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Perspective

Birthday Reflections: Our Only Constant Is Change

December 15, 2022 by Andy Roark DVM MS

My friend was recently mortified when she took her young son to see his grandparents for Thanksgiving. On arrival, my friend released her little boy from his carseat, allowing him to sprint to his grandmother’s waiting arms. As he reached her, the boy said excitedly, “Grandmother! You’ve gotten older!”

The little boy meant this as the highest compliment because nothing makes him happier than when people tell him he looks older. I asked my friend how her mother received the compliment and she said “Exactly as it was intended! She showed him how the skin under her arms jiggles now when she flaps her arms.”

Another Birthday, Another Lesson-Learned

Getting older is not for the faint of heart. Last week I turned 46 and it dawned on me that 50 is hurtling toward me. My right foot now hurts when I run. I have to peek out of the bottom of my glasses to look at my cell phone. And last week I even secretly took a photo of a medicine bottle at the clinic just so I could zoom in and read part of the label. 

But you know what? I’m pretty happy. 

Life got a lot easier for me when I recognized that nothing in this world is constant except change. My friends, my kids, my career, my body… they’re all in a state of flux, and they always will be.

Accept Change And Find Happiness

What if we could skip the pain that comes with fighting against the inconvenience of change? Does that open us up to find joy in the here and now? As I think more about it, I feel that the key to smiling and finding happiness as time passes is to have realistic expectations. 

Expectations that things won’t always be what they once were or how we imagined them. Easier said than done. But not impossible. Setting goals that give us space to embrace change and where we are in life can be helpful.

My goal for when I turn 50 is to truly be at home in the skin of a 50 year-old person. It’s to enjoy the perks of experience, without raging against loss of physical youth. It’s to be fully engaged with my friends and family as they are, and not how they were 10 or 20 or 30 years ago. It’s to pick up new hobbies and interests, and not feel guilty as I put down some of those I enjoyed in the past.

As I enter my 46th trip around the sun, I hope to enjoy the ride as it is. Not as what it once was or how I have imagined it. Because in the end, time will march on and our only options are to find happiness in what comes our way or to not.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Just For Fun, Perspective, Wellness

Career Options Beyond General Practice

December 9, 2022 by Andy Roark DVM MS

What happens when general practitioners feel stuck and need something different? Dr. Catherine Ruggiero joins the podcast to discuss her diverse and winding career, and what is involved in leaving general practice to become a veterinary specialist.

Cone Of Shame Veterinary Podcast · COS – 174 – What Happens When We Don’t Want To Do GP Anymore?

This episode has been made possible ad-free by Hill’s Pet Nutrition!

LINKS

Dr. Andy Roark Exam Room Communication Tool Box Course: https://drandyroark.com/on-demand-staff-training/

Dr. Andy Roark Swag: drandyroark.com/shop

All Links: linktr.ee/DrAndyRoark

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero is a board certified veterinary nutritionist® and Scientific Communications Specialist for Hill’s. She completed her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine training at the University of Missouri in 2014. Prior to that, she received a Bachelor of Science at St. Lawrence University and a Master of Science in Biological Sciences at Fordham University. She was an associate veterinarian at a small animal veterinary practice in Upstate New York for just over three years before returning to the University of Missouri to pursue residency training in small animal clinical nutrition. Upon completion of an ACVN residency program in 2019, Dr. Ruggiero joined Hill’s Pet Nutrition as a Consulting Clinician in VCS before joining the Scientific Affairs team.


EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Dr. Andy Roark:
Welcome, everybody, to the Cone of Shame Veterinary Podcast. I am your hose, Dr. Andy Roark. Guys, I’m here with my friend, Dr. Catherine Ruggiero. She is a board-certified nutritionist at Hill’s Pet Nutrition, and we are talking about her journey through general practice to specialty. And there’s a lot of people, I think, how feel stuck sometimes in their job, whether they’re a veterinarian or a technician or a front desk person or a manager. I think this is a ray of hope as far as reminding us that you have options, and you can go lots of places. And the experiences you have, they translate. And there’s opportunity for you to grow, if you want to do it. I think Catherine is super impressive. You’re going to hear somebody who … She’s very kind of laid back about it, but she takes the bull by the horns and makes her career what she wants it to be. And I found that really interesting and inspiring, and I kind of pushed her into the details of … Who did you reach out to, and what did you do, and what did you say to get this opportunity?
And so anyway, if you’re somebody who’s looking at your career and going I wonder what it would be like to make a change one day, this is a great episode for you. Guys, this episode is made possible ad free by the support of Hill’s Pet Nutrition. Let’s get into this episode.

Kelsey Beth Carpenter:
(Singing) This is your show. We’re glad you’re here. We want to help you in your veterinary career. Welcome to The Cone of Shame with Dr. Andy Roark.

Dr. Andy Roark:
Welcome to the podcast, Dr. Catherine Ruggiero. How are you?

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
I’m doing pretty good. How are you?

Dr. Andy Roark:
I am very good. I am super glad that you’re here. I’ve got some stuff. For those who don’t know you, you are a board-conference nutritionist. You are with Hill’s Pet Nutrition. And yeah, that’s it. You’ve been with them probably about four years now and just a genuinely splendid, wonderful person and someone that I want to talk to you about career paths. What I want to talk about today, I get a lot of questions about people who are interested in doing something nontraditional with their careers. They’re like I’ve done practice, and practice isn’t for me. And it breaks my heart, but I totally get it. And some people are like I’m going to leave practice for a while and maybe come back. And I want to talk to you, one, because you are a veterinary specialist. And then also because you’ve had a sort of nontraditional career path and done different things and interfaced with a number of different specialists who have kind of done that.
And so I just want to open up and talk a little bit about your story and then also kind of weave into your philosophy on defining and redefining your career. And I think a lot of people are interested in that topic, and that’s kind of what I want to lay down. Does that sound all right?

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
Sounds great, let’s do it.

Dr. Andy Roark:
Cool, so let’s go ahead and start off. So let’s start at the beginning. Why don’t you go ahead and just kind of lay out the beginning part of your career? You’re a vet nutritionist. That was not the plan.

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
Not the plan.

Dr. Andy Roark:
Tell me how you got that, because you and I have a lot in common. As you and I just talked before, and you talked about your career, beside the whole being super smart and being a specialist, we don’t have that in common. But we have a lot of the other things in common, and so I want to talk about that, because I think that there’s some similarities in our career paths that are probably true for other people. So begin at the beginning. Tell me a little bit about your career and how you got to be a nutritionist.

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
Yeah, well I was not one of the … I knew I wanted to be a veterinarian when I was five or eight. Is that the average these days? I think, so it took me a little while to get to that point where I knew veterinary medicine was where I wanted to head. So that path took me a little longer I did a master’s in between undergraduate and veterinary school.

Dr. Andy Roark:
What’d you do a master’s in?

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
Molecular biology.

Dr. Andy Roark:
I did one in zoology. I’m with you. That’s why I was like man, we got a lot of things in common. I also did not know I wanted to be a vet. I wanted to be a human doctor, and then I got to my junior year in college, and I was volunteering in hospitals. And I was like forget, this is not what I want to do. There’s people here.

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
Yeah, I think that’s how it goes. You go no to humans, and then you go okay, I guess yes to vet med. That’s something I’ve never thought about, but okay.

Dr. Andy Roark:
So my wife is a college professor, and I have this theory based on her interactions. I think that the fear of not knowing what you’re going to do is bigger than people’s fear of ending up in a job that they hate. That’s what I think.

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
I think that’s true.

Dr. Andy Roark:
I think that there is a ton of people who are like this is what, I have to be a lawyer, or I have to be a doctor. And I see them in undergrad all the time now in some of my life students and things. I’m like this is a person who decided at age seven they were going to go be a physician, and they’re not cut out for it. It’s not what they think it is, and the fear of not knowing what they’re going to do is big enough to make them overlook all the signs that they should not be here. And so I wonder how lonely we are as people who are like I didn’t know I wanted to be here. I thought I was going to be something else, and then I looked around and changed paths. But I like to call that out. I think a lot of people are like you need to be called from birth to be in this profession. I was like I love this profession. It was not plan A.

