Often we struggle separating our own thoughts from hard true facts. This struggle can greatly diminish our ability to be at peace, to be contagiously positive, and to be constructive in our criticism. 

Are the thoughts you’re choosing offering you the inner peace and energy that you want? 

Do you like the way your thoughts feel?

How does thinking that - whatever “that” is - benefit you?

Take a closer look, because there are plenty of thoughts we all have that aren’t factual. They aren’t absolute. They are thoughts - opinions - perspectives and they are having an impact on you. 

You get to work, walk into an operatory, and within moments of greeting your patient (who is prepped and ready for their procedure) you realize that - once again - things aren’t the way you’ve expressed they need to be…

We aren’t going to escape difficult people or situations. That isn’t the nature of life.

But we are always equipped - completely equipped - with incredibly powerful brains that can think about things in hundreds of different ways.

We can Choose in the Moment!

Perfectionism - Part 3 of 3. What about when things are perfect? What about when all has gone exactly according to plan? How about those times that you do your best work and couldn’t be more pleased with the end result…and then… 

Perfectionism - Part 2 0f 3: You notice when something that isn’t how or what you’d prefer comes around. In those times how do you choose to notice your experience with that situation. Notice your thoughs. Notice the time and enegy you spend thinking about it. Notice if you have any emotional response. And then...Choose.

Perfectionism Part 1 of 3: How the striving for perfection may be unintentionally fueling negative outcomes in your life. Notice the amount of brain power you are spending on analyzing for imperfections. Our brains are still wired like that of our ancient ancestors who needed these perfectionism gifts, our brain provides, to survive in true life-or-death type living circumstances.

You take these amazing tools we have - Our Brains - which are already programmed to scan for problems and inefficiencies to survive and you couple it with a profession in dentistry where that same scanning mechanism needs to be activated on a near daily basis... and you find your brain likes this, it's good at this function. 

Your honed skill of striving for perfection in your field - can tend to creep into areas of a doctors’s life where they aren’t useful. Through this 3 part series we will discuss the brain and perfectionism and just what we can control and better understand how striving for perfection is affecting our life.