5 Ways to Improve Your Job Satisfaction as a Veterinary Professional

I love this cover photo of the young lady holding up the fluffy teddy bear in a field. I believe this is what most of society think we do while doing our jobs as veterinary professionals.

That said…

In my opinion, veterinary professionals are completely awesome individuals, and we do have the best jobs! As veterinary professionals, it’s time we start tooting our own horns!

What profession offers a more rewarding upside potential than the veterinary profession? There may be one, but there certainly aren’t many.

While the veterinary profession is prestigious and rewarding, there are some obvious areas of the profession which can be very stressful — mentally, emotionally, and physically.

In order to keep balance, we — as veterinary professionals — must incorporate tools and strategies into our daily lives so that we can take maximum care of ourselves.

“The best thing we can do for our furry patients and our clients is take great care of ourselves as vet professionals. By focusing on ourselves, we can make poor veterinary wellbeing a thing of the past!” — Dr. Quincy Hawley, Co-founder, Get MotiVETed!

Let’s Make Our Jobs as Veterinarians Great Again!

Below are 5 easy and simple ways to increase your job satisfaction immediately, which will increase your personal and professional wellbeing.

1. Incorporate daily gratitude

“Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

Melody Beattie

This is by far one of the most powerful things that you can do. When you show gratitude for that which you already have, you are attracting more good things to come your way!

One of my favorite parts of gratitude is that it’s really hard to be in a negative attitude of mind while simultaneously showing gratitude for something.

This is also training you to always look for the best in every situation. In other words, this is truly teaching you the key to finding the advantage in every disadvantage and to find the opportunity in chaos.

Can you be grateful for the ‘negative’ parts of your day? By using gratitude, you can turn the negative things into positive experiences, and end your bad days once and for all. Once you learn to do this, you have mastered life. You are a mastermind.

As members of a profession that has LOTS of “negative things”:

 — Euthanasias

 — Trauma/Abuse cases

 — Owners that can’t afford treatment/diagnostics/preventatives

 — Terminal cases

 — And let’s not forget the infamous Gator Rolling, Anal Gland Spraying German Shephard that simply needs a rabies vaccine that has never bitten anyone before and doesn’t need a muzzle (I love my job!)

 — And Dr. Hawley’s personal favorite, the pissed-off cat that lunges at the cage when you get within 1 mile of it’s cage lol

As you can see, we have LOTS of opportunities to turn the negative things into LOTS of positive things.

2. Discuss Your Favorite Moments Instead of Your Worst Experiences of the Day

This exercise is so simple and makes such a huge difference!

Instead of doing the typical bashing of your complex cases, difficult patients, annoying co-workers, and rude clients, try doing the exact opposite.

When you come home, tell your friends or significant other about the cutest pet you had that day! Talk about nice things that your co-workers/employees did that made your day. They will appreciate you more for it!

By doing this, it helps you to focus on the positive events of the day. That which you focus on, you bring on.

That which you thing about, you bring about.

Therefore, attract positive things to you by only focusing and thinking about the positive experiences!

These are concepts that you must grasp and hold in your mind continuously, until you start to experience the magic of your thoughts and attitude of mind!

Note: If you must get a bad experience off of your chest, please understand that recreating it won’t help you, and it can’t help others! So unless you’re going into your venting session with the intention of getting something positive out of it, you may want to rethink it. It’s O.K. to vent, as long as you have a purpose.

3. Keep an Important Goal with You

“Review your goals twice every day in order to be focused on achieving them.”

Les Brown

Hopefully you have at least one goal that you’re working towards.

Once you have your goal in mind, write it down, memorize it, aand keep it with you at all times! Literally keep it in your pocket. Put it in your pocket in the morning, and take it out of your pocket when you get home.

Having something that you are working towards gives meaning to everything that you do throughout the day.

Therefore, when you run into the pissed-off cat or that gator rolling German Shepherd that is terrorizing your hospital, you don’t lose sight of your dreams and goals.

