Tiny Bites of Wagaliciousness

If you’re not the owner of the hospital, perhaps you feel a bit of pressure to sell things like special shampoos, over-the-counter supplements, dog food and whatever else your hospital offers. Remember – you are NOT the salesperson. You are the doctor of veterinary medicine and as such, you understand the importance of proper nutrition, support from specific supplements and how using the right sha...

Are you a confident person? Just what is confidence, anyway? Confidence is a feeling or belief that you can do something well or succeed at something, according to Merriam-Webster. Confidence tends to grow with age, because we gain more perspective about whether we can do something well and about whether it’s even ours to fix or not! When you trust your ability to learn new things, you gain confid...

Do you feel inadequate when you don’t know the answer to a question? Many people, especially people who aim to be high achievers, hold themselves to impossible standards and then beat themselves up when they fall short of those impossible standards. Did I mention that the standards are impossible? It’s not possible to know the answer to every single question – what is possible and admirable and se...

You’re smart. You got into vet school, got through vet school, passed your state exam and now you’re practicing medicine on your furry, feathered, finny or whatever-outer-coating patients in your hospital. The continuing education requirement is something you have to stay focused on so you don’t have to cram two years of CE requirements into a two-week period just to stay licensed. All of your sch...

Have you ever heard the phrase “it takes two to tango?” Well, it takes two to argue, as well. When you find yourself having to deal with an angry client, give them plenty of time to vent. Let them pour out their irritation until they have nothing else to say. When they’re quiet, maybe even take a breath before you start to reply. Then speak in a quiet, even, as-gentle-as-you-can-manage tone of voi...

Losing a patient is hard, especially when it seems like the treatment plan was right, the owners were compliant and the pet died anyway. Because pet life spans are so much shorter than human life spans, veterinarians deal with patient loss a lot more often than human doctors do. Here’s the immutable fact – everything that’s alive dies. Everything. And in spite of your very best efforts, you can’t...

What do you love to do outside of your career? Another way to ask that question – what is your hobby? Hiking with your dog? Golf? Travel? Whatever feeds your soul, do it. When looking at your weekly calendar you should see your hobby reflected there somehow. Block out time for your hobby and don’t let work or other obligations continually crowd out your hobby. Mental wellbeing is necessary in orde...

How does it make you feel when a client tells you what they read on the internet? Obviously, how you feel is at least a little bit driven by what they say – “I saw this – is it true” is very different than “here’s what the problem is – I’m not paying for tests or a physical exam, just give me the drugs they talk about in this blog post.” Know that, whether they tell you or not, your clients are pr...

Do you sometimes find it hard to prioritize your non-appointment tasks? It may help to think about how those tasks impact your clients – you know, the people whose money keeps the hospital running. Tasks that inform a client about test results is probably more important than re-organizing your desktop for efficiency. Yes, that’s important, but keeping a client informed is key to keeping them satis...

What is the ailment you see most commonly in your veterinary practice? No matter what it is, study it, stay up to date on the latest research about it and be a great resource for your clients and staff on that ailment. Be as good as you can possibly be when it comes to the most common problem that walks in your hospital door – the confidence that creates in your clients, your staff and yourself wi...

Have you ever heard the phrase – or maybe read the book – Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow? You’ve wanted to be a veterinarian for most of your life. You’ve worked hard, sacrificed a lot and spent a lot to become a veterinarian. Focus on being the best veterinarian you can possibly be. Don’t stress about money. Don’t even focus on money, as tough as that piece of advice can be to follow....

Kent Kruse, a VetPartner colleague, suggests... My advice would be for veterinarians to ignore the recommendations of veterinary management “consultants” not to carry an Accounts Receivable. It has been well proven that a professionally managed A/R billing service (NOT a 3rd party billing service!) can significantly supplement practice revenue while creating affordability for pet owners who need t...

Did you know that you’re an example to the team, and often the “attitude” leader? Whether you’re the practice-owning veterinarian, an associate vet or a relief vet, the rest of the team often looks to you as the de-facto leader. Why do you need to care? Because your attitude affects them more than you know. When you can be intentional about staying calm, centered and businesslike, the rest of the...

