Are you a highly motivated, successful physician who struggles to follow through on the changes you need to improve your physical and emotional well-being? Do you know you need to change, know what you need to do to change, and may even take a step or two towards making those changes, but then plateau or give up? What’s getting in your way is not unwillingness or resistance to change but weak executive skills.

 

Executive skills are underlying brain processes that help people manage their everyday lives, get things done, control their emotions, and help them manage obstacles that interfere with productivity and behavior change. As a physician, you may have adult patients with executive skill challenges who struggle to finish college, hold down a job, progress in their career, or maintain satisfactory relationships with friends and family. Failure and the recognition that they are working well below their potential often erode self-confidence and eat away at self-esteem.