You Are Not A Frog

Every doctor and high-achieving professional knows what it feels like to lie awake with a brain that refuses to stop - replaying a decision made that afternoon, running tomorrow's list at midnight, scanning ahead for what might go wrong. Our ingrained programming tells us that more thinking keeps us safe and keeps things running. But there is a cost to that, and our analytical brains (the very thing that makes us good at our jobs) may be the reason we can't rest.
In this conversation with Giles Croft, former NHS surgeon and coach, we explore what happens when the brain's analytical, planning, threat-scanning part takes over completely - and what your right brain already knows how to do that most of us have never been properly introduced to.
We cover:
The difference between left-brain and right-brain consciousness, and why doctors and high achievers are trained to default to the analytical mode
Giles's own experience of a TIA - and what the temporary loss of his left brain revealed about the default state that sits underneath all the thinking
Why "just stop overthinking" is advice that doesn't reach the actual problem
How the brain "pre-lives" the future, and why this feels like vigilance but functions like anxiety
What it actually feels like to step out of left-brain dominance - and the small, practical ways to do it
Why our default state is not stress - it only feels that way because we've been away from calm for a long time

This episode is for you if you lie awake replaying a conversation with a colleague, a patient or a client; if you find yourself planning three weeks ahead on a Sunday evening, or even on holiday, your mind is running its usual commentary. What we discuss may help you understand what is really beneath all that noise, and whether the calm you're looking for has been there the whole time.
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About Giles Croft:
Giles is a former NHS surgeon and coach who works with individuals and organisations on the human experience of work. His firsthand encounter with a transient ischaemic attack gave him a unique, embodied understanding of how the brain's different modes of consciousness shape our wellbeing. He helps people understand how they are experiencing the world - and who they really are. Find Giles at https://www.gilespcroft.com/.
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Boundaries aren't walls. They're fences. A wall keeps everyone out. A fence has a gate, and it's yours to open or close, if you're willing to hold it when someone pushes.
That idea comes from this conversation with Dr Sarah Coope, recorded for the Your Coaching Journey podcast. Sarah talks about her own route into coaching, what twenty years of coaching doctors has taught her about self-worth, and why so many of us try to fix things that were never ours to fix.
In this episode:
How a magazine advert led Sarah to her first coaching session, and the moment she realised she had different values to the people around her
"Fruit stapling" — Sarah's analogy for behaviour change that skips the real work underneath
Why boundaries are fences, not walls, and what actually gets in the way of holding them
The difference between being a rescuer and being a coach, and what it costs doctors to be the former
Why Sarah tells every doctor thinking about a coaching qualification: "it starts with you"

Sarah Coope is a former GP, leadership coach and mediator who leads the training behind the podcast. Helen Leathers is a Coach, Trainer and Facilitator for Your Coaching Journey - an organisation providing transformational coaching training for doctors. Find out more about their upcoming courses here and use the code FROGSPAWN to get 20% off a live coaching course.
NOTE: We're affiliate partners with Your Coaching Journey, which means we get a small commission if you use our code. We wouldn't pass this on if we didn't think it was genuinely worth it
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There is one belief that keeps high achievers stuck in burnout long after they should be recovering - the belief that burning out means they failed.
This is a live panel discussion from the Burnout Free Working Conference — an unscripted conversation about what burnout recovery actually requires, why the self-blame makes it impossible to start, and the single reframe that changes how you see every struggling colleague, including yourself.
We cover:
Why burnout is not a personal failing — and what the evidence actually says about where it starts
The clinical difference between burnout and depression, and why the label matters less than most people think
Why asking struggling colleagues to "reach out" puts the burden in exactly the wrong place - and what "reaching in" looks like instead
The shift from "difficult colleague" to "colleague in difficulty" - and why that single reframe changes how you respond
What the fear of saying no looks like versus what actually happens when you do
Why bearing witness, without trying to fix, is itself a genuine intervention
What burnout recovery actually requires — and why it can't start until the self-blame does