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
No, not at all, and it’s true. I kind of focused on what I liked in school, because I liked school. I think that’s the nerdy party, is I really liked school, so I focused on what I liked in school. And then I did get to the point where I’m getting towards the end of my undergraduate career. I kind of have to take these skills that I’ve accumulated through my transcript and apply it somewhere. And human medicine made a lot of sense, but I have a great mentor who said, “What about vet med?”
And I said, “I’ve had dogs. I grew up with dogs in my household, but I never really … I guess, yeah, we could look into that.” So I took some time right after undergrad to work in a few vet practices. And I think unexpectedly I decided I didn’t want to go to vet school after that, which says nothing about the veterinarians I worked with. I think it says something, maybe, about the clientele I was interacting with as a vet assistant.

Dr. Andy Roark:
Got you.

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
But that’s when I decided well, I’ll go to grad school. Again, I liked school. Well we’ll spend some more time in school. But that’s when I really decided, when I was in graduate school and kind of thinking okay, where am I going to be longterm? That veterinary medicine checked all the boxes, just maybe not in the way that I thought that they would. So yeah, so I applied to vet school while I was finishing up my master’s which ended up working out nicely. The master’s, I think, helped me get into some good programs and helped with my application process. Plus I’d already learned what it was like to get a C in something, because graduate level molecular biology courses kind of … It’s not the first time.

Dr. Andy Roark:
Yeah, that box had been, that perfect piece of glass had been shattered already. Yeah, so tell me a little bit about the thought process when you’re like no, I don’t want to do that. Okay, I’ll do that. What is the thing that swings you back, when you’ve decided that you didn’t want to do it before? How did that process come around?

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
Yeah, well I think what I loved and what I’d done in undergraduate school and what my mentor saw in me was I really liked the science. I’m definitely a science nerd. I like the biology. I like the problem solving of medicine. And of course when you are just entering the veterinary world as a receptionist and client services representative and vet assistant, which is what I was doing, you’re not actually doing that part of vet med. You’re doing a lot of the problem solving, the troubleshooting, the selling. A big part of what I did was going at the end of the appointment and really try to sell products that I didn’t understand why I was selling them. So I didn’t like that part of it. I felt like I saw really the money side of the business. And not that the veterinarians I was working with were making a ton of money, but I saw this kind of culture of we need to sell things. We need to make money in this profession, which I now completely respect and encourage.
But I didn’t have the knowledge base to kind of see where that was coming from. And I didn’t get to see the cool stuff that was happening to get to the point where you sell the ear ointment. I just knew we were selling a lot of ear ointment.

Dr. Andy Roark:
Yeah, it sounds like the why was missing, right? You were in there like, “Hey, you need to send this flea and tick prevention home, because money.” And that’s not a rewarding, fulfilling thing at all. The truth is, the people who were behind the scenes had good, good reason for doing this. And they probably were very … In their minds, the why was very clear. But it wasn’t coming down to you, and you didn’t have that background understanding. I think a lot of people wrestle with that.
And I’ll also tell you this. I look around at how busy practices and stuff are, and as a business owner, it is really easy sometimes to look at the bills that are due and payroll and trying to pay people what they’re worth and to go crap, we have got to make money. And then to talk to your staff and be like, “Guys, we’ve got to make this money.” And the staff is like wait a second. This feels like a real focus on money. And that’s not what you wanted it to be, but I am very empathetic now to business owners that are feeling stressed. Because I’ve been through that period of crap, where is payroll going to come from? And I can 100% see how that communication can happen, and it’s understandable. It’s still really sad.

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
Yeah, I mean I think once I tried on a few practices and found one mentor who I still talk to today, who’s a veterinarian, who really did and found out this wasn’t my summer job. I wasn’t there to clean kennels. I wanted to go to veterinary school. And so when there was time in those busy days, we had a big whiteboard in the back. And he would take me back and say, “Let’s draw through this disease process. Let’s talk through what this test means.” And really did put in a lot of time to try to get me excited about the part that I should have been excited about. But I pretty quickly was like this is not for me. And I was surrounded by a lot of people who weren’t really enjoying it. Yeah, so I went, and I said, “Let’s go back to school and figure it out.” And really it was once I was in school that I was like no, it’s the medicine that excites me.
That’s the fun part, not the test development not the biomedical science. It’s a portion of things, which is so important to both the human and veterinary side. It’s the medicine, the problem solving and the client interaction. It’s the talking to pet owners part that I actually really missed, which I wouldn’t have known, if I didn’t leave.

Dr. Andy Roark:
Yeah, sometimes you don’t … Wise man once said, “Don’t know what you got until it’s gone.” That’s where that is. So you went to Mizzou, and like me, you fell in love with the VBMA and the business side, it sounds like. So tell me about that, and then let’s talk about going into practice.

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
Yeah, well I really enjoy school, so I did enjoy vet school and really enjoyed being in every club that I could find the time to be in. But VBMA was especially a passion, and I got to be on the executive board at Mizzou while I was there during my time as a student. But I kind of thought this is where you shine. This is where the pinnacle … I’m going to be in school, but then I’m going to stop being in school. What am I going to do after school? I need to keep working towards something. That something is practice ownership. That is going to be a constant ladder-climbing kind of thing, always a new challenge. That’s going to be the path for me.
And so I was definitely small animal, always small animal focused. But that VBMA really reinforced that this is the way. This is the way I’m going to get a good quality of life out of this profession. This is how I’m going to touch the most lives, touch the most animals. This is how I’m going to build something, build a legacy, is with practice ownership. So that’s really, when I graduated, how I headed out the door, was looking for a practice that assuming probably it wouldn’t be my first practice that I landed in but a practice where eventually ownership was going to be on the table, or I could head out on my own and start something.

Dr. Andy Roark:
Okay, so this is where I want to start to dig in a little bit. Because I think up to this point, I think you’ve been through a career that’s a lot like other people’s that have. And so I kind of want to walk with you a little bit through this part right here. So you’ve graduated from vet school, and you’ve gone into the general practice. And I really like the idea of practice ownership as the ladder climbing, because that was 100% it for me as well. I need to be going somewhere and feel like I’m working on something. And I feel like a lot of us coming through vet school have always had the next achievement. And so that was a big part for me as well. And so I want to talk to you, because I think this is going to resonate with a lot of people. Talk to me a little bit about your experience in practice and the abandonment of that plan.

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
What happened?

Dr. Andy Roark:
Yeah, because I think a lot of people are here right now, and they’re going maybe this isn’t what I thought it was going to be. Or what I always had planned on is not coming together the way that I wanted. And to my point at the beginning, I think uncertainty is really scary. And so what I really want to do with you is unpack this journey a little bit, because I think a lot of times hearing other people’s path makes the unknown feel a bit less scary. And so yeah, can you just start to unpack that for me? And let’s walk together.

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
Yeah, well I would say first of all that I had the dream practice. I mean especially coming right out of veterinary school, it was a six-department, small-animal practice with the most fantastic practice owners who were interested in eventually selling and eventually selling to me. I had other associates at that practice that were extremely collaborative and supportive and helped train me. I had technicians who had been in the field for 20, 30 years. I think I learning more about vet med from my technicians in the first two weeks of practice than I did probably in six months of clinics. And I had amazing, amazing support staff and really great clients. So it’s hard sometimes. I’ll talk to friends who are in situations, and I hit the jackpot of jobs, especially right out of vet school. And the mentorship I had was just so, so great. If I didn’t feel comfortable with something, one of the owners or the associates was there. People would look at x-rays with me from day one all the way through three years in. I had this really great, collaborative environment.
And the first year or so, it was stressful. It’s stressful. Pet med is stressful. Any new job is stressful. It was stressful, but I had a lot of great support. And I said “Well I think I just need to get used to it. I need to get my feet wet. I don’t love surgery. I don’t love this. I don’t love that.” But I knew I’m a baby vet. I got to get settled, knowledge got to just keep working on it. And so my second year I’m like okay, it’s not my first year anymore. I’m still a baby vet. Maybe I really need to … I’m not really loving every single day of this. And I was working in a practice with such passionate people, so the associate veterinarians there, we did love it.
I mean everyone has hard days, and there are hard clients, and there are hard cases, but they loved it. I mean they came to work every day just enamored with their job. And I was like I’m not there yet. Maybe I need to figure out how to get there. So again, I had a very, very supportive practice that kind of said, “Well let’s kind of narrow down what you’re passionate about, and we’ll steer you in that direction. We’ve got six doctors. Everyone can have their little niche of what they like to do.” And so I really liked nutrition. I liked it in vet school. I also really liked ophthalmology, and so I kind of became one of the nutrition or the eye people. Especially a new client came in or a client that had an issue and really wanted to talk deeply about one of those topics, they would get funneled to me, which was fantastic. I mean it really let me do the things I wanted to do. I still was doing the things that you’ve got to do but don’t always want to do. But that’s life.
So I had great support there and was developing a really wonderful clientele and was talking about nutrition a lot and was kind of training technicians on nutrition and my support staff on nutrition. And the third year I still … It’s great. I’m glad I’m doing this, but I just don’t think I like this. And it’s such a scary thing, because I was just starting to get into the conversations, going to the meetings with the practice owners on how does one acquire a loan to purchase a practice. And what is the 10, 15-year plan for doing that look like? And I just said, “I don’t think I can do this for another 10 or 15 years. And if I am going to be a practice owner, the only way I can imagine doing this is if I’m not practicing, if I’m just a practice owner.” And that’s not what I wanted to do, and it’s not the culture of the clinic that I was at either. I mean it was one where the owners were very much involved and were primarily clinicians on the floor all the time. So it just wasn’t a good fit.