Take half a day and learn about you. Sign up for personality tests, find your core strengths, then shape your future accordingly. Thanks, Dr. Cooney – veterinarians spend so much time caring for patients, clients and staff they often forget to focus on their needs and their future! Want more?   Click here   for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

Are you tilting at windmills, you Don Quixote you? If it’s been a while since you read that book – or at least the Cliff’s Notes – that means that you’re battling imaginary foes or wasting your time and energy on unimportant tasks. It’s easy to get side-tracked by hospital drama when your energy would be better spent on client communication, for example. Healthy teams focus on doing mission-critic...

Every job has its stresses. Don’t let the hard days steal your joy. Remember your why! Why you wanted to be a veterinarian in the first place – why you worked tirelessly, studied tirelessly and maybe even celebrated tirelessly when you passed your state licensing exam. Hold onto those feelings when a hard day hits. Want more?   Click here   for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Insid...

What do you think about on the way home from the hospital? Are you focused on the drive or ruminating over the day’s challenges? Are you beating yourself up over a decision you made or anticipating a lovely evening? You’re in charge of where your mind goes – at the end of your workday, direct your thoughts to what you’re looking forward to instead of where you’ve already been. Even if it’s just lo...

Today’s Tiny Bite of wellbeing wisdom is from Dr. Zack Bissell, who practices in Jacksonville, FL at Coastal Veterinary Hospital. Dr. Bissell’s advice for other veterinarians is to trust your gut when working up a case and never be afraid to ask for help. On his team are veterinarians with 10 to 20 years of practicing veterinary medicine and they ask each other for advice daily. Asking for help is...

Is it more important to you that you win an argument or that you feel good? Most of life teaches us it’s important to be right, so when spats, arguments or even civilized differences of opinions crop up it’s easy to try to “win” the conversation. Most of the time, everyone loses in that scenario. It takes two people to argue – if you choose not to be one of them then an argument can’t happen. You'...

Today’s Tiny Bite of wellbeing wisdom is from Dr. Rebecca Kestle, owner of Cliftwood Animal Hospital in Sandy Springs, GA. You’re going to make mistakes – don’t beat yourself up about them. Learn from them, and take guidance from more experienced co-workers, regardless of their position. Find a mentor that you like and respect. Be open to input from those who care about you, your career and someon...

Is your life funny-crazy sometimes? Sometimes life is absurd – strange things happen that shouldn’t be able to happen, and sometimes you are present enough to see it. Enjoy the ridiculousness of life…when you’re in the moment, you’ll notice little bits of funny, crazy, ridiculous things. The smile and maybe even laugh that those things cause raises your endorphins for hours afterwards, helping you...

Got a client coming in today that you dread seeing? Maybe they’re difficult, or maybe they’re a close-talker, or maybe they just don’t know when it’s time to leave? When you know you have to spend time with someone you don’t love spending time with, try this – make up a story about why they are the way they are. Make it a tale of woe, like something bad happened to them in childhood that caused th...

Do you try to live up to other peoples’ ideas of who you should be? If there’s someone in your life who expects you to behave, believe and achieve the way they want you to that’s probably causing you a lot of stress, whether you realize it or not. So before you jump through a hoop someone else thinks you should jump through, ask yourself if YOU want to jump through that hoop. You have your own inn...

Did someone pop your balloon today? Did your day start off well and then someone did something so bad that you just can’t find your fun self? Try this – is there anything you can do, right this minute, to make that person take back what they did? Can you fix what they did? Can you erase what they did? No to all of that? Then your power is in letting it go. When your brain starts working it li...

Do you worry a lot? Seriously, if you worry a lot, what you’re really doing is using your incredible imagination to create something you don’t want. And remember when I told you that your brain can’t tell the difference between reality and the thoughts inside your head? Yep – when you worry you’re creating stress hormones, muscle tightness, and contributing to long-term damage to the cells in your...