The Major Key to Your Veterinary Wellbeing is YOU!
I’m sure you’ve noticed that we are hearing more and more about compassion fatigue, burnout, depression, suicidal ideation and other aspects of poor veterinary wellbeing and mental health in the veterinary profession. After having my own personal wellbeing struggles, I’m really excited to see many organizations and individuals increasing the awareness of these challenges.
However, I’m not sure we are hearing enough of the cold, hard truth behind how to be well, and in this article, I want to address a very important aspect of wellbeing that is rarely emphasized! I also provide a simple strategy you can adopt today that will instantly improve the quality of your days!
You Can’t Delegate Your Own Wellbeing
I admit that I don’t know everything in the realm of wellbeing. I also admit that there are many avenues to obtaining a life of wellbeing and abundant happiness.
With that being said, having overcome my own wellbeing struggles and having studied the subject extensively, I can confidently say that the major key to your wellbeing is you! Go look in the mirror, and there you will see the ULTIMATE SOLUTION to all of your personal and professional riddles and challenges!
The best part about it is that you can achieve anything you set your mind to. I know it’s cliché, but it’s a damn good cliché, and it works very well! So set your mind to achieving the highest level of human wellbeing possible, and enjoy the journey and the fantastic and bountiful results you are guaranteed to receive!
Who is responsible for your wellbeing as a veterinary professional?
Who is responsible for your wellbeing? Your Mom? Your Dad? Your Brother? Your Sister? Your Hubby? Wifey? Your kids? Your boss? The AVMA? The organization you work for? A friend? All of your friends? The government? The Church? Some religious deity? Your pets? Your significant other?
Whose responsibility is it for you to be well? That’s the question of the century!
Well, through some really difficult times, I had to learn the ‘hard’ way that only I was responsible for my own personal wellbeing, which is a good thing, right? Wouldn’t it suck if your wellbeing and happiness was at the hands of someone else? What if that person started tripping? What if they started acting up? Then your happiness would be at stake. Luckily for us all, we are in control of our wellbeing!
When I first realized this, it was a hard pill to swallow! I could have sworn that the reason I was abusing alcohol was because of my wife, my employer, my family, and everybody in the world except for myself.
I can’t delegate my wellbeing, and you certainly can’t delegate yours either. It’s the responsibility of each individual to make sure that he or she is well! Support groups and networks are great resources that make the process easier, but at the end of the day, it’s up to the individual. You are capable of achieving a life of good wellbeing! However, we do need tools, and below you will find one tool to add to your ‘life of wellbeing’ toolbox.
Turn Your Expectations into Appreciation
One of my mentors, Tony Robbins, says that we must learn to “turn expectations into appreciation”. This little piece of advice was so profound for me, and it literally helped change my life!
In the veterinary profession, we could really stand to adopt this frame of mind.
We expect the clients to behave a certain way. We expect big corporate hospitals to treat us a certain way. We expect the animals to act and respond a certain way. We expect hospital owners and PMs to behave a certain way. As doctors, we expect the nurses and support staff to behave a certain way. As support staff, we expect the doctors to behave a certain way. When they don’t behave, we get pissed and complain about it. We log onto our Facebook ‘support group’ of choice and have a ‘professional discussion’ (aka bash-fest) about how people, pets, and organizations didn’t behave appropriately.
Note: By behave a ‘certain way’ I simply mean behave in the way that YOU deem appropriately for them to behave. There isn’t necessarily a very clear ‘right way’ to behave. What I think is right may be different than what you think and vice versa.
But wait, it gets even better!
After we leave work, we go home and expect our husband, wife, kids, friends, family, and even the President of the country to behave a certain way, and when they don’t, we get pissed! Here comes bash-fest number 2!
Even worse, we may internalize the negative emotions and let them marinate in our souls for all eternity! OK… maybe not for all eternity, but sometimes we allow these things to torment us for hours, days, and sometimes weeks, months, and years! By turning our expectations into appreciation, we can decrease the amount of ‘dwell’ or ‘worry’ time down to seconds and minutes.
They Aren’t Going to Behave the Way You Want Them to… Accept That!
“As long as you’re expecting things you’re going to be disappointed. You’re expecting people to be a certain way. They’re not going to be. If the only time you’re happy is when they all act and behave a certain way, then you’re not going to happy very much,” Robbins goes on to say.
Boom! There lies a major part to the veterinary wellbeing challenge! When I changed my expectations of the world and others into appreciation, my life instantly improved! That simple mindset shift empowered me to take responsibility for my own future. It allowed me to see the beauty in things that before seemed ugly. It allowed me to see advantages where most people saw disadvantages, and it allowed me to find the opportunity in the ‘chaos’ all around me.
My relationships with my family and friends improved. My relationships with my clients and coworkers improved. Instead of expecting them to be a certain way, I simply appreciated who they were! It wasn’t always easy to do, but just as it is with anything, it gets better with consistent practice!
You Have the Power to Change Your Life Situation
In January 2018, I retired from practicing veterinary medicine (I graduated from veterinary school in 2013). I was good at my job, but I realized that my calling was to do what I’m doing now (writing, coaching, motivational speaking), so I was never satisfied with my job as a practicing veterinarian. Now, through my calling and my story, I can help even more pets than I did as a practicing veterinarian through empowering members of the veterinary community to be well. The greater an individual’s wellbeing, the greater their productivity and performance in all areas of life!
My point is this: I could have stayed in the job as a practicing veterinarian, but I would have always been at risk for poor wellbeing. I was really worried about what people would think of me for going to school for 8 years and then leaving veterinary medicine. In order to be well, sometimes we have to get over the fear of what other people will think of us for doing what we want to do in life.
We have the power to choose our own futures, regardless of what anyone else thinks. So, if you want to change something about your life, change yourself first, but be empowered! Believe in yourself enough to know that you can create the EXACT life you want for yourself, and then go do it! You don’t have to settle for mediocrity. I didn’t, and it has been the best decision of my life! Like a true millennial would say, “Do you!”
The Get MotiVETed Weekly Challenge
For this week’s Get MotiVETed challenge, think of something that or someone who annoys you. It can be something or someone in your personal life or it can be someone or something in your professional life. It can even be a challenging situation that you are going through right now. Write out at least 3 things that you APPRECIATE about the person, object, or situation. Write more than 3 if you can. After you’ve created your list, look at the list at least twice a day for the next 7 days.
Remember: Expecting the world and people to behave a certain way and trying to get them to behave a certain way isn’t necessarily effective and can quickly land you in a realm of being disappointed. This week’s challenge will help you to focus on the one aspect of life that you will always be able to control, which is yourself.
By controlling your thoughts, feelings, actions, and personal beliefs, you can create the life that you want!
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Please leave comments below!
Also, please join the Get MotiVETed Veterinary Wellbeing community to receive novel tools and strategies that will ensure that you make the rest of your life the best of your life!
