How’s your mood?

Think back over the last several days, weeks, or even months…

How have you been feeling?

These may seem like random questions, but the answers explain Everything about the progress you’ve been making (or not making) toward creating the life you want.

Your mood is a direct reflection of your Net Emotional State.

So, if you’re spending most of your waking hours stressed, angry, or unhappy then there is no reason to beat yourself up for not making progress toward your goals.

It makes perfect scientific sense to me why you are stuck.

But, do you know why?

Curious? Check out Part 3 of this Vet Med Joy Stealers series.

By the end, you’ll understand what’s really been going, and have greater awareness about what you can actually do about it. 

Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

How are you choosing your clients?

Are you intentionally cultivating the clientele you serve?

Or, are you just accepting every potential client who seeks your services?

Did you even realize you had a choice?

You Do!

What about your compensation…

Are you paying yourself adequately as a practice owner?

Do you understand how you can increase your compensation as an associate?

Do you know how to move up in compensation as support staff?

If your answer is no, then recognize that you are drawing conclusions in the absence of actual information.

It’s time to have a conversation!

How about your time?

Believing you don’t have time to live your life the way you want?

You’ll prove yourself true every. single. time. 

A scarcity mindset left unchecked has undesirable consequences in our veterinary careers and in our lives.












Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

Vet Med is an interesting career.

Often a Love / Hate relationship.

Spectacularly rewarding, and crushingly devastating all at the same time.

The events that occur in veterinary medicine are just part of the job.

The way that we respond to the events, is optional.

OPTIONAL.

That’s really hard to see when a client is blasting us on social media, or a six-month-old puppy dies during a routine spay.

Frustration, Fear, and Sadness are appropriate emotional responses… 

But then we take it too far…

We make it personal.

We tie up those events, and our resultant emotions, with our personal professional abilities and individual self-worth.

Friends, those things are not connected.

Unhappy clients and poor patient outcomes often steal our joy, but that an optional consequence.







Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

Scenario: You’re asked a yes-or-no question.

How do you respond?

Yes, without hesitating?

Awesome!

No, without regret?

Excellent! 

No, with remorse because you really want to say yes?

Uh-oh… trouble ahead…

Yes, with bitterness and anger because you really want to say no?

Welcome to the People Pleasers Club… your future is at risk.

Not Joking.

How did yes-or-no questions get so complicated?!

Fear.

It all comes down to fear.

Fear of disapproval.

Fear of conflict.

Fear of unknown consequences. 

Fear of judgment.

Fear of saying No. 

If you’re saying Yes when you really mean No, then you’re probably People Pleasing.

If you’re saying No, but justifying your answer with “I can’t…” or “I shouldn’t…” then you still aren’t owning your choice… 

So who’s getting hurt here?

YOU ARE!

People pleasing and justifying are self-defeating and disempowering actions.

They also aren’t polite or kind because they are disingenuous in nature.

These actions destroy self-confidence.

These actions inhibit your ability to create the life you want and to become the person you are meant to be.





Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

How do you think your life should be?

For that matter, how do you believe the world should be?

We all have our opinions...

... and when it comes to our own lives, the gap between what we believe it should be like and what it actually is, creates emotional turmoil.

This is true in our vet med jobs, our relationships with others, and even our evaluations of ourselves.

When we focus on what should be, we miss the opportunity in what is.

Even when the reality isn't as we'd like it to be, embracing the truth creates power and opportunity... in veterinary medicine and in life. 

The land of "should be" creates shame, inaction, and hopelessness. 

It's binary.  Either / Or. 

It's limiting... forcing you to experience your life as the effect of external things.

It's victimizing... it builds a false belief that you have no control.

It kills self-confidence. 

So what else? 

How about AND...

"And" opens up opportunity.

"And" focuses on what's possible.

"And" creates compassion and hope.







Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

You know what they say about assumptions...

It holds true in Vet Med as well.

There is a collection of broad-sweeping beliefs that many of us have about our lives as veterinary professionals.

The most influential beliefs are about the impact of our career choice on our time and income potential. 

Through the normal course of our veterinary careers, we've absorbed these beliefs from those who have gone before us. 

The perspectives are common.

We've accepted, without question, these conclusions as truth.

Absolute truth.

Together they become the lens through which we see our lives and what is possible... 

... and what is impossible...

In this episode, I peel apart the assumptions, examine how these assumptions have led us to draw conclusions that hold us back, and share how you can put your own mind to work to find the solutions that will result in fulfilling Vet Med's life and career.











Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

The quality of veterinary clinic culture is directly related to the gap between expectation and reality.

The 5 components of culture in veterinary organizations include:

1. Leverage
2. Schedule
3. Pay
4. Policies
5. Leadership

At the time of employment and onboarding, expectations in all of these areas are created. What we experience, then, either aligns with expectations or does not. When it doesn't, a gap between expectation and reality is created, trust is eroded, and culture suffers. 

A suffering culture is displayed in the actions and interactions of employees and leaders. It is these behaviors and the way we feel as we witness these behaviors, that creates the toxicity we often reference. 

In the thick of it, we totally miss that there is ALWAYS one person we can trust in every single situation...  one person who has our back no matter what... the only person who can alter the misery we are experiencing... that person is you.

The quality of clinic culture is directly related to the gap between expectation and reality. 

The personal impact of clinic culture is created only by our thoughts about it.















Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

Have you ever been talking to a client and you see them zone out so you switch gears to try to deliver your message a different way, all the while watching for any signs of comprehension or consent?

Or have you been delivering unexpected news and find yourself in an explanation loop... rationalizing, justifying, convincing... all while that little voice in your head screams, "Just Stop Talking!".

It's all pretty common. 

There are four main reasons we talk to veterinary clients:

1. Conversational
2. Gathering information
3. Educating
4. Updating

These four reasons also have four levels of potential risk of personal emotional impact and confrontation.

In this episode I break them all down, with examples, and share how adjusting your focus will make both you and the client feel better... not Vet Med word vomit required.








Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

It’s no surprise we try to measure our success in Vet Med. We are constantly looking for indications that we are doing it right, or doing it wrong. 

Unfortunately, success in Vet Med can’t be measured by tangible things.

So, in the absence of tangible measures of success, we create our own:

Clients who are happy and patients who get better mean we’re doing it right.

Clients who are angry, and patients who don’t respond to treatment mean we’re doing it wrong.

But, it doesn’t work that way.

In this episode, I take at the harmful way we measure our success in VetMed, why we do it, how misplaced responsibility contributes to the problem, and the one true measure of success that provides accurate feedback every time.









Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

What’s the hardest part of veterinary medicine? Most of us wouldn’t identify getting bitten, being pooped on, learning to take well-positioned radiographs, or figuring out how to draw blood on fractious cats as the hard parts of our jobs.

The hard part is feeling stressed out all the time, and we believe that stress comes from things like cranky clients, conversations about money and euthanasia.

The good news is that it doesn’t. We can develop Emotional Resilience and it all starts with understanding the true definitions of “Feel” and using the word appropriate… something most of us are doing wrong.

Developing Emotional Resilience in Veterinary Medicine Requires:

1. Identifying the real emotion we are feeling
2. Identifying the real cause of the emotion
3. Letting go of responsibility for the emotions of others

The quickest way to increase your self-confidence is by developing your emotional resilience.

Subscribe to The Joyful DVM Podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or TuneIn to stream this episode through your smartphone or tablet.







Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay