That's all for now.
If you require urgent support, contact me through this form.
Keep breathing and have a great rest of your day,
Dike
Dike Drummond MD
www.TheHappyMD.com
[Transcript]
Physicians Unchained: Retirement Mastery for Doctors – Weekly Tip
The Ultimate Goal of Your Life After Medicine
Hello, Dr. Dike Drummond here again with the latest physician retirement lesson from my new book, Physicians Unchained: Retirement Mastery for Doctors, that’s going to be coming out in the first quarter of 2026.
Let’s talk about the ultimate goal of your life after medicine, and realize first, to get to your life after medicine, you have to have realized the ultimate goal of the practice stage of this physician life. A successful physician career means that you’ve reached the two goals.
A successful physician career has two core goals. This is how you win the game of the practice stage of a physician life.
Practice Goal Number One: Be a Great Doctor
Goal number one is to be a great doctor, to practice your calling, especially in those moments when you’re behind the closed door, behind the pulled curtain, it’s just you and the patient, one on one, you and the patient and the family. That’s where you work your art.
That’s where you shine as a helper and a healer and a light worker.
You gave all of your skill and wisdom, experience, heart, and soul, over and over again, all the way to this finish line. Nice job. Step one, complete.
Practice Goal Number Two: Reach Financial Freedom
Practice goal number two is a financial goal. After all, being a doctor is how you transfer your skills and experience and wisdom into wealth for you and your family.
Your goal here is simple. The financial finish line is financial freedom. That’s where your assets have accumulated to the point where you don’t need to generate income from seeing patients anymore to live this lifestyle through the rest of your expected life span.
Now, obviously there is a whole bunch more to discuss about financial freedom, but the goals of the doctor’s practice stage of their life are simple:
-
Be a great doctor
-
Reach financial freedom
That’s when you can enter the retirement transition and begin your life after medicine.
The Goal of Life After Medicine: Die With No Regrets
And so what’s the goal of life after medicine? How do you win this game?
Well, I believe that the best way to set yourself up for a fantastic last chapter of your life here, in your life after medicine, is to set your goal on die with no regrets. And perhaps as a bonus, leave a corpse with a smile as big as the Cheshire Cat. But die with no regrets, for sure.
And if you think of those two for a second — financial freedom and die with no regrets — you may have done some things in your practice years, especially around time, spending time with your family and such, that have caused regrets that you need to settle before you exit this life.
What We Know From the Regrets of the Dying
And we also have some intel here. There have been a number of surveys of the regrets of the dying. People who are close to death are asked what they regret the most.
And consistently number one in that list is: I regret that I didn’t retire sooner.
So here’s what that means, at least the way I see it. If you have won the practice game and are financially free, and you’re still seeing patients for money because you think you have to, I’m going to ask you to consider stepping away from practice, stepping into your life after medicine, triggering the retirement transition now.
Because I would hate for you to get to your deathbed and have that same regret — that predictable regret of “I wish I had retired sooner.” Because at that point, if you have that regret on your deathbed, you might end up closing your eyes for the last time with a pretty interesting opinion of yourself today, this you who’s not retiring.
Make Your Future Self Proud
So make your future self happy. Die with no regrets. If you can retire, do it now.
There’s lots more for us to talk about. I’ll be back in a week with another one of these tips.
Join the Early Bird List
If you’re seeing me on social media, that means you’re not on my mailing list yet — the early bird mailing list — where I send these out as emails, and you also get first notification when the book’s ready in Q1 of 2026.
So grab the link that’s on this page somewhere, comment or in my profile or wherever I am, and sign up on the early bird list so we can send these directly to you.
If you’re watching this video because of a link in an email, you’re on my early bird list. So congratulations.
I’ll see you in a week.
You keep being the light worker that you are — the helper, the healer, the person that makes such a big difference in the world.
Happy holidays.
Keep breathing.
Have a great rest of your week.