Have you had anything bad or negative happen to you in the last month?
As veterinary professionals, most of us will experience adversity, obstacles, and challenges quite frequently – especially if you are in clinical practice. I mean, sometimes, the patient undergoing an elective procedure dies. Sometimes, the client can’t afford treatment. And sometimes, you can’t fix the patient and/or please the client.
These things are true and well enough. However, by the intelligent use and practice of deep gratitude, veterinary professionals can literally improve their wellbeing instantly!
By learning to constructively evaluate your day at the end of each day, you can identify the things that annoyed you the most. You can then use gratitude to change your perspective and see how the ‘bad’ things were in actuality growth opportunities! Once you master this, you ‘worst’ days will become your best days!
If I can make this mindset shift, you can definitely do it too!
This is my religion! As a veterinary professional, this is what I believe in my core. This is how I look at EVERYTHING!
I first found the information below in January of 2017, and I literally haven’t had a bad day since learning and implementing this gratitude practice faithfully.
Sure…
I’ve had things happen to me.
I’ve had challenges and struggles – a lot of them to be honest. We all do. That’s called life.
But when you truly adopt this mindset, nothing will be able to shake you! It really is magical!
In this brief article, it is my aim to convince you to take the practice of gratitude seriously and to implement into your personal and professional life.
A Word of Caution: Before you dismiss this article as being ‘another cheesy gratitude article’ understand that not reading it in its entirety could be at the expense of your own wellbeing.
Get MotiVETed PowerNote: Wellbeing is multifactorial. That is very true.
There are SO many things that go into what it takes to achieve a culture of wellbeing for yourself and/or your organization.
Deep gratitude alone has the power to eliminate ‘bad days’ for you and your practice. And here is why…
Without gratitude, you can’t keep from unhappy thoughts regarding things as they are for a sustained period of time, and in veterinary practice, things often appear to be negative.
“The moment you permit your mind to dwell with dissatisfaction upon things as they are, you begin to lose ground. You fix attention upon the common, the ordinary, the poor, the squalid, and the mean… and the common, the poor, the squalid, and the mean will come to you,” says Wallace Wattles.
He later goes on to say, “To permit your mind to dwell on the inferior is to become inferior and to surround yourself with inferior things. On the other hand, to fix your attention on the best is to surround yourself with the best and to become the best… the grateful mind is constantly fixed upon the best. Therefore, it tends to become the best. It takes the form or character of the best, and will receive the best.”
These quotes are from Wattles’ book The Science of Getting Rich in the chapter on gratitude.
Can these principles be applied to your life?
Can you apply these in your days at the clinic?
Can you apply these to your clients and cases?
Can you apply these to your co-workers?
Can you apply these in your relationship with your significant other?
I assure you that you can.
Here are a few simple ways to integrate this into your veterinary life. Write these down daily if you can. Aim for doing this in the morning and in the evening:
Think about one thing that has gone wrong in the past year and write out why you are grateful for it. How did you improve or grow from the adversity? It obviously didn’t kill you if you are reading this. What life lesson were you supposed to learn, and did you learn it? We are not defined by our mistakes, failures, shortcomings, and obstacles. Instead, we are defined by how we react to those things, and by reacting with gratitude, we can rise above anything we face in life!
Think of the person at work who annoys you the most or that you dislike the most. Perhaps it is someone you think is a jerk or incompetent. What is their most positive quality? Show gratitude for their good attributes. By being grateful for their positive qualities and only looking at the good in them, you may be able to experience them in a more positive way in the future. Remember, judge not unless you be judged also. People don’t need to be condemned, judged, or punished. They need to be nurtured. Complement them on their positive qualities. What you appreciate will appreciate.
Think about a case that you’ve had recently that had a poor outcome. Maybe it was a euthanasia. Maybe a surgery went wrong. Maybe it was a case that could have been treated if the owner had money, but because they didn’t have money you had to watch the animal walk away untreated. Can you find gratitude in that situation? Where is the one good thing in these case outcomes? Can you focus on them? Sometimes we have to focus really hard to find the good in a ‘bad’ situation. However, anything worthwhile takes time to cultivate. Mastering deep gratitude will help you eliminate bad days from your life. It can literally take you from experiencing Hell on Earth to experiencing Heaven during your time on this amazing planet. You have nothing to lose.
The simple process of always looking for the good in everything will change your experiences at the clinic.
If you notice, I didn’t mention being grateful for the good things that happen. However, it is good to be grateful for the good things too. Being grateful for the good things is easy to do; though, we sometimes forget to do it; therefore, be sure to write these down daily, as well.
It takes skill to be grateful for the things that appear to be bad. It takes skill to be able to find opportunity in chaos and see advantages in disadvantages.
It is not easy to be grateful all the time. It is difficult to see the good in:
- Student loan debt
- Your current body image
- Days when the schedule is crazy
- Days of low productivity
- Cases that don’t go well
- People who annoy you
- A divorce
- Even the loss of a loved one
However, this practice of focusing on the good in all things isn’t meant to be easy. It’s meant to be effective.
“It is necessary, then, to cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.” Wallace Wattles
In summary, gratitude can be added to your wellbeing toolbox TODAY and for literally NO COST. Not only could it revolutionize the entire existence of your life, but it could also provide major improvements to the life of any human. Therefore, be sure to share it with your non-veterinary friends and family, as well!
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