Every Pivot Taught Me Something — Even the Ones I Didn’t Plan

February 04, 2026

There’s a belief that floats around quietly in medical culture:

If you change your mind, you must’ve made a mistake.

If you shift directions, it means you didn’t think things through.

If you pivot, it must be because you failed.

Let me tell you what I’ve learned:

Every transition has given me something I needed.

Even the hard ones.

Especially the ones I didn’t see coming.

The Plan Was Never “Start an HVAC Company”

Starting The General Heating and Air wasn’t the five-year vision.

But here we are — and I’ve never felt more grounded in my “why.”

This transition didn’t come out of boredom or burnout.

It came from clarity. From conviction. From years of learning what I’m capable of and what I actually want my life to look like.

Not just my career. My life.

Every decision I’ve made since leaving corporate medicine has added a layer to who I am. Running a locums company. Building Dr. Toya Coaching. Growing a platform. Serving physician moms. Speaking. Hiring. Scaling back. Grieving. Starting again.

Each move felt like a leap at the time.

Now I see it was a build. Layer by layer. Skill by skill. Identity by identity.

The Detours Were Never Detours

When something doesn’t work out the way we imagined, it’s easy to write it off as a mistake.

But not everything has to “work out” to work.

Some things exist to show you what you want. Or what you’ll never do again. Or what you needed to learn in order to make the next thing sustainable.

There are business ideas I abandoned.

Roles I walked away from.

Stages I loved that didn’t lead to anything “strategic.”

And every single one taught me something.

So no — this isn’t about chasing the dream perfectly.

It’s about collecting the tools along the way.

You Can’t Take on a New Life Without Respecting Your Bandwidth

A few months ago, I thought I’d just do everything I’m doing now — in half the time.

It sounds funny in hindsight, but at the time, I meant it.

I was planning to coach at full capacity, keep my social media consistent, stay visible in the same ways — and launch an entirely new business from scratch.

That wasn’t ambition. That was delusion.

And it’s a version of delusion that shows up a lot for high-achieving women physicians.

We believe we can hold everything if we just try harder.

We believe we’re the exception to exhaustion.

We believe we can change our life without disappointing anyone.

But real change — the kind that lasts — demands respect.

For your energy. Your focus. Your time. Your nervous system.

Making this new venture work required me to stop performing capacity I didn’t have.

And that decision? That was a turning point too.

You’re More Prepared Than You Think

The most common lie I hear from brilliant women physicians?

“I’m just a doctor. I don’t have any other skills.”

I want to scream every time I hear it — because I used to believe it, too.

Until I found myself onboarding field management software and immediately thinking, “Oh. This is an EMR.”

Until I started mentoring my husband (co-owner of The General Heating and Air) through business strategy and realized, “Oh. This is leadership development.”

Until I realized I’d learned marketing, communication, operations, financial decision-making, negotiation, hiring — not from business school, but from being a woman physician navigating systems that were never built for me.

If you’ve made it this far in your medical career, you are already wildly equipped.

You just haven’t been calling it by its true name.

Transitions Are Not Setbacks — They’re Data

You’re allowed to want something different.

You’re allowed to try and change your mind.

You’re allowed to evolve without knowing exactly where it leads.

What you’re not allowed to do?

Keep telling yourself you’re stuck.

Keep carrying a life that no longer fits you.

Keep pretending the desire for more is something to be ashamed of.

The truth is:

Your transitions are teaching you something.

Listen. Learn. Let them move you.

You don’t need anyone’s permission to change.

But just in case you do — you’ve got mine.

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