The Developing Doctor

Free first chapter

Where does diligence end and worry begin?

Read the introduction and Chapter 1 of How to Relax Without Losing Your Edge, free. The chapter ends with the Anxiety Inventory, a ten-question exercise for seeing where high-functioning anxiety shows up in your own week.

By Ben Reinking, MD, pediatric cardiologist and Master Certified Physician Development Coach

Get the first chapter free

The introduction and Chapter 1, plus the Anxiety Inventory. Sent to your inbox.

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What’s in the free chapter

I wrote this book after watching the same pattern in coaching clients, in medical students and in myself: habits that look like diligence slowly turning into worry. The first chapter is where I name that pattern and give you a way to look for it in your own life.

The 2:17 a.m. rehearsal

The introduction opens on a night I spent rehearsing a lecture I had given countless times, and on what my partner said the next morning.

What high-functioning anxiety is

Why it hides behind competence, and what the research says about perfectionism and burnout, including a study of physicians.

The Anxiety Inventory

Ten statements, about fifteen minutes, and three questions to sit with afterward. It isn’t a diagnosis. It’s a starting point.

About the author

Ben Reinking, MD — author of How to Relax Without Losing Your Edge

Ben Reinking, MD is a board-certified pediatric cardiologist and general pediatrician with more than twenty years in academic medicine, and a Master Certified Physician Development Coach. He has served as a fellowship program director, medical director of pediatric echocardiography, and mentor to medical students, residents, fellows, and faculty.

After working through his own season of burnout, he founded The Developing Doctor, where he coaches physicians and other high performers on building careers they can stay in. This book brings that coaching — and the nervous-system science behind it — to anyone whose anxiety hides behind competence.

Start with the first chapter.

It’s free, and it takes about as long as a lunch break.

This book is educational and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental-health care.