Dr. Andy Roark:
I look at practice ownership as like a 10-year deal. If you’re in it, and this is just a sloppy rule of thumb, but if you’re going to do it, plan on it being 10 years of you being involved in this thing. So there’s not like let’s try it out for a year. It’s a commitment. All right, so when you’re having these thoughts at year three, and you’re like I don’t know if I’m really liking this, when did you recognize that might be a problem? Everybody has those fleeting thoughts of like that was a bad day, or man, I’m really tired. Was there something that you can point to where you were like this is when I was like I’m not sure I want to keep doing what I’m doing?

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
Yeah. I don’t know that there was one particular thing or incident or case or anything like that, but I felt myself becoming less confident in my skills, even though I was working a lot, and I had successful cases. I was becoming less confident in my skills and more anxious about some of the day-to-day parts of veterinary medicine. And I couldn’t really figure out why. I was doing well, and my bosses said, “You’re doing well.” I was making money. I had really loyal clients.
The support staff was saying, “You’re awesome. You’re doing great.” But there was something about it where I didn’t feel like I was doing a good job. And I think there’s the jack of all trades, master of none idea. I don’t totally agree with that, because I think there are plenty of general practitioners, I’ve worked with them, who are masters of everything. They’re just people who can be that way. But I think I started to realize I really … I think just the way that my brain works, I like to focus. I like to focus on something small or a few small things. My day would work out that it was all derm patients, I was in heaven. But you throw one limping dog in there, and suddenly the day was very stressful. So I didn’t like the variety, which is the thing I thought I’d love about general practice. I didn’t like the pivoting from the puppy appointment to the euthanasia, which is something I thought I was actually fairly good at.
But it came with a lot of anxiety for me, and it was just, when I was in practice, it was just around the time that not one more vet was starting up. And so I felt grateful that there was this community of other people who were really anxious. They were really anxious about veterinary medicine. They were really anxious about their clients and their patients. And I wasn’t alone in that, but it also was this idea that maybe that’s what it is, and you kind of just have to tough through it and deal with it. And I didn’t like that option, so I had changed things a few times. I changed the course a few times, and I’d gone back to school a few times. And I knew that was totally possible, so it’s around then that I started thinking, well what do I like?
If I could have a day full of patients just talking to clients about X, what would it be? And nutrition came right to the top of that list. And I said, “Well could I go back to school?” Because I like school, and just focus on nutrition. And yeah, turns out that’s totally doable, which I had never thought of going back, after being in practice, going back to the university.

Dr. Andy Roark:
I remember being in vet school. This may be something that screwed me up for life. But I remember being in vet school, and I was involved in a conversation I should not have been involved in where, there there was clinicians that were talking about behind-the-scenes residency stuff. And I was just standing there, and I was uncharacteristically quiet, I guess, at the moment. And I remember one of the applicants had been in general practice for a couple of year. And the other applicants had come straight out of internship programs. And one of the current residents was like, “Why are we looking at this person? They’re in general practice. They haven’t been doing this.” And she blew them off, and it looked to me, and I wasn’t there beyond that, it looked to me like that guy’s chances were tanked after this conversation. And I’ve never forgotten that, and I remember being angry. I remember being like, why is it that, if you make this choice, and you go into general practice, that there’s no path back?
And the person who’s been in general practice, you don’t know him. He may have more experience than the person who did a one-year residency, regardless of where they did it. You know?

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
Yeah.

Dr. Andy Roark:
And that was one conversation, but I’ve never forgotten it, and it’s always bothered me. Tell me a bit about that transition back, where you are in GP. You’re not coming out of some big New York internship program or out of some academic program somewhere. Help me see the light there. What does that even look like, to try to go back?

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
Yeah, I mean I’ll say, first of all, it’s hard if you’re considering it, because you’ve been out in the world, making money.

Dr. Andy Roark:
Yes, that makes sense.

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
So interns don’t know. When they go into a residency, it looks like a little pay bump. They don’t know. They’ve been eating ramen the whole time. I had gotten used to a nice bottle of wine and going out to dinner and having a lifestyle of a professional person. So that was like for me, that was actually one of the really hard things. And I think for people who maybe start to go down that step, when you look at what a resident’s salary is, you go well, do I really want to do this? I mean it’s a finite amount of time, but it’s a tough thing when you’ve been out in the world, working and working independently. Because you know I had fantastic mentorship, I was doing it, my own thing. And so the idea of the pay cut with the intense supervision when you’ve been an independent, money-making adult is kind of challenging.
I think also it depends on the program. There are programs where they really would prefer that you’re in one or two or three different internships before you show up in a residency. And I won’t say that for all of them, but I think there is a protectiveness in academia that they like to train people a certain way, right?

Dr. Andy Roark:
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
And you learn to go rogue when you’re in practice.

Dr. Andy Roark:
Yeah, I learned on the streets.

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
Yeah, exactly. And nutrition is one of those specialties where that street smarts from being in general practice actually are really highly valued, Because it’s those communication skills. It’s being able to talk to owners and kind of relate to owners. That’s a skill I think you really can build most successfully in private practice or in general practice. And it’s a skill that you need.

Dr. Andy Roark:
You’ve got to get reps, right?

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
Yeah.

Dr. Andy Roark:
It’s a skill that you got to get reps in. And in general practice, you’re talking to client after client after client after client. And so I love that you’ve put it that way, really taking a moment and looking at what are the strengths that I’ve built here, that I would take back to this program. That makes a lot of sense.

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
Yeah, and I really liked talking about nutrition. I wanted to build my knowledge base. I did a lot of CE, nutrition-focused CE when I was in practice. But I knew I liked that part of it, and I did have tons of experience talking to people, whether they wanted to talk about nutrition or not. We were talking about it. And so it’s actually, I think, a skill. That general practice experience is a skill that is undervalued in a lot of residency training programs. Nutrition is one where I’d say it’s a little bit more common to have people out in general practice or maybe doing emergency medicine for a few years and then going back and doing a residency, because you build those communication chops. Not to say you can’t come right from an internship, but yeah. I don’t know, if I had gone into an internship first, if I would have fallen in love with nutrition the way I fell in love with it in practice.

Dr. Andy Roark:
Sometimes it’s finding that path, isn’t it? As opposed to I think there’s a huge amount of pressure that’s put on young people to know what they want to be. And that just to me has always seemed like kind of ridiculousness. I have never had clarity on what I wanted, until I got into it and did it for a while. And so I really like this idea that you go out in practice, and you figure out what you like. I really like a lot. I know this is stepping back for a second, but the idea that you were like I like eyes and nutrition, and that’s what I like.
I really preach that a lot when I talk to veterinarians and also support staff, is figure out … And this is simple, but I tell you, my best career advice that I try to give everyone is, figure out what you like doing, and figure out how to do more of that. And figure out what you don’t like doing, and figure out how to do less of that. And when you talked about I stepped in, I really wanted to do eyes and nutrition, and my staff knew that. And I got the chance to do that and to train in that. Can you tell me a little bit kind of what that looked like? Because to me, that’s the quintessential self-created career growth path. I love that you did that. What did that look like?

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
I mean it really started by looking, as a six-doctor practice, at what niche needed to be filled. So I wasn’t going to … I didn’t like surgery anyway, but there was a couple doctors who really loved surgery. That would’ve been a hard one for me to be like I love surgery too, and I’m the new vet. Let me in. So part of it was also looking at the need that needed to be filled from the practice standpoint. But the other part of it was the stuff that, by the time I was doing that, I kind of had had a year to play around with things. I don’t want to say they were weaknesses in the practice. That’s not a fair thing to say, but there were gaps that weren’t being filled.

