“Using vacation to escape veterinary burnout is like going to the bank in an effort to escape poverty or a low bank balance. In other words, it’s the right idea, but a TERRIBLE strategy.”
You may have heard before that taking vacation and time off will rid you of your experience of veterinary burnout.
I personally LOVE going on vacations! In fact, I’ll be going to Cancun with my wife in a few weeks! Woot Woot!
While vacations are awesome for seeing new places, enjoying family, chilling on nice beaches, exploring new cultures, eating good foods, and a little rest and relaxation, they aren’t true solutions to burnout.
At best, they are bandages and superficial/temporary fixes for deep disfunction in lifestyle…
Sometimes, you can even come back from vacation even more exhausted! You and your significant other could potentially bicker and argue the entire time!
And IF you were using vacation to escape your miserable vet life and home life… well… you’ve got to leave the beautiful paradise to come back to what you perceive as a job you hate and an overwhelming life!
Yea, that’s a mouthful, but it’s TRUE! And I know it’s true because I’ve been there and done that!
If you are experiencing veterinary burnout, then I’m almost positive that there is a lack of wellbeing strategy, a bad wellbeing strategy, or the inability to follow a good strategy for maintaining a life of wellbeing!
The Underlying Causes of Burnout
At its MOST BASIC level, Veterinary Burnout results from:
- The lack of an effective vet career strategy and/or life strategy
- The inability to implement and execute a good strategy
Here’s a (my favorite) strategy for free:
- Develop an advancing perspective – are you getting BETTER or BITTER from the things that happen in life and vet med? Are you getting THROUGH everyday or are you getting something FROM everyday? Can you see advantages in disadvantages? Can you find opportunity where there appears to be chaos?
- Develop powerful Core beliefs and Healthy self-belief –> Do you believe that it’s possible for you to have a burnout free life and career? Do you believe that you have what it takes to create the quality of life that you want?
- Be ALL IN Committed to Your Wellbeing – Commit to a burnout free life of wellbeing
- Harness Creative Imagination – Idealize and visualize what your ideal life would look like. What would burnout free look like for you if you had Aladdin’s Genie Lamp or if you had a magic wand?
- Take MASSIVE Action – Work towards what you created in #4 like crazy until you nail it!
If you want to further define this strategy that has been battle tested, then you might want to check out the world’s first school of wellbeing specifically for veterinary professionals.
Trying to use vacation to escape veterinary burnout is like going to the bank in an effort to escape poverty or a low bank balance.
In other words, it’s the right idea, but a TERRIBLE strategy.
Without fail, whenever I’m speaking to someone who isn’t enjoying life and/or vet med, one or more of these five parts of the formula is missing. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
So the question is: Which of these areas are you missing/lacking?
Here’s the good news:
If your life isn’t what you want it to be and this is the first time you’ve seen this formula, then I want to personally congratulate you on your very near future.
Why am I congratulating you?
Well, let me answer that question like this…
What if I gave you gourmet steak and crab legs to eat?
What if when I gave you the steak, I didn’t give you a fork and knife?
What if you didn’t know how to extract the meat from the crab shell?
What if I didn’t give you those crab cracking things for the claws?
What if you didn’t know about butter and old bay to go on the crab legs?
What if you didn’t know how to work your fingers, hands, arms, and mouth?
How much would you enjoy the steak and crab legs?
Well, seeing that you don’t have the tools to eat the steak and that you lack the appropriate strategy to use the tools, you wouldn’t be able to enjoy them very much!
How does this apply to your life and vet career?
When you were born and when you entered the veterinary profession, you were “given steak and crab legs” as it relates to your life experience, but if you don’t have the tools and strategies to enjoy these nice things, then… you won’t be able to enjoy these nice things lol!
Summary: What’s it gonna be? Veterinary Burnout or Veterinary Wellbeing?
I want to close this article by inviting you to our school of wellbeing where we help you discover the tools and strategies for being able to extract the enjoyment from life and vet med!
Don’t ‘go hungry’ for fulfillment and enjoyment in this life and profession.
Many are ‘starving’… but you damn sure don’t have to be one of them!
I used to be one of the starving humans/vet professionals out there. It sucked. Saying ‘it sucked’ is a drastic understatement to be honest.
You can certainly beat burnout, but it is going to take some work! Check out our online school of wellbeing where you can get up to 12 hours of RACE-approved veterinary specific wellbeing content!
Life and vet med were meant to be enjoyed and not endured. We make enjoying those things simple!
Last, but not least, never forget that The Major Key to Your Veterinary Wellbeing is You!
Looking for AWESOME veterinary wellbeing and/or veterinary burnout prevention speakers for your next veterinary event?
“Loved this! Thank you for this presentation! Love how inspiring and positive you are and hope to incorporate this in my own life and workplace.”
– Linda Jones
