Welcome to More Than Work

Weekly coaching tools for professionals asking “is this all there is?”

Hi there. I’m Sharon.

Welcome to More Than Work. It’s a weekly newsletter for professionals who are successful on paper and still quietly asking themselves, “is this all there is?”

If that question has shown up for you in the quiet moments — on the drive home, in the middle of a meeting you should be paying attention to, at 2:47 a.m. when you can’t fall back asleep — you’re in the right place.

Most of the people I work with are not in crisis. They are competent. They have done the things they were supposed to do. And somewhere along the way, the work that used to feel like purpose started to feel like performance.

This newsletter is for that moment.

The ocean image at the top of this page isn’t decorative. The pull toward the water is real — not because the beach solves anything, but because standing at the water’s edge is one of the few places where the ebb and flow of life stops feeling like a problem to fix.

This newsletter is that kind of space.

Every week I share one current data point about the changing world of work, one composite coaching story from my practice and one field-tested tool you can use in the next 48 hours. It’s the thinking we would do together if you were sitting across from me in a coaching session.

Who Is More Than Work For?

More Than Work speaks to three kinds of readers.

High-achieving professionals at a crossroads. You’ve built a career that looks right from the outside. You have hit the numbers. You have been promoted. And still, something is off. You don’t need a pep talk. You need a frame that helps you name what is actually happening and figure out what to do about it.
Leaders navigating rapid change. Maybe you are running a team through a reorganization. Maybe your industry is being reshaped in real time. Maybe you are the one being asked to do the reshaping. You are not looking for motivation. You are looking for practical ways to lead yourself while you are leading other people.
Professionals in transition. Midlife shifts, empty nest, post-leadership, an unexpected career pivot, the slow build toward retirement. The chapters of a working life are changing faster than most of us have language for. More Than Work is for people who want to move through those chapters with intention instead of drift.

Whatever season you are in, the question underneath is often the same. What actually matters to me now, and how do I build a working life that reflects it?

The Biggest Challenges Professionals Are Facing Right Now

You probably didn’t land here by accident. One of these is likely sitting in the background for you.

Challenge #1 — The “I made it” paradox. This one shows up early. You hit the milestone you were aiming at: the degree, the promotion, the job that was supposed to prove something. The satisfaction you expected never arrived.
Challenge #2 — Burnout dressed up as dedication. If you are mid-career, this is probably the one you know best. Working harder feels like the only option, even when it is obviously not working. The overwork is loud. The question underneath is quiet.
Challenge #3 — Identity fusion. This one gets louder the more senior you become. You are so merged with your title, your role or your credentials that you are not sure who you are without them. Stepping back starts to feel like disappearing.
Challenge #4 — Golden handcuffs. You have too much to walk away from. You are too depleted to stay where you are.
Challenge #5 — Life-chapter transitions with no map. Midlife, empty nest, caregiving, post-leadership, retirement. Most of us were never given a handbook for any of them.
Challenge #6 — No language for what is missing. You can feel it. You cannot name it. That gap is what keeps you stuck.
Challenge #7 — Fear of reinvention. You know something needs to shift. Starting over feels impossible at this stage of your career.

If any of these landed, you are not alone. There is real work we can do.

What You Get Every Week from More Than Work

This newsletter earns your attention and time through the tools it provides.

Every week brings a story, a data point and a tool you can put to work right away. All of it tested in real sessions and built to be used now.

A Coaching Story

I have worked with over 500 individuals across 35 years as a physician and a decade as a credentialed professional coach. Every week I share one composite, de-identified story from my practice, closer to a shared observation than a formal case study. The moment a client got stuck, the turn in the conversation, the single insight that changed something. You get to sit in on the session without being in it.

Signals From the Workplace

Work is changing faster than most of our ideas about it. Every week I share one current, well-sourced data point about where professionals actually are right now. Burnout rates, meaning-at-work research, generational shifts, the state of return-to-office, or whatever else is surfacing in current research that matters. You get the number, the source with a live link, and what it actually means for you and the way you are working. You also get my read on where we are going as a society, and how the meaning of work itself is shifting beneath our feet.

This Week’s Tool

This is the heartbeat of the newsletter. One coaching tool, framework, tip or question you can use in the next 48 hours. Not “set better boundaries” in the abstract — the actual script for the actual conversation. My rule before I publish anything: if you can’t apply it by Wednesday, it doesn’t belong in the issue.

A Coaching Question and Inspiration for the Week

Every issue closes with a question worth sitting with and a piece of inspiration worth carrying. The kind of thing you might pin above your desk, or screenshot for the friend you’d forward this to.

That’s it. Short, useful, repeatable. A coaching session in your inbox every week.

Who Am I?

Let me introduce myself.

I’m Sharon Hull — retired physician, Master Certified Coach and founder of Metta Solutions.

The short version of my background:

35 years as a practicing family physician and academic healthcare leader. I spent most of my career in the trenches with patients, trainees, and colleagues. The last chapter of my employed career was spent building and leading a coaching program inside a major academic institution. I know what high-stakes, high-pressure professional work feels like from the inside.
Master Certified Coach (MCC) with the International Coaching Federation. The MCC is the ICF’s highest credential and reflects thousands of hours of client coaching, advanced training and rigorous assessment. I have personally logged more than 4,000 coaching hours. That is a lot of sessions. It’s also a lot of patterns, and a real library of things I’ve watched actually work.
Founder and CEO of Metta Solutions. A coaching and consulting firm helping professionals and the organizations that support them thrive in today’s rapidly changing work environment. To date, I’ve coached over 500 individuals and worked with over 50 organizations across industries.

The through-line of my career has been this: I am fascinated by how people actually change. Not in theory. In the real, messy middle of their lives.

As a physician, I learned to diagnose before I prescribed. I bring that same discipline to coaching. Before we jump to solutions, we get clear on what is actually happening.

I am committed to understanding how today’s workplace and work/life alignment decisions are changing, and to helping the people I work with not just survive those changes but move through them with clarity and a real sense of what matters.

One Next Step

Before you go, one invitation.

If anything on this page spoke to you, the most useful next step I can offer is to download my free workbook:

What Matters Most to You →

It’s the tool I use at the start of almost every coaching engagement. An honest way to get underneath the noise of your current life and surface what is actually driving you. A digital workbook you keep in a file. Or print and keep handy if you prefer analog. Either way, a tool worth revisiting once a year.

It is free. It takes about 45 minutes to work through carefully. And it will give you traction on the question that probably brought you here in the first place.

Download the What Matters Most to You Workbook →

You will also be added to the More Than Work mailing list so each week’s issue lands in your inbox.

See you next week.

Sharon

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Weekly coaching tools for professionals asking "is this all there is?" — I'm Sharon Hull, a retired physician and Master Certified Coach with 4,000+ hours' experience helping people across every season of their career answer this question.