Goals should have a plan that follows the C-5 Complex.

“The plan should be clear, concise, compelling, and you’ve got to be consistent, and committed.” — Chris Gardener, Entrepreneur

When times get hard in the hospital…

When you have 5 euthanasias in one day…

When your boss is giving you a hard time…

When your team is giving you a hard time…

On the days when you just can’t get a break…

Remember your goals. Remember your dreams. Your dreams and goals will put everything in the correct perspective for you!

I know this sounds like a lot of ‘woo-woo’. I get that. But TRUTH is TRUTH. These are the principles I have lived by, and they have revolutionized and transformed my entire life!

4. Try Daily Motivation

Most people find motivation to be cheesy and ineffective at best and a complete waste of time at worst.

I’ve found daily motivation to be the anchor of my persistence and an important source of knowledge of myself. These two combined keep me focused on reaching my full potential, while enjoying the moments that I have every single day!

Listen to the following video every morning for the next 30 days. Take a chance and just try it! If you listen to something like this multiple times a day EVERY DAY, then there is no way your life won’t INSTANTLY improve! Yes! Just from listening to it!

Motivational Video

The reason most people find motivation ineffective, is because they only use motivation once or twice and don’t it again for days, weeks, months, or years. Much like personal development, motivation should be daily and deliberate.

Motivation, like bathing, needs to be done frequently. You don’t just take one shower and say ‘I’m clean for life!’, and you shouldn’t expect one day of motivation to change your life. Daily bathing keeps you clean, and daily motivation keeps you motivated for life.

I challenge you to try 3 times a day motivation as a 30-day challenge and see for yourself how powerful it can be.

5. Learn the Practice of Mindfulness

This is one of the most powerful tools someone can use to enhance their life immediately.

Call it self-awareness or something else, but if we don’t pay attention to the moments, then we will miss the beauty of the things we have in life.

Combine this with gratitude for something very, very special!

For more information on mindfulness, check out “The Mindfulness Body Scan for Veterinary Professionals” and “How to Decrease Anxiety and Stress”.

 I’ll Leave You With This…

As veterinary professionals we have amazing opportunities every day to help animals who can’t help themselves and to serve clients who need our expertise and dedication.

I don’t know you personally, but I want you to live the best life possible for yourself, and it is our aim at Get MotiVETed to empower you to believe in yourself, and we provide you with everything we can to help you succeed!

You are an amazing individual who can be what you want to be and do what you want to do in life.

Let’s try to make our profession better by becoming better ourselves.

To receive weekly emails with amazing veterinary specific content and resources to help you become your best self, join the Get MotiVETed Online Community, where we are dedicated to making poor veterinary wellbeing a thing of the past! It’s free to join!

Thanks for reading this article! Feel free to leave a comment below!

35 thoughts on “5 Ways to Improve Your Job Satisfaction as a Veterinary Professional”

  1. You made some respectable points there. I seemed on the internet for the difficulty and located most individuals will go along with along with your website.

  2. Wonderful blog! I found it while browsing on Yahoo News.
    Do you have any tips on how to get listed in Yahoo News?
    I’ve been trying for a while but I never seem to get there!
    Thank you

  3. I enjoy what you guys are usually up too. This type of clever work and coverage!
    Keep up the terrific works guys I’ve added you guys to blogroll.

  4. Hey I know this is off topic but I was wondering if you knew of any widgets I could add to my blog that automatically tweet my
    newest twitter updates. I’ve been looking for a plug-in like this for quite some time and was hoping maybe you would have some experience with something like
    this. Please let me know if you run into anything. I truly enjoy reading your blog
    and I look forward to your new updates.

  5. Hi! This post couldn’t be written any better! Reading this post reminds me of my
    good old room mate! He always kept talking about this.
    I will forward this post to him. Pretty sure
    he will have a good read. Thank you for sharing!