Dr. Andy Roark:
Sure, I like it.

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
Where it was a lot of those conversations were getting deferred, or those people were getting referred out to specialists. And by all means, refer to an ophthalmologist. But I ended up saying, “Well maybe some of these I can deal with while they’re waiting to get to the ophthalmologist.”
So again, I had very, very encouraging management who said, “Reach out to the local ophthalmologists. Go visit them. See if you can learn from them. Go to CE. We’ll pay for you to go to CE and learn more about eyes and nutrition. And they did. I did a lot of extra CE in those areas. I connected a lot with the specialists. We didn’t have any nutritionists in the area, but we had fantastic ophthalmologists who let me come and bother them and follow them around.

Dr. Andy Roark:
Tell me what that looked like, because I’ve heard of other people doing that. And I’m pretty darn extroverted. I like making friends. My hands are sweating now, imagining going to the specialty hospital like, “Hey, can you show me what you do?” How did you even present that idea to them, and what was the reaction?

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
Yeah, I think we, my practice had a great relationship with local specialists. I mean when I was looking for jobs, I was trying to find that sweet spot between … You don’t refer everything, but you’re not afraid to refer something. That’s what I was looking for, and that’s the hospital that I was in. So it somewhat naturally developed, this relationship between me, and at the beginning there was one ophthalmologist. Another ophthalmologist joined the specialty practice that was available locally. But I was sending her cases, so we were talking a lot. We were talking on the phone, and then it was, “Well here’s my cellphone number. Send me pictures of these eyes that you’re rechecking.” And then it was, “Well this one is coming in for a recheck next week. I kind of want to see what you do with it.”
And the invitation was, “Come on down.” So I think I was lucky in that I was working with very approachable people who had a long wait list and were excited by the idea that a general practitioner would maybe take some of those rechecks and do things the way they wanted it done and consultant with them and let them know, “Hey, this is the progress I’m seeing. Should we throw in this extra med?” And they could say yes without needing to fit in another emergency. So it was a really nice, reciprocal relationship. But I had very open specialists. Then again, I had practice owners who were very encouraging of me picking up that niche in the practice.

Dr. Andy Roark:
That’s awesome. I really like that. So now that you’ve gone through your residency, you’ve been in practice for three or four years now, working as a nutritionist, is there anything that you do differently? Or do you have advice for people who have an area, whether they’re a doctor or a technician or a manager or anything like that? If you have people who have an area of special expertise, whether it’s nutrition or something else, what would you say to those people? Is there anything that you would put forward as advice for them?

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
I guess just that you can. I think that we get told that so much in vet school. When you start vet school, you get told the two things, that it’s a small community, and everyone knows each other, which is true, and that you can do whatever you want with this degree. There are so many paths, which is also true. You can’t end up forgetting that we know each other, because once you start getting out there too and going to conferences, you realize we really all do know each other. But I think we do forget the … You can do whatever you want with this.
And I was not happy in practice. I was not the best version of myself. I mean I feel like I was a decent veterinarian, but I was not the best veterinarian that I could be. And I really wasn’t that happy, and it was really scary to admit that and then say, “I’m not just going to grit my teeth and get through it.” Because that’s how you get through vet school. That’s how you get through everything, is you’re just going to put your head down and get through it. And I don’t know the moment or the magic. There was nothing that happened where I said, “Well maybe I don’t need to.” But I was probably in that position where I said, “Do I want to leave the profession?” I knew I didn’t want to leave my practice, because I was in the dream practice. So there was no grass-is-greener practice out there for me. I knew how lucky I was there. But the fact that I still was not really happy made me think this is not I just need to keep trying different things.
This is like maybe I’ll just … I need to make a change. And I didn’t want to leave vet med. It took me a while to get there, didn’t want to abandon veterinary medicine. But you start thinking for all those people at orientation who said, “You can do whatever you want with your veterinary medicine degree.” And once you start looking, it’s really true. You can. There’s so many options. And I knew I liked school, so that helps. If you like school, you can be in school forever. It’s not the most lucrative choice.

Dr. Andy Roark:
Professional student, yeah.

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
Look, maybe they turn you away eventually, but they haven’t turned me away yet. And I really like that part of veterinary medicine. There’s always more to learn. There’s always more to do.

Dr. Andy Roark:
If someone came up to you, and they said, “I’m thinking about making a change kind of like you did. Do you have any resources for me? How do I get started?” Where would you point them?

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
For me, I started reaching out to … I decided I think I want to leave general practice, and I think I want to specialize. That decision was sort of made. So once I had that decision made, I started reaching out to specialists that I knew from when I was in university and when I was in vet school. And it’s amazing how people will remember you and how professors will remember you. So I reached out to the nutritionists that I knew. I also reached out to the ophthalmologists that I knew and said, “Hey, I’m kind of tinkering with this idea of going back and specializing.” And once you say that to especially a specialist, I mean they get super excited. Now you’re talking about wanting to do the thing that they love. So then you get a lot of support, a lot of resources. What can we do? Here’s how we can do it. Here’s how the pathway looks. You don’t have to figure it out on your own at that point, because they’ve been through it.
They’ve been through the residency program. What maybe is a little bit unique for some specialists is trying to guide you through that program when you’re coming from practice. And there are certainly some programs where you’re probably going to need to do an internship or something like that before you get into a residency program. But that’s stuff that you don’t necessarily have to figure out on your own. I remember sitting on the computer, trying to figure out what is the match. And how does the match work? Because I was never going to specialize, was never going to do an internship or a residency before. And I realized, well this is stupid. I’m talking to people who’ve done this. Let me just ask them what the match is and how I do it. And again, it’s all people have been through that portion of things. But I think we build a lot of resources, even in school, that we forget about. And I was lucky enough to go back to where I went to vet school to do my residency, and it was such great fun to see all these people again.
You’re like no one is going to remember me. I was a little vet student. I wasn’t going to specialize. I was going to go into general practice. No one is going to remember me except maybe the people in community practice. But no, it’s not like that. There really is, I think, a profound investment that faculty … I guess I can just speak for Mizzou, but I will say I think most institutions are that way, where they really have invested in you. And so you can reach back out. You paid a lot of money. You can reach back out to ask them for advice, even though you’re not a student anymore.

Dr. Andy Roark:
Dr. Catherine Ruggiero, thank you so much for being here. Where can people find you online? Where can they follow you? Where can they hear what you’re up to?

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
I’m a little bit of a shadow. I don’t have a huge online presence, but I’m on LinkedIn, so find me on LinkedIn. That’s probably the only thing that’s up to date.

Dr. Andy Roark:
I love it. “I’m a shadow.” What I hear is you lurk on social media.

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
For sure, yeah.

Dr. Andy Roark:
All right, everybody, take care of yourself. We’ll talk to you next time.

Dr. Catherine Ruggiero:
Thank you, bye.

Dr. Andy Roark:
And that is our episode, guys. That’s what I got for you. I hope you enjoyed it. Special shout out to Catherine. Thank you so much for being here. Thanks to Hill’s Pet Nutrition for making this episode possible. Gang, take care of yourselves, be well. Talk to you next time, bye.

Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Perspective, Wellness

The Choice We Make Every Day

December 2, 2022 by Andy Roark DVM MS

Every day we choose how we look at the world. We decide to focus on what we have or what we don’t have. We choose to engage with what’s actually happening or worry about what might happen in the future. We assume the best about people or we assume the worst. We lift others up, or “put them in line.” The choices are (almost) always ours to make.

Unfortunately, we live in a world where our media (and especially social media) is powered by fear and anger. Some people continually internalize these emotions, they live in a dark and fearful headspace, and they seek validation by drawing others into their worldview. We need to compassionately recognize these people and be mindful of how we let them affect us.

Let’s never forget, we go through this life only one time. We often can’t control what happens to us, but we can control the way we respond. We can be a force for good without being afraid and angry. We can be grateful for all that we have and still take action to make this world a better place. Every single day, we get to choose how we want to live.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Perspective, Wellness

‘He’s Bad, But He’s Fun.’ A Lesson Of Perception.

November 17, 2022 by Andy Roark DVM MS

My dog Skipper is not a good dog. His rap sheet includes counter surfing, running away when called, stealing socks and eating them, and so on. He is nothing like my previous dog, Phoenix, who seemed to live to please me and my wife. 

