A 31-year-old Chinese psychiatrist and PhD researcher changed her career to enjoy her life. Liu Zihan delivers food, sings at pubs, sells breakfast and explores a variety of part-time jobs after she left her job at a Grade 3A hospital in Zhuhai, China.
Liu Zihan was the perfect example of an asian prodigy; she grew up in a “meritocratic” environment and lived in one of China’s most competitive provinces, Hebei, which is part of northern China.
Liu eventually realised that she did not feel satisfied with the kind of hectic and demanding lifestyle that she was leading because of her work expectations. She did not like the conventional work environment as well as the compulsion of sticking to the same schedule everyday.
This reminds me of why doctors are pursuing non clinical careers after a few years of practice.Doctors gets so overwhelmed by the hectic hospital duty and later finds out that they are not able to set aside some time for themselves and are unable to care for their own health.This realisation triggers doctors to choose a non clinical path.
It is commendable that she had the courage to do it. Because when you work so hard towards getting the job you desire in a field that you imagine you belong in, it’s not easy to leave it. Often people in such cases continue the job despite disliking it because they have already invested a great deal of time, money, and effort into it and don’t want it all to go to waste. They can’t gather the courage to set themselves free. I think it is called sunk cost fallacy.
I think the hardest part is accepting that the career you once dreamed of may no longer make you happy. It takes a lot of courage to acknowledge that and choose a different path.