  6. Great beat ! I wish to apprentice even as you amend your website, how could i subscribe for a blog site?
    The account aided me a acceptable deal. I were a little bit acquainted of
    this your broadcast offered vivid clear concept

  7. It’s really a great and useful piece of info. I’m satisfied that you just shared this
    helpful info with us. Please keep us informed like this.
    Thanks for sharing.

  8. It’s very effortless to find out any matter on net as compared to textbooks, as I found this paragraph at
    this web site.

  9. Undeniably believe that which you said. Your favorite reason appeared to be on the web the easiest
    thing to be aware of. I say to you, I certainly get irked while people consider worries that they just don’t know
    about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top as well as defined out the whole thing without having side effect
    , people can take a signal. Will likely be back to get more.
    Thanks

  10. Asking questions are truly fastidious thing if you are not understanding anything entirely, but this article provides good understanding even.

  11. I am really enjoying the theme/design of your website.
    Do you ever run into any browser compatibility problems?
    A number of my blog visitors have complained about my blog not working correctly in Explorer
    but looks great in Safari. Do you have any solutions to help fix this problem?

  12. Fine way of telling, and fastidious piece of
    writing to obtain facts regarding my presentation focus, which i am going to
    deliver in school.

  13. Hi! I just want to offer you a big thumbs up for the excellent info you have got here
    on this post. I am coming back to your blog for more
    soon.

  14. I think this is one of the most significant info for me.
    And i am glad reading your article. But should remark on few
    general things, The website style is great, the articles
    is really nice : D. Good job, cheers

  15. I was recommended this web site by way of
    my cousin. I am not certain whether this post is written by way of
    him as no one else recognise such targeted about my
    problem. You are wonderful! Thanks!

  16. Magnificent goods from you, man. I’ve understand your stuff previous to and you are just too fantastic.
    I actually like what you’ve acquired here, certainly like what you are saying and the way in which you say it.
    You make it enjoyable and you still take care of to keep it smart.

    I cant wait to read much more from you. This is actually a terrific
    website.

  17. My programmer is trying to convince me to move to .net from PHP.
    I have always disliked the idea because of the expenses.
    But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using WordPress on numerous websites for about a year and
    am worried about switching to another platform. I have heard good
    things about blogengine.net. Is there a way I can import all my
    wordpress content into it? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

  18. Yesterday, while I was at work, my sister stole my apple ipad and tested to see if it can survive a 25 foot drop, just
    so she can be a youtube sensation. My apple ipad is now destroyed and she has 83
    views. I know this is completely off topic but I had to share it with
    someone!

  19. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I really appreciate your
    efforts and I am waiting for your next post thank
    you once again.

  20. Have you ever thought about including a little bit more than just your articles?
    I mean, what you say is valuable and all. However imagine if you added some great photos or video clips to give your
    posts more, “pop”! Your content is excellent but with pics and videos, this
    blog could definitely be one of the greatest in its niche.

    Wonderful blog!

  21. Great site you have here.. It’s difficult to find good quality writing like yours these
    days. I really appreciate people like you! Take care!!

  22. Hi, i feel that i noticed you visited my blog thus i got here to return the desire?.I’m trying to find things to improve
    my website!I suppose its good enough to make use of some of your
    ideas!!

  23. Somebody necessarily lend a hand to make severely articles I’d state.
    That is the very first time I frequented your web page and
    up to now? I amazed with the research you made to create this particular put up amazing.
    Excellent job!

  24. I think this is one of the most important info for me.
    And i’m glad reading your article. But should
    remark on some general things, The web site style is great, the articles is really
    great : D. Good job, cheers

  25. I’ve been browsing on-line more than 3 hours nowadays, but I
    never discovered any attention-grabbing article like yours.
    It is pretty value enough for me. In my view, if all website owners and bloggers made excellent content as
    you did, the net might be much more useful than ever before.

Comments are closed.