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.
As a veterinarian who has had my own personal wellbeing struggles, I’m really excited to see many organizations and individuals increasing the awareness of these challenges and offering solutions to them.
However, I’m not sure we are hearing enough of the cold, hard truth behind how to achieve true wellbeing, and in this article, I want to do 2 things:
- Address a very important aspect of wellbeing that is rarely emphasized!
- Provide a simple strategy you can adopt today that will instantly improve the quality of your days!
You Can’t Delegate Your Own Veterinary 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 true wellbeing and abundant happiness.
However, having overcome my own wellbeing struggles and having studied the subject extensively, I can confidently say that:
The major key to your veterinary wellbeing is YOU!
If you go look in the mirror, 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 veterinary wellbeing as a veterinary professional?
Who is responsible for your wellbeing as a veterinary professional?
That’s a question that every man and woman needs to ask himself or herself, and he/she must answer that question with 100% honesty.
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 and self-destructing 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 reshape my perspective of life!
In the veterinary profession, we could really stand to adopt this frame of mind.
We expect SO MUCH!
We expect the clients to behave a certain way. We expect them to be able to handle the treatment plans we present to them. 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.
GM PowerNote: 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 even years!
By turning our expectations into appreciation, we can decrease the amount of ‘dwell’ or ‘worry’ time down to seconds and minutes.
GM PowerNote: Mindfulness is a tool that veterinary professionals rarely use that would provide major value in terms of veterinary wellbeing. Learn more by taking our Get MotiVETed University Mindfulness and Meditation course!
People 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 be 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.
And now, that mindset IS MY RELIGION, and it has helped me to create a life like I have never experienced before!
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
The greater your wellbeing, the greater your productivity and performance in all areas of life!
YOU have the power to choose your own future, 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 create it!
No one has to settle for a life of mediocrity. I didn’t, and it has been the best decision of my life!
Like a true millennial would say, “Do you!”
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.
By controlling your thoughts, feelings, actions, and personal beliefs, you can create the life that you want!
Thank You for Reading! Help Us Make Poor Veterinary Wellbeing a Thing of the Past!
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Please email me at quincy.hawley@getmotiveted.com if this resonated with you!
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