Recently, my friend Ron visited. Him and Skipper developed an instant friendship. I’m now confident that Skipper would abandon our family to live with Ron if the chance presented itself. (I may be a little jealous.)

Although Skipper knows he’s not allowed to jump up on people, in fact, he has been forbidden many times from it, he just couldn’t help himself when it came to Ron. It got to the point that I turned to Ron and said “Ron, I’m sorry! He’s…. Bad.” And Ron said “Yes, but he’s fun.”

He’s bad, but he’s fun. 

I have thought about this since Ron’s visit. Skipper is bad in the traditional sense that he is not a well-trained dog with a drive to please his family. Until Ron’s visit, that is the yardstick that I have used to measure Skipper. But it made me think. Why is that the default measurement I go to? 

The truth is, Skipper is fun. He’s up for whatever you want to get into. He bounces around. He plays with toys. He runs wild in the park and desperately wants to meet new people. Shouldn’t these attributes count for him instead of against him?

Is it possible that we too often in life look at and judge people (or pets) in relation to others or to traditional standards?

Negativity and Positivity Effects In Perception of People

People don’t always behave in the way you initially thought they “should.” But, those people often have shining virtues that can only be recognized when you discard preconceived standards and appreciate them for who they are.

In Skipper’s case, I expected him to behave like our previous dog, Phoenix. I expected him to be well-trained. “He should come when I call him.” “He should sit and stay when told to.” Etc. 

While Skipper does not meet those expectations, he truly has exceptional virtues of his own. And when we focus on those qualities, Skipper is a great dog.

You are faced with a great deal of information about a person when shaping an opinion of them. Research shows that those impressions tend to be disproportionately influenced by negative characteristics. In other words, negativity bias or the negativity effect can have a huge impact on how you perceive others. 

If you can reframe the characteristics or standards in which you are defining others, you may be able to find new appreciation for someone. Just like I did with Skipper.

Think about that.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Perspective

Saying “No” With a Smile & Keeping the Team Motivated – November Mailbag pt. 2

November 16, 2022 by Andy Roark DVM MS

Dr. Andy Roark takes more questions from the mailbag!

Questions in this episode:

How involved should associate veterinarians be with boarding in the clinic?

Phone etiquette when trying to help non-clients on the phone who need assistance but they can’t be seen due to lack of appointment availability

What are the best things to do for your staff on one of those crazy days when everything is on fire to keep them motivated ?

What’s the best thing to do when you’re feeling overwhelmed?

What advice would you give those that have trouble making boundaries at work?

How do you bridge the gap between “front and back”?

How do you coach someone that gives very blunt delivery of feedback and rubs people the wrong way?

Cone Of Shame Veterinary Podcast · COS – 170 – Saying "No" With A Smile & Keeping The Team Motivated – November Mailbag Pt. 2

You can also listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Soundcloud, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts!

LINKS

Dr. Andy Roark Exam Room Communication Tool Box Course: https://drandyroark.com/on-demand-staff-training/

Dr. Andy Roark Swag: drandyroark.com/shop

All Links: linktr.ee/DrAndyRoark


EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

This podcast transcript is made possible thanks to a generous gift from Banfield Pet Hospital, which is striving to increase accessibility and inclusivity across the veterinary profession. Click here to learn more about Equity, Inclusion & Diversity at Banfield.

Dr. Andy Roark:
Welcome everybody to The Cone of Shame Veterinary Podcast. I am your host, Dr. Andy Roark. Guys, I’m back experimenting. This is Part 2 of my recent experiment of live streaming the podcast into the Uncharted community and so, I got questions from the Uncharted Veterinary community. If you’re not familiar with those guys, you can check them out at unchartedvet.com. It is where I spend a lot of time hanging out talking about leadership and communication and management and stuff like that that I love. But anyway, I’m here with these guys and just going to go through questions that I got from them and that will be it, so let’s see.
Yeah, I’d love to hear your feedback on this podcast. If you like it, you can send me an email at podcast@drandyroark.com. You can also leave me a review wherever you get your podcast. But I really haven’t decided if I’m going to do more episodes like this. I’m really kind of waiting to see if people tell me that they like them and I can tell you, I really enjoyed the first one, so this has been really fun.
If you’re listening and you’re like, “Man, these questions where Andy is just talking through problems that people ask him about, I really, really love them,” I have another podcast, it’s called Uncharted Veterinary Podcast and I do it with my friend, practice management goddess, Stephanie Goss. And that’s all we do there, is breakdown questions about practice that people ask us. So, if you really love this, no matter what, you can have more of me talking about problems at the Uncharted Veterinary Podcast, which is the other podcast that I do. All right, let me go ahead and let’s get into this episode.

Kelsey Beth Carpenter:
(singing) This is your show. We’re glad you’re here. We want to help you in your veterinary career. Welcome to The Cone of Shame with Dr. Andy Roark.

