Imposter syndrome is something we often don’t talk about openly, and the standard advice - build your confidence, reframe your thinking, remember your achievements – rarely addresses the real cause.

In this Quick Dip, Rachel shares a piece of feedback she received years ago that still stings and uses it to unpick what imposter syndrome really is: it’s not a confidence gap, it’s not a skills deficit, but something much more personal.

She talks about why working on your confidence alone will never be enough, what's actually driving that voice that says you're about to be found out, and the one thing that actually shifts it.

Key Takeaways

• Imposter syndrome isn't always about competence or confidence - it can be the system gaslighting you, impossible self-imposed standards, or just the very human experience of feeling not good enough.
• A 2025 meta-analysis found that 62% of healthcare professionals experience imposter syndrome - this is a profession-wide pattern, not a personal failing.
• What actually moves the needle is saying it out loud to someone who responds with empathy and recognition.

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If you constantly find yourself picking up tasks that nobody else will do, staying late to cover gaps, or slowly absorbing more and more without anyone asking you to - this episode is going to name exactly what's happening.

Occupational psychologist Leanne Elliott joins Rachel to unpack why over-responsibility isn't a personality flaw; it's what happens when you don’t have absolute clarity on what tasks are definitely part of your role – and, more crucially, what tasks aren’t.

They explore why conscientious professionals in under-resourced settings are most at risk, how the 'if I don't do it, who will?' question keeps people stuck, and what you can actually do this week to start auditing what belongs on your plate and what doesn't.

Key Takeaways

• Role clarity is a recognised psychosocial risk factor, and when it's absent, taking on extra work feels like the only option, even when it's pushing you towards burnout.
• A simple daily audit - writing down tasks that drained you, that weren't in your role, or that you did out of fear rather than responsibility – can give you the data to have important but calmer and less personal conversations with your team about your roles.
• Rest and recovery are not the same thing. Knowing your recovery activities and protecting time for them is a skill, not a luxury.

Resources Mentioned:

• The Twenty Questions: How do I know if I’m a workaholic?

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You know something needs to change, but you just have no idea what, how, or where to begin, and your lack of a plan may be starting to feel like failure.

In this Quick Dip, Rachel unpacks why the belief that you need everything mapped out before you're allowed to move is the very thing keeping you stuck, and introduces the AB-Z method: a simple framework that replaces the impossible task of knowing your whole future with a far more manageable one.

This episode is about how to craft your work, not how to leave your job completely or blow everything up, but how to get a genuine say in the shape of your working life - one honest step at a time.

Key Takeaways

• You don't need the whole career plan - you need A, a sense of Z, and B - the very next step.
• Z is not a job title. It's how you want to be: internally, and with the people you love.
• Recovering from burnout is not the same as arriving at Z. The absence of burnout is a step, not a destination.
• Comparing your Z to someone else's is one of the most reliable ways to stay stuck.
• Crafting your work and career can happen alongside your current role, not instead of it - and it can start at any grade, any stage.

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If you have ever ended a clinical day exhausted not from the medicine itself but from the weight of everybody else's feelings, this episode might hit home.

Josh Connolly, resilience coach and author of ‘It's Them Not You’, joins me to explore why many healthcare professionals take on so much of the emotional load for everyone - and how that pattern almost always began long before medical school.

Key Takeaways

• People-pleasing at work usually has roots in family roles from childhood. The 'high achiever', the 'mascot' and the 'scapegoat' all carry those patterns into adult professional life.
• Holding space for someone is not the same as absorbing their emotions. The moment you start feeling what they feel, you have crossed a boundary - and your ability to help them actually decreases.
• When you are about to say yes under pressure, ask: 'Who have I become right now?' If the answer is your childlike self desperately seeking approval, that is the moment to pause.

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Resources mentioned:

• It's Them, Not You: How to Break Free From Toxic Parents and Reclaim Your Story by Josh Connolly
• The Shapes Academy

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Download Your Free Overwhelm SOS Guide
Discover the simple, step-by-step process you need to calm your mind, take control of your tasks, and get yourself out of overwhelm.

If you’ve ever thought to yourself ‘if I don’t do it, no one will’ this episode is for you. You tell yourself something important will go wrong if you don't do it all - but what if that's not what's actually driving your decisions?

