Whether or not you have children, what you do matters and will matter for generations to come.

Many people believe that the only way to have a say on the future is to populate it with their offspring. That’s one way, but not the only way.

You affect the future with your actions, big and small, and how they touch other lives and hearts. Your caring smile when someone is hurting affects them as only you can affect them.

You are a unique person, with unique knowledge. Your heartbeat echoes across eternity through the way you touch peoples’ hearts.

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You don’t have to attend every argument you’re invited to.

Think about it – some people just like to argue and will pick a fight with you so they have someone to argue with. And some people are really good at picking fights – if you’ve tried and succeeded before in ducking out of their desire for an argument, you can bet they’ll be back with better ammunition the next time.

If someone is confrontational, you don’t even have to respond. Try it – it’s very effective to just put a placid look on your face while they try to lure you into a fight.

If you feel you must say something, make it something soothing. You could say “I hear you and feel your frustration and am happy to have a conversation about this when you’ve calmed down.”

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When we get busy and harried, sometimes we get a little impatient or short-tempered.

If you don’t want your team reacting to your frantic energy, then take the bull by the horns – when you’re feeling busy or like you’re having to scramble just to keep up, much less catch up, stop. Give yourself a couple of moments to reset the mental game.

Yes, you’re busy. And yes, you’re up to the challenge. Things will stay in flow only if you stay in flow, so take a minute and breathe. Remind yourself that you have been busy before and it all worked out fine, and it will this time, too.

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Today, give yourself a huge gift.

Have you considered how contradictory your imposter syndrome is? Other people believe in you, come to you and pay you for your expertise. You don’t think you’re good enough, for some reason, so you’re feeling like an imposter. And you question the judgement of the people who believe in you, instead of questioning your own self-judgement.

When you’re struggling with imposter syndrome it could be useful to stop and make a list of all of the people who believe in you. Name names on that piece of paper. I

f you wouldn’t call them a fool or a liar to their face, why are you doing it inside your head?

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If you’re having issues with your team, do an experiment for one week. This will be tough and will require you to be present and focused on your own behavior.

Here’s the experiment – before you step inside the hospital each day, think about each team member you’ll work with that day. Think about their good qualities only – no negativity allowed – and think about what you respect and love about each one. If it helps, write this down before starting the experiment and then you can read it each day before you go to the hospital.

When you are 100% committed to loving and respecting the best in each team member, that’s what you’ll elicit from them. Go ahead – try this experiment and let me know how it goes

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Want to give yourself a huge hit of oxytocin? No, don’t reach for the syringe and dosing schedule, do something nice for someone.

Called “the helper’s high” doing something nice for others gives you a hit of oxytocin. Maybe you’ll like doing what I like doing – drive-by’s. When running errands, I pay attention to the people around me and call it out. If a woman has a fabulous smile, I tell her she’s winning at smiles today. When a little girl has on sparkly shoes, I tell her she’s winning at shoes.

The smiles I get tell me that they appreciate being noticed, and the feeling that gives me is at least as good at what I gave them. So today, try doing some drive-by’s and let them lift your spirits too.

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Do you love it? Do it…whatever “it” is.

Your work is a calling and can be very rewarding. It can also be very stressful, even on the best days, so it’s important for you to do other things that you love.

Giving yourself a creative or physical or intellectual pursuit to pour yourself into is a wonderful way for you to ease the stress, stretch your abilities and feed your soul.

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Can you ignore someone’s poor behavior? How about ignoring someone’s annoying behavior?

When you learn to ignore things that ordinarily set you off, you’re learning to create your own inner peace. When you allow someone else’s behavior to dictate yours, you’ve forgotten how to create your own inner peace.

Let other people do what they do – they’re going to do it anyway. Your job is to learn to ignore what has irritated you in the past – you’re not in control of the other person, but you are in control of your own inner peace.

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Do you ever question whether you’re in the right profession? That’s fairly common in the veterinary profession, where a childhood dream became a passion and then a career.

It’s normal to take stock in what you’re doing vs. what you dreamed you would be doing. If you find yourself questioning your career path often, it could be time for you to think seriously about what you want to do vs. what you’re doing.

Don’t be afraid to make a different career choice, but don’t make any major changes without serious consideration. Career and life counselors can help you, as can going to your mentors with your concerns.

Your degree is not a life sentence. You’re allowed to change your mind if you want to.

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Think of your hospital team like a wolf pack. You’re all in it together and the survival of the hospital wouldn’t be possible without the contributions of each team member.

Some are needier – think of them as wolf pups. Some, like new hires, are on the steep leg of the learning curve – think of them as the pack’s yearlings.

The dynamics of the pack shift and change from month to month and year to year as the pups and yearlings grow, and yet all contribute to the success of the hospital, even the needy ones. Sometimes there are spats over perceived slights, yet when the dust clears you see that the only thing harmed in the spats were feelings.

Wolf packs are highly social and specialized groupings – your team is, too. Focus on the strengths of your pack and watch it get even stronger.

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