I don't care whether or not you stay in veterinary practice, or totally leave every potential job related to a veterinary license behind.

I really don't.

I care about your personal well-being.
I care about your future happiness.
I care about your purpose (I KNOW you have one, even if you aren't so sure).

I also care about the decision many of us keep making to stay in terrible situations...

Jobs that fuel our insecurity.
Jobs that squash our self-confidence.
Jobs that are literally dangerous, mentally and physically.

In my opinion, there are three circumstances in which pursuing a different job is a MUST... and that's what I share in today's episode.

Staying is not always the responsible or noble thing to do!

Are you waiting for permission to leave this profession?

Many of us don't realize that's what we are doing. We have trapped ourselves in our own self-judgment over our prior decision to pursue this career.

That decision came with a significant investment of money and time...

SO WHAT?

If you need permission to go a different direction...

YOU'VE GOT IT!
PERMISSION GRANTED.

Find your place.

Live your life.

Get on the waitlist for the Discover Your Purpose workshops. 

Get empowerment, encouragement, and education for your Vet Med career from Vet Life Academy today. 

Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

What do you hate about Vet Med?

I'm guessing creating that list would come pretty easily.

I suspect justifying that list with your personal experiences would be effortless.

I bet you could even round up a group of colleagues who would agree with you...

... who would share their similar experiences...

... who would create their own, very similar, list.

Herein lies one of the sneakiest problems in Vet Med.

Commiseration.

There is a comfort that comes in sharing our experiences with our colleagues.

Venting.

Releasing the anger.

Expressing our combined displeasure against the common enemies...

In the anger and frustration of the collective we find solace, we find redemption...

But there is one thing that will NEVER be found there...

Hope.

And not just hope.

Possibility, Potential, Momentum, Compassion, Understanding...

They can't be found there either.

See, our brains are amazing computers.

They can solve ANY problem.

But they can't solve a problem they have never been asked.

They can't gather evidence on topics we've never told it to be important.

That's how the Reticular Activating System works...

What we focus on, we create more of...

This means the bi-product of all the venting and commiserating is going to be more evidence of reasons to vent and commiserate.

This fuels our negative emotional state.

But worse... it blocks the solutions.

It's not that solutions don't exist, it's that we haven't told our minds that finding solutions is important.

Resources:

Discover Your Purpose workshop

Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

The most common response to discomfort is to take action that results in a change.

Makes sense from a survival perspective...

(especially if you are being pursued by predators.)

BUT... this "habit of leaving" isn't doing us any favors in the pursuit of our best lives.

Sure, there will be jobs, relationships, and other circumstances in our lives that are not "right fits" for us...

And, the first evidence of the "wrong fit" will likely be the negative emotions we experience...

stress, anxiety, dread, inadequacy, frustration, undervalued, disrespected...

We use the experience of these emotions to justify our choice to leave.

BUT... when we leave a situation just to get away quickly from those negative emotions, we often find ourselves repeating the experience in the new environment.

WHY?!

Spoiler: Not for the reasons most of us think.

In this episode, I dive into the one thing most of us don't even know we need to do in our haste to leave undesirable experiences behind... and why we must begin doing it if we ever want to stop the pattern from repeating.

We focus on this skill in Vet Life Academy.  

Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

As a veterinary professional you are likely a very smart person.

After all, it wasn't by accident that you were able to pass those board examinations to secure your licensure...

But something happens to many of us once we get into practice...

The real-world becomes overwhelming and confusing.

Our logical and strategic left-brained thinking tries to make sense of our experience.

Tries.

Fails.

Why can't we figure this out?

We can't fix what is making us stressed and unhappy if we can't identify it.

So, we keep trying to identify it.

But we can't find it... so we begin to believe everyone else is happy and coping...

We conclude: It must just be me...

Friend, there's a lot you don't understand about the way your brain works.

Left Brain

Right Brain

Lower Brain

Higher Brain

Without this knowledge, OF COURSE, you're left to conclude that you are the problem.

Best News: You're not!

There's just a mental battle going on in your mind between that super-smart and logical left brain, and the freaked-out toddler lower brain.

Once you understand what's happening everything gets easier.

I explain it all in this episode. Check it out!

Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

What if you were never meant to work in Vet Med forever?

What if the clinical practice was only supposed to be a tiny part of your journey?

What if you were never supposed to "fit in" there?

If these things are true, then did you make a mistake pursuing it in the first place?

Many of us would believe Yes.

Some of our friends, family members, and colleagues would also believe Yes.

I believe NO.

Absolutely not.

Forever and always, pursuing Vet Med was your Best. Decision. Ever.

How is that possible?

How can I conclude with absolute certainty that the time and money you invested in a career you didn't "stick with" in a traditional (or even non-traditional) form was a good thing?

How can you not?

In this episode, I peel back all the judgment and pressures from society that keep us stuck in a life and career some of us aren't designed to stay in long-term.

Resources:

The Discover Your Purpose Workshop

Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

You and I have at least one thing in common...

We both pursued careers in Vet Med.

Beyond that, there are similarities, and there are differences.

Society and culture would have us believe our differences are problematic.

