to figure out exactly what you're responsible for reporting and where it needs to go, how to think about CME formats that actually fit the way you work, and how to stop leaving credit on the table for education you're already doing at the point of care. I also share a little experiment I ran using an AI tool to fill out a CME reporting form, and what surprised me about how it handled the task.The goal isn't to add another thing to your plate. It's to build a small, repeatable system so that the documentation catches up to the work you're already doing.Hit play. Let's end the December scramble for good.If this resonates and you want support actually building systems that make your professional life more sustainable, let's talk. Schedule a free discovery call here: https://calendly.com/healthierforgood/coaching-discovery-callConnect with Megan:Instagram: @MeganMeloMDWebsite: healthierforgood.comEmail: megan@healthierforgood.com Support the showTo learn more about my coaching practice and group offerings, head over to www.healthierforgood.com. I help Physicians and Allied Health Professional women to let go of toxic perfectionist and people-pleasing habits that leave them frustrated and exhausted. If you are ready to learn skills that help you set boundaries and prioritize yourself, without becoming a cynical a-hole, come work with me.Want to contact me directly?Email: megan@healthierforgood.comFollow me on Instagram!@MeganMeloMD
Transcribe →Mid-Year Check-In (Don't Skip!!!)
Jun 3000:34:00Tap to summarizeSend us Fan MailYou are halfway through 2026 and I have a feeling you have not stopped once to notice what you have actually done.That is exactly what this episode is for. Not a performance review, not a goal-setting hustle session, just a real pause to look at where you are, what you want for the rest of this year, and what is honestly getting in the way of you having it. We are going to do a little of the work that good coaches do with their clients, right here, right now, together.I walk you through seven questions in this episode, and I want you to have something to write with because this one is worth doing, not just listening to. We start with celebrating what has already gone well, because you are almost certainly skipping that part. Then we get into what you actually want for the next six months, in the order that matters: personal first, then family and friends, then professional. And we get honest about what is getting in the way, how to make things easier, what needs to get on the calendar now, and what you can finally just drop.If you have use-it-or-lose-it PTO sitting there quietly judging you, your dentist appointment is six months overdue, or you keep putting the same five things on your to-do list and never doing them, this episode was made for you.Grab something to write with and hit play.Want more of this in your inbox? Join the email list at healthierforgood.com and get weekly messages made for physicians like you.Connect with Megan:Instagram: @MeganMeloMDWebsite: healthierforgood.comEmail: megan@healthierforgood.com Support the showTo learn more about my coaching practice and group offerings, head over to www.healthierforgood.com. I help Physicians and Allied Health Professional women to let go of toxic perfectionist and people-pleasing habits that leave them frustrated and exhausted. If you are ready to learn skills that help you set boundaries and prioritize yourself, without becoming a cynical a-hole, come work with me.Want to contact me directly?Email: megan@healthierforgood.comFollow me on Instagram!@MeganMeloMD
Transcribe →10 Things I Would Tell You If I Was Your Doctor
Jun 2300:33:18Tap to summarizeSend us Fan MailWhen was the last time you actually saw your own doctor? If you just cringed a little, you are exactly who this episode is for.I take care of a lot of physicians in my practice, and I have heard every version of the story: self-prescribed thyroid meds, skipped physicals, and a very impressive collection of coping strategies that are working just well enough to keep going. I get it because I live it too. But there are things I say to my patients, including my physician patients, that I want to say directly to you.In this episode I walk through 10 things I would tell you if I was sitting across from you in the exam room. Some of them are the basics you already know and are not doing. Some of them are the harder truths about rest, stress, and the lie we have all been sold about what it means to handle everything. And one of them is about Botox, because we need to have that conversation.This is not a lecture. This is what peer-to-peer honesty sounds like when your doctor actually knows what your life is like.Hit play. You have earned this one.If this resonates and you want support actually living it, let's talk. Schedule a free discovery call here: https://calendly.com/healthierforgood/coaching-discovery-callConnect with Megan:Instagram: @MeganMeloMDWebsite: healthierforgood.comEmail: megan@healthierforgood.com Support the showTo learn more about my coaching practice and group offerings, head over to www.healthierforgood.com. I help Physicians and Allied Health Professional women to let go of toxic perfectionist and people-pleasing habits that leave them frustrated and exhausted. If you are ready to learn skills that help you set boundaries and prioritize yourself, without becoming a cynical a-hole, come work with me.Want to contact me directly?Email: megan@healthierforgood.comFollow me on Instagram!@MeganMeloMD
Transcribe →The Costs of (Misplaced) Guilt
Jun 1600:29:53Tap to summarizeSend us Fan Mail(Trigger Warning: This episode does briefly reference physician suicide)Have you ever looked up and realized you've slid back into a pattern you thought you'd left behind, and immediately wondered what is wrong with you? That moment of recognition, the one where you feel like you've undone all your progress, is exactly what we're digging into today.One of my clients came to a session recently carrying something heavy. A patient had died unexpectedly. And in the days that followed, she found herself spending hours consoling the patient's spouse, plus building out this ever-growing to-do list of promises she'd made to other patients. Things that were genuinely above and beyond what anyone could reasonably expect of her. When we looked closely at what was actually driving all of it, the answer was guilt.Here's the thing about guilt: it doesn't just sit there. It moves. It shapes what we do, what we promise, how we spend our time and energy. And for us as physicians, it gets even more complicated because so much of our training was shame-based in ways we may not have fully unpacked. There's a difference between "I did something wrong" and "I am something wrong," and that line gets blurry fast when you've been trained in environments where a bad outcome means someone has to be responsible, and that someone is usually you.We also get into something I think is becoming more and more urgent: the patients who are making significant health decisions without looping us in. GLPs sourced online, compounded peptides from a doctor friend, supplement stacks from a wellness influencer. And when something goes sideways, guess who feels responsible? We talk about what it actually means to be a consultant to our patients, not the owner of their choices, and why drawing that line isn't about caring less. It's about being able to stay in this work at all.This one is worth your time. Come listen.If this resonates and you want support actually living it, let's talk. Schedule a free discovery call here: https://calendly.com/healthierforgood/coaching-discovery-callConnect with Megan:Instagram: @MeganMeloMDWebsite: healthierforgood.comEmail: megan@healthierforgood.com Support the showTo learn more about my coaching practice and group offerings, head over to www.healthierforgood.com. I help Physicians and Allied Health Professional women to let go of toxic perfectionist and people-pleasing habits that leave them frustrated and exhausted. If you are ready to learn skills that help you set boundaries and prioritize yourself, without becoming a cynical a-hole, come work with me.Want to contact me directly?Email: megan@healthierforgood.comFollow me on Instagram!@MeganMeloMD
Transcribe →10 Things to Stop Apologizing For Now
Jun 900:35:20Tap to summarizeSend us Fan MailHow many times have you apologized today? Not for something you actually did wrong. Just for existing, taking up space, having needs, being human?This episode is about that. We're going through 10 specific things that women physicians have been socialized to apologize for, and we are done. Not because we're going to become difficult or stop caring, but because the apologizing is costing us, and it's not serving anyone.Some of these will feel familiar. A few might surprise you. One of them is about what happens when you're the patient, not the doctor, and you still find yourself folding the table paper after your own exam. Another is about medical uncertainty, and why your willingness to sit in that uncertainty is actually what makes you safer than the ChatGPT accounts your patients are consulting. And a few are about the things we've been quietly told not to want, feel, or say out loud.This is inner work with real-world application. We're talking about what it actually looks like to stop apologizing in the exam room, in the OR, in the portal, and in your own life.Come listen. You'll probably find yourself nodding along, and maybe feeling a little less alone in all of it.If this resonates and you want support actually living it, let's talk. Schedule a free discovery call here: https://calendly.com/healthierforgood/coaching-discovery-callConnect with Megan:Instagram: @MeganMeloMDWebsite: healthierforgood.comEmail: megan@healthierforgood.com Support the showTo learn more about my coaching practice and group offerings, head over to www.healthierforgood.com. I help Physicians and Allied Health Professional women to let go of toxic perfectionist and people-pleasing habits that leave them frustrated and exhausted. If you are ready to learn skills that help you set boundaries and prioritize yourself, without becoming a cynical a-hole, come work with me.Want to contact me directly?Email: megan@healthierforgood.comFollow me on Instagram!@MeganMeloMD
Transcribe →They Let You Go. Now What? Part 2
Jun 200:33:31Tap to summarizeSend us Fan MailYou did the hard part last week. You sat with the feelings, let the thoughts tumble out, and didn't immediately sprint toward a job board. Good. Now we figure out what's actually next.Part 2 is where we get practical, but not in the way medicine trained us to be practical. We're not just dusting off the CV and hitting LinkedIn. We're doing something harder and more useful: getting clear on what we actually want before we start telling people we're available. Because the goal isn't just to land somewhere. It's to land somewhere better.We start by looking honestly at the finances, not from a scarcity mindset, but from real numbers. Because a lot of us feel more financial pressure than the math actually justifies, and that pressure is what sends us straight into the first job that looks familiar. We also ask the question that tends to stop people cold: what would you tell your friend to do if she were in your exact situation? And then, more importantly, why won't you allow that for yourself?From there, we work through a set of questions designed to help you use your lived experience as data. What did you tolerate that you won't anymore? What actually lit you up? What does your ideal Tuesday afternoon look like? And then we talk about how to get out there in a way that opens doors most people don't even know exist, because the best opportunities rarely show up on a job board.This one is worth listening to whether you've been laid off, are thinking about leaving, or are just quietly starting to wonder what else is possible.If you want to work through these questions with someone in your corner, I'd love to help. Book a free discovery call at https://calendly.com/healthierforgood/coaching-discovery-call and let's figure out your next move together.Connect with Megan:Instagram: @MeganMeloMDWebsite: healthierforgood.comEmail: megan@healthierforgood.com Support the showTo learn more about my coaching practice and group offerings, head over to www.healthierforgood.com. I help Physicians and Allied Health Professional women to let go of toxic perfectionist and people-pleasing habits that leave them frustrated and exhausted. If you are ready to learn skills that help you set boundaries and prioritize yourself, without becoming a cynical a-hole, come work with me.Want to contact me directly?Email: megan@healthierforgood.comFollow me on Instagram!@MeganMeloMD
Transcribe →