Dr. Andy Roark:
All right, everybody. So, the first question is an anonymous question. This is from a veterinarian. She is a veterinarian that has a boarding facility built onto her practice and she says that, a little backstory, she had a dog that had a medical problem. It was some sort of like a chemical burn or something when it left the boarding facility. She ended up looking at it and then the client ended up bashing the boarding facility and specifically, this vet who’s like, “I didn’t do any… I didn’t have any idea what was happening,” is basically it.
And so her question is, if a dog is being boarded with a vet clinic, how involved are veterinarians in the daily care and monitoring of the pet? If I’m unhappy of the vet with the care that a dog received and don’t think the issue was handled appropriately when I brought it up to the practice manager, how should that be handled? Meaning, if I don’t like how this went and I said so to the management and they ignored me, what do I do about it?
All right, cool. Let’s do the first one first and let’s talk about the boarding, that’s in boarding, okay? How involved should vets be in the boarding that the clinic does? First of all for me, I guess, there’s not a right answer. There’s only clear expectations and so, there are clinics that the vets are very involved. That’s not wrong. And there are clinics where the vets are not involved at all. They’re barely aware that the boarding is happening in the building. That’s not wrong either.
As long as everybody is clear and honest about what is happening and how involved the vet is or how involved the vet is not, the pet owners should not think that their pets are being examined twice a day by the veterinarian if that’s not happening at all. That’s only setting the vets up to get hammered. They aren’t doing anything. And at the same time, if the pet owners think they’re just dropping off for boarding and their pet ends up doing a bunch of medical stuff and then they’re surprised when they come back and find that out, that’s also really bad.
And so, it’s really about what are the expectations here about how involved the vets are with what’s happening ? Ad is the clinic communicating that to the clients and do they communicate that to the vets? Because I will tell you that boarding can burn vets up. I have seen vets that are absolutely ready to mutiny over boarding because they’re like, “This never ends.” And I’ve worked at some of those practices. It’s never real bad, but I can definitely see how it gets bad.
But it’s just there’s times that you’re a vet and just the number of little problems, torn toenails, diarrhea, coughing dogs, kennel cough, people coming back with kennel cough, things like that, it can suck up your time and suck up your time and suck up your time. And if you are the doctor and that’s not accounted for in your schedule if you’re not getting compensated for that, if these are no charge appointments because the pet started coughing on boarding and things like that, if that hasn’t been discussed with the veterinarians, they can get really resentful and it’s not hard to see why.
At the same time, if boarding is part of what your clinic does and you want to be a good team member, you got to support the team. And so, there is a part where you say, “Hey, we should all be supportive of what the practice is doing to pay our paychecks and to serve the community.” And so, it really, it’s a give and take and that’s why I said there’s not a right answer. There’s clear communication. There’s clear expectations. If you are working in a practice and this goes to the second part where she says, “What do I do when this wasn’t heard?” Talk about it.
If you’re a vet and you’re like, “This is eating me up and this is taking so much time and it’s really frustrating, “you need to have that conversation. And not in like an, “I’m angry way,” but in a, “Hey, we’re in a relationship together and part of the relationship is knowing where the other person is. And so, I want to let you know that this is kind of where I am. And I’m not resentful, but I can see resentful from here. It’s just kind of over the hill.” I think you should say that.
And my question is always what is kind? Do the kind thing? It’s not kind to keep your mouth shut until you’re really, really angry and then blow up on the practice that you work at. And if you’re the practice, it’s not kind to keep your mouth shut and go, “Well, maybe she won’t notice how much work she’s doing.” And just hope that it all works out and the other person doesn’t notice that they’re dealing with a lot of cases from the back. So, anyway, there can be some real drama with boarding.
That’s just my thing is clear expectations, clear communication to the client and between the practice and the doctors. If the doctors are expected to contribute to the boarding, you just need to talk that through and everybody needs to be okay. No surprises. And as long as it works for everybody, I think that’s the best thing. I think that’s the best that we can do.
All right. I got a question Kyle Ann. She says, “Do you have tips on phone etiquette when trying to help non-clients on the phone who need assistance, but they can’t be seen due to a lack of appointment availability?”
Okay. I think a lot of us are dealing with this, so we have people on the phone and we can’t get them in and that is a problem. Now, I would say this writer makes this pretty easy for me because she says non-clients. And so, this is not a person that has been coming here, this is not a long-term client. What do you do in helping this person who needs assistance, but we can’t get them in? I just said clear is kind and I go back to it. Clear is kind.
I said, what is kind? Clear is kind. That’s what is kind. Clear is kind. We need to tell people that we don’t have availability and don’t beat around the bush, don’t act like, “I don’t know. Maybe we can do this or maybe we can do that.” And I understand. We don’t like to tell people things that they don’t want to hear. And so, it is hard to say to someone, “I’m sorry. We can’t get you in.” Clear is kind.
Set expectations and the expectation is “I can’t get you in.” The longer you wait to say that, the more you’re going to frustrate this person. And so, the first thing is be honest, be clear, and then be polite and be firm. And I think a lot of us really struggle with this and we end up, we cave. We fold like origami. We’re like, “I don’t have any availability but I don’t want to tell this person they can’t be seated, so I’m just going to through strength of will make this happen.” And I go, “That’s ridiculous.”
I’m talking a lot these days about capacity and teams and if your team is working as hard as they can work every day and they’re burning out, you can’t just want to do more work and make it happen. You’re pushing your team into the red and there’s going to be consequences. And there are going to be possibly your staff leaving and then you’re more shorthanded. And so, by pushing this far, you’ve limited your ability to do work for the foreseeable future because it’s the hard hire. And so, you have pushed this to a point that you have damaged your long-term potential to do good in the world by trying to squeeze in this short-term thing.
The other thing is even if they don’t leave, you burn these people out. You end up with just people who are tired. They’re grumpy, they’re angry, your practice culture suffers. You are running a sprint every day and that’s ridiculous because this is a marathon and so, pace yourself for a marathon. And you just have to be honest about what your team can do. And then here’s the thing, you got to let it go. You’ve got to process your lack of responsibility here.
One of the big things for me is, look, if there’s something and I didn’t want it, I don’t have control over it. I can’t make it stop and I don’t benefit from it, I’ve got to step back and say, “I’m not responsible for this.” And that’s the case with our overwhelm a lot of these practices. “I don’t want this, I didn’t make it happen. I can’t fix it and I don’t benefit from it because my people are burning out. It doesn’t help me to turn people away. That’s not helpful.” And so, at some point I have to say, “Well, if all those things are true then I’m not going to hold myself responsible and beat myself up about it.”
I hear from practices that are like, “Our front desk just apologizes all day long.” I’m like, “You have to stop. That’s not healthy.” It’s not healthy for practices to be on the phone apologizing all day long. It is what it is. I didn’t want this to be the case. The honest truth is we’re not taking new clients. Just say it and be kind and be firm. And then facilitate this person getting seen somewhere else. And that doesn’t mean you have to call and try to get them an appointment, give them a recommendation. If you can’t see them then tell them if you were them, where would you go?
And this idea that we don’t refer to other general practices, that’s ridiculous. That doesn’t make any sense. That is pennywise and dollar foolish. We are trying to do good in the world. We’ve got more business than we can do. Take care of the people who come to your practice and help other people get seen elsewhere. And feel good about yourself and go on with your life and stop burning yourself out and burning other people out.
Hang up the phone. Practice saying no by saying yes. And so, this is the one piece of phone etiquette is be clear. “We cannot do this. We are not doing this. I have some recommended practices you can call who do good work,” and say it. Don’t tell people what you can’t do for them any more than you have to. Tell them what you can do. When they say, “I need to get in,” we’ll say, “I can get you in. It’s going to be in January,” to get in to start a new client relationship here. And that’s not saying, “No, I can’t see you.” It’s saying, “I can see you in January.”
And if they want to do that, they can, that’s fine. If they say, “I can’t do that,” and you say, “Great. Well, I can refer you to another vet practice?” And I’m trying to tell you what I can do for you, but ultimately I’m not going to waiver. These are the boundaries. And so, I know that we struggle a lot with the desire to get people in and help people and I know that it feels awful to send people away. These are things that we have to do right now, guys.
It really is a question of do you want to do a good job today or do you want to do a good job in your career? Because if you “do a good job” by squeezing everybody in today, you’re not going to do a good job in your career because you’re going to be short-staffed, and you’re going to be burned out and you’re going to be angry and you may end up depressed. And so anyway, that’s my thing. Clear is kind. Be honest. Facilitate them as best you can in getting seen and that doesn’t have to be at your practice. And tell them what you can do as opposed to just focusing on what you can’t do.
Jodi asked, “What are the best things to do for your staff on one of those crazy days when everything is on fire to keep them motivated?” I’m getting a lot of questions like this. “How do we keep morale up? How do I keep people motivated? How do I make people feel appreciated?” I love this question. Here’s the answer. I have no idea. I have no idea. Here’s why because I don’t know your staff and every staff is different and that’s not good or bad, it’s just the truth of the matter.
And so, you say, “What are the best things to do for your staff on those crazy days?” My advice to you is ask the staff. Ask them what they want. Ask them what makes them feel good on those crazy days. Now, you have to ask it in a certain way because what I’ve found is if I go to the staff and I say, “Guys, when we are crazy like this, what would make you feel better?” They have no idea.
And of course, they don’t because if I came to you and you had a really bad day and I was like, “What would make you feel better?” You’re like, “I don’t know.” The truth is ask them and ask them when things are not on fire. So, at the end of the day when they’re exhausted, asking them what they wish is just another mental burden to put on them. And most people have a hard time asking those questions.