This idea is so integrated that it leaves us comparing ourselves to others...

Not measuring up...

Concluding that the others have it all together, and we are the outliers who don’t.

We suffer quietly, hiding our inadequacies with perfectionism, efforts to control, and isolation.

We also buy into a homogenized idea of what “good practices” look like and how “good doctors” and “good technicians” behave and perform.

The result: a constant state of self-critique against an expectation that is neither clearly defined, nor attainable.

The perfect recipe for diminishing self-confidence, burnout, and despair.

But this is only part of the story.

On the other side are those veterinary professionals who flourish...

Those who embody the calling to serve in this way, and become more of who they are in the process...

Those who welcome the integration of vet med and private life.

So, which way is right? Which way is better?

Neither.

Both.

The truth is, you are not supposed to be like everybody else.

There is no one right way to practice and work in veterinary medicine.

The more you try to force yourself to conform to the “veterinary box” as you learned to define it along the way, the more you will struggle.

Life is supposed to be easier than that.

In this episode, I share my thoughts on the Vet Med Box and the gift you can give yourself by Breaking Free of Vet Med.

To discover how to become more of who you are, and how Vet Med fits into your journey, check out Vet Life Academy! 

Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

"I just can't do this anymore."

Most of us in the veterinary profession have said those words... at least to ourselves.

Maybe the last time was after a particularly sad euthanasia.

Or, maybe after an ugly encounter with a client.

Or, perhaps, when leaving work hours after the scheduled end of your shift.

There comes a point for all of us when we are no longer willing to tolerate certain things in our lives.

This is the Breaking Point...

and it's actually a GOOD THING.

In this episode, I share my perspective on the Breaking Point, why it's actually one of the most important moments in your life, and four things that determine whether you Evolve or Break on the other side. 

Resources:

Want to understand where stress comes from and how to manage it? Join the FREE Webinar - How To Be Happy In Vet Med. Click here to join. 

Get empowerment, encouragement, and education for your Vet Med career from Vet Life Academy today. 

Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

Veterinary medicine brings us the opportunity to feel all the feels.

You might struggle with that part.

I did.

I still do, sometimes.

If you're anything like me, you probably have a tendency toward perfectionism.

Perhaps you beat yourself up from time to time.

And, maybe, you use things like junk food, television, shopping, and even overworking to try to feel better.

(If I could just get caught up...)

But let me guess...

It doesn't work.

No matter how hard you try, or how much you do, it's never enough.

It's never enough to stop the emotional rollercoaster.

This isn't an inherent defect in you, friend.

The rollercoaster... that's just part of the human experience.

VetMed just makes it a little more interesting.

The solution is not to get away from or to cover up all the feelings.

The only reliable solution is to lean into them.

Yes... feel them on purpose.

Learn to understand what they are and where they come from.

Make them familiar.

Embrace them as allies.

Through this, they lose power.

In this episode, I explain why.

Ready to get to work? Check out Vet Life Reboot. 

Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

Our world is full of never-ending opportunities to be stimulated.

Veterinary jobs reinforce this with overbooked schedules and chaotic days.

The unpredictable nature of practicing medicine doesn't help.

Many of us get through our days with a combination of adrenaline and caffeine.

We then collapse in physical exhaustion when we get home... but the looping thoughts about work, cases, and life are relentless.

It never stops.

We rarely feel rested.

With the thought loops come a steady dose of cortisol.

The long-term impact on our physiology... not good.

In this episode, I share a simple hack for slowing down our predominant state of fight-or-flight, quieting the thought loops, and intentionally activating our parasympathetic nervous systems so we can reset.

The best part... you can do it anywhere!

Interested in learning more about how you can break your stress habit?
Check out the latest on-demand resources at JoyfulDVM.com

Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

Are you experiencing the compounding effect of anxiety and stress?

Does it seem like it's getting heavier than usual?

You aren't alone!

If you're like me, your mind drifts frequently to the "what if..."

And, let's face it... with the pandemic, election-related activities, and our own personal and professional challenges... we have a lot of material to work with.

It may seem that considering the "what if's" is a useful tactic for preparing in advance for what might come next.

MIGHT.

Truth is, we don't know.

We have never known.

Not knowing was way more comfortable when the state of the world wasn't so visibly uncertain.

See, when it wasn't so visible, and regularly discussed, we just didn't spend a lot of time thinking about it.

We also didn't spend a lot of time planning for the next wave of it.

Ignorance was bliss...

The bliss didn't come from the world actually being more certain before all of this...

... it came from what we believed about the certainty of the world at that time.

Our beliefs have changed.

Our experience has changed.

Our focus has shifted, and we are now acutely aware of many things our minds simply filtered out of our awareness before.

The result: All these extra thoughts are creating extra emotion.

Unfortunately, that extra emotion is often in the form of anxiety, stress, fear, anger, etc.

Not useful.

In this episode, I share a three-letter hack for interrupting the cycle of anxiety and stress many of us are trapped in.

Interested in learning more about concepts like these?
Visit https://joyfuldvm.com to learn about our latest resources and events.

Music Credit: Music by Lesfm from Pixabay