Inertia Is a Decision You’re Already Making

This Week’s Ownership Mindset

Inertia for Employed Physicians: Are You Still Here Because You’re Alive—or Because It’s Easier Not to Move?

There’s a question I come back to often when I’m talking with employed physicians. It’s uncomfortable, and that’s exactly why it matters.

Are you still doing this work because it makes you feel curious and alive—or because inertia makes it easy to keep going?

Most physicians don’t wake up unhappy. That’s what makes inertia so powerful. You’re competent. You’re respected. The paycheck arrives. Your calendar is full. From the outside, everything looks fine. From the inside, though, something has gone quiet.

In medicine, momentum is rewarded. You keep moving forward because stopping feels irresponsible. Training teaches you to endure. Employment teaches you to comply. Neither teaches you how to pause and ask whether the structure you’re inside still fits the person you’ve become.

Inertia doesn’t feel like a bad choice. It feels like no choice at all.

The Subtle Trap of “This Is Just How It Is”

I see this most clearly with mid career physicians. You’ve adjusted to the inefficiencies. You’ve learned which battles not to fight. You’ve built workarounds for systems that were never designed for you.

That adaptability is a strength. It’s also the reason you stay longer than you should.

Employment inertia thrives on familiarity. You know the EMR. You know the politics. You know how to survive. Independence, on the other hand, asks for something different. It asks you to admit that staying might be costing you more than leaving ever would.

Not just financially—but creatively—because independence creates agency for creativity.

A Composite Case Study: Dr. H

Dr. H is an employed internist in his early forties. Name protected. Story familiar.

On paper, he’s doing well. Stable income. Leadership role. Predictable schedule. When we spoke, he didn’t describe burnout. He described boredom, and guilt for feeling it.

“I should be grateful,” he said. “Nothing is wrong.”

But then he admitted something else. He had stopped reading outside his specialty. He no longer brought ideas to meetings because they went nowhere. He felt older than he was.

Dr. H wasn’t stuck because he lacked options. He was stuck because employment had trained him to wait for permission to feel alive again.

Ownership isn’t about quitting tomorrow. It’s about recognizing when inertia has replaced intention.

Curiosity Is a Signal—Not a Distraction

One of the earliest signs that inertia has taken over is how you respond to curiosity.

When you start thinking about consulting, teaching, building a service, or reshaping your schedule, do you feel energy—or do you shut it down with practicality?

Employed systems benefit when curiosity stays theoretical. Ownership begins when you treat curiosity as data.

If you’re honest, you already know the answer to this question. You feel more engaged when you’re learning business, tax strategy, or systems than when you’re sitting in another operational meeting that changes nothing.

That doesn’t make you disloyal. It makes you awake.

I explored this shift in identity more deeply in Medicine Taught You to Work. Entrepreneurship Teaches You to Own, where I break down how physicians confuse effort with agency. 👉 https://www.simplimd.com/blog/medicine-taught-you-to-work-entrepreneurship-teaches-you-to-own

Inertia Is Still a Choice

Here’s the part most physicians miss.

Not choosing independence is still a decision. It’s just one made quietly, over time, without a signature.

Inertia compounds. Every year you delay learning ownership skills, the gap feels wider. Not because it’s impossible, but because you’ve spent years proving you can survive without them.

Survival, though, is not the same as growth.

This is why so many physicians wait until frustration forces movement. They don’t leave when curiosity appears. They leave when resentment does.

Ownership works better when you move toward something, not away from something.

Why Independence Feels Scarier Than It Is

Employment feels safer because the risks are familiar. Independence feels uncertain because it requires self trust.

But here’s the truth I wish more physicians understood earlier. Independence is rarely a leap. It’s usually a series of small, controlled steps.

Entity setup. Separate income streams. Tax awareness. Time based autonomy. Job Stacking with some small independent side hustles.

That’s the work we teach inside PEA—not reckless exits, but thoughtful transitions.

I wrote about this in Real Life Physician Stories of Balancing Family and Practice, where physicians didn’t leave medicine—they redesigned it. 👉 https://www.simplimd.com/blog/real-life-physician-stories-of-balancing-family-and-practice

Identity Comes Before Income

Most physicians ask the wrong first question.

They ask, “Can I afford to leave?”

The better question is, “Who do I become if I stay exactly like this for ten more years?”

Ownership is an identity shift before it’s a financial one. It’s the moment you stop outsourcing decisions about your time, your income, and your energy.

That shift often begins long before a resignation letter.

What Owning Actually Looks Like

Ownership doesn’t mean abandoning medicine. It means placing medicine inside a structure that serves you.

It looks like:

• Understanding how income flows through entities

• Using tax strategy instead of hoping for deductions

• Creating optionality instead of dependence

• Building something that responds to your curiosity

If you’ve been reading about advanced retirement strategies or micro business structures and feeling pulled toward them, that’s not random. It’s your ownership muscle waking up.

I covered the financial side of this in How Your Business Entity Determines Your Retirement Ceiling (and Why Most Clinicians Get This Wrong), which shows how structure changes what’s possible. 👉 https://www.simplimd.com/blog/how-your-business-entity-determines-your-retirement-ceiling-and-why-most-clinicians-get-this-wrong

Throwback Wisdom

From the Archives at The Independent Physician

I’ve been writing about physician independence for years, long before it was fashionable. One post that still resonates with readers explores why autonomy—not income alone—determines long term satisfaction.

👉 Read more on The Independent Physician Blog: https://www.simplimd.com/blog/every-doctor-is-a-business

If you’ve never gone back through the archives, you’ll see this theme repeat for a reason. Physicians don’t fail at ownership. They delay it.

Identity Shift Step

Still thinking like an employee? It’s time to own your time, your work, and your income.

If this post stirred something, don’t ignore it.

Your next step isn’t quitting. It’s learning.

👉 Start Your Transition with PEA Explorer Membership https://www.simplimd.com/PEAMembership

Inside Explorer, you’ll learn:

• How physicians build ownership safely

• How micro business structure actually works

• How to test independence without burning bridges

Or, if you’re just wanting to strategize about how you transition away from your employment inertia, let’s do a 1:1 strategy session. Go here and set it up.

My Closing Thought

Inertia feels harmless because it doesn’t announce itself. It just keeps you busy enough not to ask better questions.

Curiosity, on the other hand, asks something of you. It asks you to imagine a different relationship with your work.

If you feel that pull, honor it. Not with fear. With preparation.