The questions that I really like are, “Tell me about a time that you were stressed out and someone did something that made you feel better. What was it?” And so ask them questions like that. “Tell me about a time that you felt really appreciated.” I love those questions. “What’s your favorite snack? What’s your favorite candy? What’s your favorite music? What’s your language of appreciation?
And there’s a book, it’s called, The Five Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace. It’s written by the guy, who wrote The 5 Love Languages. They’re the same book. Just so you know, they’re the same book and one of them is just work appropriate, but it’s good stuff. If you want a quick read, there’s five languages that make people feel appreciated. I’m going to try to rattle them off, but it’s words of affirmation, it’s service, it’s quality time, it’s gifts, and it’s physical touch. Bam, nailed it. That’s the five. But anyway, and you can dig into. It’s a good book for anyone in management and motivation to read and you can skim through it and get the gist of it pretty darn fast. But those are the things you say. And what resonates with my people?
I really like the idea of having a sheet that, and you have to update this every now and then. You can’t be like they filled out a sheet when they came to work here and I’m like, “When did they come to work?” And you’re like, “Seven years ago.” I’m like, “How do you know they still Butterfinger?” It’s like, “Who stops liking Butterfinger?” People’s preferences change and so, just update it. But some questions like that, not when things are on fire. Those things are good, but it helps you figure out what motivates people, so that we can do those things.
One of the things you can always do in the moment, always in the moment, is when people are really working hard, go the extra mile to make them feel seen. It doesn’t cost anything. You don’t have to buy anything. It’s just taking a moment to say to somebody, not I appreciate you or thank you because those are just really generic.
It sounds something like, “Hey I want to tell you, I saw earlier today when we took that patient out of its little den and you dove in there and just cleaned it out and wiped it down and you were just on it. And I just want to tell you, I recognize how hard you work around here. And I recognize that you could have been like, ‘That’s not my job,’ and backed away, but you didn’t. And I just, it’s hard for me to express how much I appreciate you and what you do here.” And if that sounds heartfelt, it’s because it is because I’m imagining one of my techs.
And you go, yeah. It’s not buying anything, it’s not having anything, it’s not planning anything, but sometimes people just want to feel seen. And that is something that we can always do, but you got to be present. You got to be on the floor. You got to be paying attention and you have to set out to do it and you can’t do it for the whole team at once. It has to be a thing where you catch people, who are really going to town. But anyway, that is something that even if you’re unprepared, you can make people feel seen, but you have to give it a little bit of thought and you have to get their attention if to talk right to them, look them in the eye, and make them feel seen.
Jen asks, “What’s the best thing to do when you’re feeling overwhelmed?” She has a follow-up question, which is, “What advice would you give to those who are having trouble setting boundaries at work?” I’m going to take the first one first. “What’s the best thing to do when you’re feeling overwhelmed?” I think a lot of us are feeling overwhelmed. I’ll run you through my list.
Number one is make a list. I think of like Dumbledore is pensive. A lot of times, we’ve got this nebulous list in our brain. And I tell you that’s the worst part for me of feeling overwhelmed is the emotional feeling of, “I just have so much to do,” and you’re like, “Andy, what exactly do you have to do?” And I’m like, “I don’t know. Just everything. I just feel like I have to do everything.” I think a lot of us get that place. You got to get out of there and the quickest way to get out of there is you have to crystallize what you’re up against.
You have to turn this nebulous cloud of stress and anxiety into something tangible that you can look at and measure up and make some plans about how you’re going to address it. So, the first thing is just get it down. You can use a to-do list app. You just write it on paper, but you’ve really got to take the floating anxiety in your mind, which is driving that feeling of overwhelmed. You’ve got to translate that into something tangible that you can actually see.
And then you look at this list and you ask yourself what here is actually on fire and what’s just smoking from the things around it? And I think a lot of us struggle with that. We say, “Everything is on fire.” It’s like, “No,. Everything is not on fire.” You got a couple of things that are on fire and you maybe have one significant fire. Everything else is just reefed in smoke from those burning fires, but it is not actually on fire, which means those problems can sit until tomorrow and you should feel okay with them.
I’m a big fan of everyone, people make to-do lists and they’re like, “This is what I have to do today. And if I don’t do this today then I’ve failed.” And I go, “That’s ridiculous.” It can’t be about what you did today. It’s got to be about, “This my to-do list and this is what I’m going to do today. And this is what I’m going to do tomorrow. And this is what I’m going to do next week.” And you’re already lifting that overwhelm off your chest just by saying, “I see this and I’m saying it’s important and I commit to doing it next week.” And you can do that.
And I think we have this horrible tendency as a human being species to wildly over imagine what we can do in a day. And we under imagine what we can do in a year or in five years or in 10 years. And so, the biggest problem is we look… I mean, how many of us have had these to-do lists and we have 10 things on them and we’re like, “Yeah, I’m going to do this today.” No, you’re not. You’re going to do three things on that list or maybe five things on that list and then you’re going to feel defeated because you didn’t do 10 things.
And I would say, “That’s ridiculous. You did five things on your to-do list today.” That’s bonkers. If you do three things on your to-do list and keep a clinic going and keep a family going and feed yourself and wear pants, then you have succeeded in the day and you should be happy about that. That’s what you should do with your to-do list. So, what here is actually on fire? And then what’s just smoky from the things around it? What’s mission critical? What’s causing the most pain? Meaning, what is bothering me the most?
Some of this is mental health stuff, where it’s like, “I understand organizationally what the top priorities are, but this squeaking chair makes me angry every time I sit down in it.” And I would say, “That’s causing you pain.” Yes, there’s other things that are important, but that squeaking chair is bothering you every time you sit on it. And it’s affecting your head space and your enjoyment of being here, and so, for me that is a thing that’s actually bothering me more than anything else. So, fix the chair. Just grease the chair. If it’s causing you pain, then fix it.
And the last thing is what will free up my capacity? And so, I’m looking at my to-do list, what is mission critical? What is bothering me the most? And the last thing is what will free up my capacity? Meaning, I want to prioritize the things that are going to give me more time to deal with the other things.
And so, you might have something on your task list and say, “This is not super important but it takes a ton of time and people keep asking me about it and asking me about it and asking me about it.” And I go, “Well, if you got that off your list then people will stop asking you about it and you would have time to do the other thing.” So, even though it by itself is that important, getting it done will free up your capacity. And so, anyway, those are the ways that I look at being overwhelmed. I hope that that’s something helpful.
The second follow-up question is, “What advice would you give those people have trouble making boundaries at work?” And I kind of touched on this when I talked a little bit earlier about the phone calls and people wanting to get in and us not having space. The big keys for me in setting boundaries at work is you need to make boundary decisions intentionally and when you’re not in the moment. The biggest way that we fail in personal boundaries is we are like, “When it happens, I will say no.”
No, you won’t and that’s okay. It’s because you’re a good person and you want to help people and if you have not clearly committed to what you’re going to do, then it’s a toss up in the air. And if it comes down to looking at this person who’s got tears in their eyes and saying, “No, I’m not going to help you,” and that’s boundary setting, then you’re going to fail every time and you probably should because it means, again, that you’re a good caring person. The only way to make this stuff happen, guys, is to think about the boundary failings that we have.
Where do we fail to set boundaries? How do people set us up, so that we say yes and then we regret it or we’re resentful later on? If you were having those experiences where you say, “I feel I say yes and then I’m angry about it later,” I would say to you, my friend, that’s resentment. You are feeling resentment. And the fact that you did this and you felt resentful of it, to me that means you need to fix the problem for next time. And that is about making decisions when you’re not in the moment. Moral decisions made on the floor are a real problem and they’re one of the big problems in why we don’t have good boundaries in vet medicine.
Because we’ll say things like, “Oh, when the client comes in at the end of the day and if they get in the door before we close it, then it’s up to the doctor whether or not we see them.” And I say, “So, you’re going to see them is what you’re saying?” Because the doctor is almost certainly not going to be able to look at this person who says, “Please don’t make me leave. I drove all the way over here and my dog is sick. And please don’t turn me away into the cold.” They’re going to say yes, because they’re good people.
And make the decision ahead of time. “We close at 6:00. We don’t take walk-ins after 5:30.” And it’s not a question of asking the doctor because the doctor is not empowered to make that decision. Has a policy decision that was made and we will apologize and let them know where the emergency clinic is. That’s it. Maybe one of our techs can look and say, “Yes, this could wait until tomorrow,” or “No, it needs to go to the emergency clinic.” But that’s as much as they get, but that’s a policy decision.
I mean, I know it all comes from a good place. It comes from us saying, “Well, I want the vets to be able to look at this.” And try to take care of our clients. Nobody is bad here, but at some point you got to look and say, “In this world where people are burned out and they’re overwhelmed and they’re working and they’re working and they’re working, if that’s the reality in your practice, you, my friend, you need to set policies that protect your people.”
Now, in 10 years when there is a global pet shortage and you got nothing but free times, you can change that policy and say, “No, when they come in, we’re seeing them. You know why because we only see five appointments a day?” Then that’s a whole different thing.
I’m not saying you have to do that, but you can. Things change. And the fact that you make a policy right now doesn’t mean you’re not going to relax that policy when you hire the three doctors you’ve been trying to hire for the last two years, then you can make that adjustment. But right now, you got to make the decision, make it ahead of time, make it with clear eyes, make it non-emotionally and just make it. In order to do that, because a lot of people go, “But this is painful, Andy. I feel bad turning people away or setting these boundaries or telling people no.” There’s really two mental shifts that have to happen if you want to feel okay with this, in my experience.