In this Quick Dip, Rachel suggests something uncomfortable: that the decisions running your workload might less to do with patient safety than they are to do with who you believe yourself to be.

Because the question 'if I don't do it, who else will?' is often not about the risk of harm to patients, customers or colleagues – but more about the question ‘who am I if I don’t?’.

And learning to spot the difference between the two will give you back some choice over your workload.

Resources Mentioned

• The Shapes Academy
• You Are Not a Frog: The Over-Responsibility Trap series
• Part 1: Why Responsibility Keeps Landing on You
• Part 2: When ‘Can You Help?’ Doesn’t Feel Like a Question
• Part 3: How to Stop Feeling Guilty When It’s Impossible to Do Your Job

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Mentioned in this episode:

Download Your Free Overwhelm SOS Guide
Discover the simple, step-by-step process you need to calm your mind, take control of your tasks, and get yourself out of overwhelm.

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You're working hard, doing excellent clinical work, and genuinely trying to make things better for your patients - so why does it feel like no one's listening? So many healthcare professionals hit a wall where their ideas get talked over, their proposals stall, and their careers plateau, even when their track record is strong.

In this episode, Rachel is joined by Sam Pearce and Sally Powell, co-founders of Impactful Women, to talk about political intelligence - what it actually is, why it feels uncomfortable at first, and how building the right relationships strategically (and with integrity) is the real skill that gets things done in the NHS and beyond.

Key Takeaways

• Your career is your responsibility - waiting for someone to notice you or advocate for you is the most common career trap there is.
• Influence is relational, not hierarchical. The person who has been in the department 15 years with no senior title can have more sway than the clinical director.
• Decisions get made before the meeting. Building relationships and having conversations in advance isn't manipulation - it's how things actually work, and others are already doing it.

Resources Mentioned

• Diary of a CEO podcast
• Impactful Women website
• Impactful Women on LinkedIn
• Free resource: 10% Braver

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Download Your Free Overwhelm SOS Guide
Discover the simple, step-by-step process you need to calm your mind, take control of your tasks, and get yourself out of overwhelm.

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Every day in healthcare, a meeting ends, and a problem that was never formally handed to anyone lands on the person who cares most - you.

If you've ever walked out of a room carrying something that somehow became yours without anyone asking, this Quick Dip Episode gives that experience a name, explains exactly why it keeps happening to people like you, and gives you the language to start pushing back on it.

Listen to other episodes in the Over-Responsibility Trap series:

• Part 1: Why Responsibility Keeps Landing on You
• Part 2: When ‘Can You Help?’ Doesn’t Feel Like a Question

Learn more about The Shapes Academy here.

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How many times this week have you thought, "I just don't have a choice"? About your rota, your inbox, the extra patient squeezed in at the end of clinic? That thought feels true, and it can feel like a fact... But what if it’s actually a story, and that story is costing you your peace of mind?

In this episode, Rachel sits down with Robbie Swale, coach, author of ‘The Power to Choose’, and creator of the 12 Minute Method, to dig into why reclaiming a sense of agency and choice matters so deeply for your wellbeing. Together, they explore how small shifts in language and perception can move you from feeling like life is happening to you to feeling like you are actually living it on purpose.

Key Takeaways

• Switching "I have to" to "I choose to" is not just a mindset trick. It activates a different part of your nervous system and genuinely changes how you experience pressure.
• You almost certainly have more options than you can currently see. Curiosity, not certainty, is what opens them up.
• The 12 Minute Method proves that tiny, consistent actions compound. One lunchtime walk a week adds up to 50 walks over a year, and that matters.
• Feeling stuck is usually a sign you have not yet had the conversation, asked the question, or taken the step you already know you need to take.

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Resources Mentioned:

🐸 FrogFest Virtual

🐸 The Power to Choose: Finding Calm and Connection in a Complex World by Robbie Swale

🐸 The 12-Minute Method Books

Mentioned in this episode:

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Download Your Free Overwhelm SOS Guide
Discover the simple, step-by-step process you need to calm your mind, take control of your tasks, and get yourself out of overwhelm.