Crushing the dark narrative in Veterinary Medicine.

Let’s change the narrative before it changes us.

Do these words resonate with you?

Stress. Fear. Anxiety. Worry. Anger. Frustration. Toxic. Worn out. Broken. Tired. Shitty. 

Want to change them to these?

JOY. Happiness. Contentment. Fun. Enthusiastic. Passionate. Invigorating. Generous. Fulfilling.

Lets DEFEAT burnout. Yes, I mean to say, defeat it, overcome it, replace it with a different feeling. 

But How?...

Build your skills, armor yourself and your team with the competencies to navigate difficult conversations, difficult people and difficult circumstances. It starts with mindset and critical thinking, then we add dialogue skills (aka ‘people skills’), then we practice, then we build confidence, THEN we defeat, we crush burnout to the ground. 

Our mindset matters. It guides the way we feel and then consequently how we think. It is the ‘feelings’ about things that affect our behavior and our thinking. Let’s think about thinking! 

We are being challenged daily with a narrative that highlights and emphasizes how hard veterinary medicine is, how crummy the job is, how much stress and demand there is in this profession because of difficult clients, difficult patients, toxic teams...and the list goes on. It’s true, this profession is hard,difficult, challenging, stressful, exhausting. Thank Gawd! If it wasn’t, then everyone would be doing it. But everyone isn’t doing it, only the few that have all the traits, skills and attributes to do so.

 
That’s us! That’s we! That’s me!

We change this narrative. Let’s think about thinking! By doing so we create or modify a mindset that promotes joy and fulfillment and puts the dark side in its proper place, not forgotten, just out of the front row. How the hell do we do that? We look at ourselves in a scientific nerdy way using our developed competencies of thinking and reasoning. Reflect on the attributes and skills that every person in veterinary medicine has; intelligence, strength, critical thinking, decision making, assessment, evaluation, observation, communication and most of all, our insatiable curiosity. Let’s take those key things, those important parts of ourselves and apply it to our mindset and change this story. 

We are intelligent. 

“I think therefore I am”, a most famous quote by Rene Descartes.

This means I can think, I can evaluate and I can make decisions. 

I will think about this story, I will evaluate it’s real truth and I will decide to change it with skill, with thoughtfulness, with intention and with grit.

We are strong. 

I will use this to work on changing this story, to show the other side of veterinary medicine; the joy, the satisfaction of jobs well done, the absolute gratitude we are given daily by the very people who believe in us. Let’s never forget about the silent gratitude we are given from the animals we treat, we save and we cure. There is such power in that. 

We are insatiably curious.

I will tap into this to wonder why this current narrative is so dark. I will wonder how I can change my focus. I will wonder how my colleagues, friends and mentors are doing and I will ask their best mindset practices. I will wonder what I need to do each day to celebrate.  I will question things for a solution or answer, not to validate a negative thought. I will create a thinking habit that starts with, “I wonder . . . “.

We communicate.

I will use skillful and meaningful dialogue to connect with other people; clients, colleagues, friends, family, people I like and even with people I don’t like. I will be mindful and use positive intent when talking to fellows within my profession, when talking to family and friends and when talking about this great profession. ‘Dialogue is the key to human connection.’ I will use that and it will have a positive impact on me and those around me. I will build my skills and competencies in this area. I will invest time, energy and resources into this skill development. 

Let’s change the narrative. Because it’s within us to do so. Because we want to. Because there is such beauty and joy and love in this profession. Because we are freaking awesome!

Because we can. 

#changethenarrative #defeatburnout #communicationskills

Becky