This episode is for you if…
You're a high achiever in a high-stakes role who has started to wonder whether the exhaustion you're carrying is something more than tiredness - or whether the reason you can't seem to recover is that somewhere, underneath the fatigue, you've decided the burnout was your fault. This conversation will give you permission to put down the belief that you’ve been carrying, and the language to start again.
About Dr Richard Duggins
Dr Richard Duggins is a consultant psychiatrist in medical psychotherapy and the author of Burnout Free Working. He has spent his career working with clinicians and high achievers in burnout - exploring not just the exhaustion, but the shame and self-blame that makes recovery so much harder. Get Richard’s book here: Burnout-Free Working: Your Expert Guide to Thriving in a Stressful Workplace.
About Dr Chris Turner
Dr Chris Turner is an emergency medicine consultant, co-founder of Civility Saves Lives, and a TEDx speaker whose work on culture, behaviour, and psychological safety in healthcare has reached hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. Learn more about Chris’s work with Civility Saves Lives here: https://www.civilitysaveslives.com/
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🌞 The Summer Survival Kit for Doctors
Am I Stressed, Overwhelmed... or Burning Out?

Get honest with yourself — discover what’s really going on, and what to do next.

There's something most leaders do - we avoid the conversation that needs to be had. We care too much about the wrong things: how the other person will react, whether it will make things awkward, whether we'll be the one blamed if they go off sick. Our ingrained programming tells us that keeping the peace is the same as keeping the relationship, but it isn't.
In this episode, Joe Weston is back for round two to explain why conflict avoidance - the silence, the corridor moaning, the feedback we give and immediately want to apologise for - is itself a form of conflict. And what it actually sounds like to hold someone accountable without becoming someone you don't like.
We cover:
Why avoiding difficult conversations feels kind but functions as a form of conflict
The difference between confrontation (which can deepen a relationship) and conflict (which breaks one)
How to hold someone accountable without triggering their fight-flight-freeze response
Why focusing on behaviour — not the person — changes everything, and exactly what to say instead
The "difficult middle bit": what to do when someone gets defensive, and you want to back down
Why doctors, nurses, vets, and other professionals already have the skills for hard conversations — just not yet with their colleagues
How small, intentional acts of relationship-building change the culture around accountability over time

This episode is for you if... you're a senior manager, doctor, nurse, vet, dentist, or any high-achieving leader who has rehearsed the conversation in your head, convinced yourself it wasn't the right moment, and watched the problem get worse instead. You know something needs to be said. You just haven't found the version of yourself that can say it yet. This episode may help.
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💬 Join the conversation: share this with someone who needs to hear it
Mentioned in this episode:
🌞 The Summer Survival Kit for Doctors
Am I Stressed, Overwhelmed... or Burning Out?

Get honest with yourself — discover what’s really going on, and what to do next.

A doctor emailed me recently, she's been in medicine for 25 years, and the question she asked was one I've heard in a hundred different ways: "Am I a snowflake?"
She felt a great deal of shame about finding things hard - something I see time and time again in high achievers. Like the feeling that not coping is proof of something wrong with you. A character flaw. A sign you've gone soft.
But the data tells a different story. In a survey we did of over 600 health and social care professionals, nearly one in three worried about whether they or their team would cope with rising workloads. One in three. That's not a snowflake problem - that's a system problem.
In this Quick Dip, I unpack why the shame about not coping is often more damaging than not coping itself. Why our ingrained programming tells us that we have to cope with everything, all the time, to feel good enough. And why protecting the appearance of coping - keeping the show on the road at all costs - will cost you more than any boundary ever could.
We cover:
• The "Am I a Snowflake?" question and what it really means
• Why not coping is a sign of an empty tank, not a character flaw
• The Superhero Delusion and how it keeps you trapped
• Biscuit Boundaries and the Responsibility Trap
• Why shame thrives when you believe you're the only one struggling
• The stress curve and what it reveals about your limits
• Why conflict feels more frightening than burnout for high achievers
• The two stories of not coping - and which one costs you more
This episode is for you if you've ever wondered whether you're the weak one. If you've been holding it together at work while feeling like you're falling apart underneath. If you've told yourself you just need to be more resilient, push harder, cope better - and it isn't working. You are not a snowflake. You never were.
📩 Sign up for our weekly newsletter: https://youarenotafrog.com/welcome/
🐸 Get exclusive episodes and resources by joining FrogXtra: https://youarenotafrog.com/members/
💬 Join the conversation: share this with someone who needs to hear it
Mentioned in this episode:
🌞 The Summer Survival Kit for Doctors