The first is you have got to stop thinking in the short term and think in the long term. I alluded to it earlier, but if you look at everything that walks in your door and say, “I’m thinking about this today and the good that I can do in the world today,” then you are going to suck it up and you’re going to see every patient that comes in and you are going to take every phone call that rings through. That’s not healthy because the goal is not to be successful today. The goal is to be successful for 30 years or for the rest of your career and so, you need to look at it long term.
And so, if you say, “I need to do maximum good in the next couple of decades,” then pacing yourself makes sense. And you say, “Well, I’m not going to stay tonight and take extra cases because I need to rest, so that I can continue to keep this up for the next year as it’s hard to hire people. And as we continue to be so darn busy, I’ve got to pace myself.” And so, I’m not thinking about today. I’m thinking about this year or the next five years or the next 10 years or whatever. But if you’re only thinking about today then you, my friend, you are in a sprint mindset of go, go, go, go. Fall into bed, jump up tomorrow, and go, go, go, again. And that’s not sustainable guys. It’s a marathon. It’s not a sprint.
And the other mental shift I think that people need to get comfortable with is switching from fixating on the person in need to thinking about everyone affected. And so, when the pet owner comes in and they say, “Please, don’t turn us away. I know you’re locking the door and the staff is trying to leave, but we need to get seen for this itching,” if you think about the individual affected, which is the pet and the pet owner and you say, “Ah, it’s help them or it’s don’t help them,” that’s a really hard mental place to get out of. And morally, you think, “Oh, I need to help them.” But those are not the only people affected, are they?
Your staff is affected. Your staff wants to go home. They want to go see their families. They want go home and recharge. They have hobbies that they are looking forward to doing. They want to rest. They want to do whatever they want to do. It’s their life, but they want to live their life. So, if you say yes, it’s not just about you and this pet owner, it’s about you and the staff and doctor and payroll if you put people into overtime. And more importantly, it’s about your family at home and the time that you’re not getting to spend with your kids and your spouse or doing your hobbies or relaxing. What does your boyfriend think about you staying late every night? If he has concerns, then he’s being negatively affected by you saying yes.
I’m not saying you say no. I’m not saying you say yes. It changes. But what I’m saying is when you make these decisions, you need to not think just about the person in front of you who’s asking for help. You need to try to balance what is being asked across all stakeholders, which is them, which is the staff, which is the doctors, which is the practice, which is your friends and family who are waiting for you to get home or your pets who need to pee because they haven’t been let out since lunchtime.
All those things matter and it’s a whole lot easier to set boundaries if you look at everyone’s needs and how everyone is affected and go, “Just I can’t do this. This is not in balance. There’s too many ripple effects from this.” And again, this math might change in the future. If you never come home late and somebody shows up and says, “Please squeeze me in,” then maybe you do that and it’s because it’s a rarity, but if it happens every day then it’s okay to say no now. It’s just interesting. There’s no all or none, but it’s about being healthy and being intentional about where you are.
And the last thing that I’ll say about setting professional boundaries, and this is kind of hard to hear, and I just want you to sit with it a little bit. And I hope that neither of these things is true for you, but if you have to make a boundaries decision and the decision comes down to feeling guilty or feeling resentful, choose guilt. Choose it every time.
And what I mean when I say that is if your choices are to set a boundary and say, “No, I can’t do this and I’m going to go home and I’m going to feel guilty about it,” or to say, “I’m going to make this happen. I’m going to stay and do this. I’m going to sacrifice this boundary. I’m going to make this exception and then I’m going to be mad about it. And I’m going to go home and I’m going to be angry at myself and at my staff and at my job.” That anger eats you up. It will.
Go home and feel guilty because that beats the heck out of going home and feeling resentful and angry because that’s a path to a dark place and you don’t want to be there. I hope that you can rationalize in your head. That’s why I talk about thinking in the long term, thinking about everybody infected because I want to help you deal with that guilt. But if it comes down to it, you got to choose guilt or resentment. Choose guilt.
Okay. Jody asked, “How do you bridge the gap between the front and the back?” It’s probably one of the most common management questions I get. There’s a lot of communication issues between the front and the back. And people always ask, “How do you,” when she says, “bridge the gap?” Generally, it’s making these people know and respect each other. It’s making them assume good intent about each other. Meaning, the front assumed that the back is trying their best and the back assumes the front is trying their best. How do we make those things happen? How do we make these people, who are physically separated? Generally, they’re in different parts of the building. They’re having different problems. “How do we get them to bridge the gap,” as Jodi says?
And the first thing is I think is really important is a shared mission. We need to talk about what we’re doing here. What are the core values of our practice, of our clinic? Why do we come into work? It’s not to make money. That’s not why anybody’s here. I mean, maybe some of us, but those people made bad choices, but it’s here. We have a mission that we are pursuing and we are a team. And the front and the back are 100% both pursuing that mission and they are both required mission critical for pursuing our mission.
And so, make sure you’re talking about the mission. Make sure you’re pointing to the North Star that your whole team is rowing towards. And if I believe that they’re working in a different place and they’re doing things differently, but they are committed to our mission and I am committed to our mission, suddenly that commonality that brings us together and it makes it easier for me to assume good intent. And if I have conflict, it’s easier for me to talk it through when I believe that we’re both ultimately working for the same outcome and we both are trying to get the same place. So, the shared mission is important.
Focus on interdependence. I want to continue to emphasize again and again to the team that they need each other. The front needs the back and the back needs the front. I think a lot of times, people just like the… I think it happens more in the back. Maybe it’s just because I’m back there and I’m not up at the front. But in the back, I think there’s this idea that the front is just in the way of getting things done, and that’s nonsense. That’s foolishness.
The truth is they are handling the clients and the communication and the phones and the checking in and checking out and they are completely a 100% in this trench with us. And they are helping us do the things that we need to do, and we need them. We need them and they need us. And I think that that’s language that we should use and remind people of is, “Hey, guys, we need the front desk and we need them to be happy. And we need them to help us take care of these clients because without them, all this communication falls back on us and we cannot keep up. We need them. They have a great impact on how our day goes and we need to support them and we need to try to make their jobs better. And they’re going to work hard to support us and try to make our jobs better.” But it comes down to that focus on interdependence.
And the last thing is knowledge about what the other group is doing. Oftentimes, the people in the back do not know what’s happening at the front desk and they do not know what they’re up against and they don’t know the headaches and they don’t understand what it’s like to sit up there and have a waiting room full of people staring at you and they’ve waited 35 minutes and they’re getting frustrated. But that’s just is an experience.
And so I think talking about those things and pointing out to people and say, “Hey guys, it’s hard up front.” And the same thing at the front, they don’t know what we’re doing in the back. They don’t understand why suddenly there’s a huge log jam and it’s like, “Well, they don’t know that the procedures that they brought in these specific ones take a lot of time. And our regular procedures, they don’t know maybe what goes fast or slow or maybe they just don’t know that one of the doctors got caught on a phone call and couldn’t get off and couldn’t get off and now, we’re behind.” If you don’t have a way to communicate that, then they don’t know it and so, make sure that we’re trying to talk about that.
And a lot of people will say, “Cross-training, cross-training, cross-training.” To me, cross training is knowing what the other group is doing and I think that’s good if you can do it. If you can get some of the technical people back up to help with the front desk and answer phones, that’s great. And if you can get some of your front desk people CSRs trained as assistant, so they can come back and help hold pets and participate in the back just for that experience, that’s great. I think that those things are really good.
The bigger thing is good communication. It’s about these people knowing each other as people. And it’s just about them being able to talk about issues before they become big screaming issues. When there’s mild frustration being able to come together and say, “Hey, let’s talk about what’s happening and why it’s happening and what we’re going to do about it.” And that’s just good ongoing communication in the practice. That stops us from getting to the place where we build walls and where we split into groups. And us versus them is a very powerful, very simple way to divide people.
And in practice, if we start having that type of language where there’s us in the back and them in the front or vice versa that leads to division really fast. It leads to a lack of assumed good intent and that leads to anger. So, anyway, those are my big things on bridging the gap between the front and the back.
And then the last one, Jackie asks, “How do you coach someone that gives very blunt delivery of feedback and rubs people the wrong way?” All right. I like this question. This, I get this a lot. How do you coach someone who gives very blunt feedback? I don’t find this to be particularly hard feedback to give. I really don’t. I like it. And so, the big thing is, let me go ahead and frame this up.
So, the first thing that I want to do there, there’s really two kinds of corrective feedback that you can give. The first is critical and the second is developmental. And so, if you give critical feedback then what happens is that’s me saying, “Hey, you messed this thing up yesterday and I want to talk about how you messed it up. Okay?” And so, that’s critical feedback.
Developmental feedback is me saying, “Hey, I want to talk about where you’re going and what I want to see from you in the next six months. Hey, I want to talk about your developmental pathway and what I see as the next big steps for you to take, to move onward and upwards, to be even more fantastic at your job than you are. I want to talk to you about the things that I’m really looking for you in the next year as far as your own personal leadership development.” And that’s developmental feedback and it feels very different.
It’s not me saying, “Let’s talk about how you screwed these things up.” It’s me saying, “Let’s talk about the future and what we’re going to do in the next year.” And so, this type of blunt feedback, I’m not going to hold it as a trial and be like, “Come back in here. Now, you’re going to sit here. I’m going to bring in the first witness to talk about your bluntness when you said, ‘That’s not what I asked for.'” I’m not going to put him on the spot. We’re not having a trial. We’re not doing any of that.
And so, “Hey, I need to talk to you. I want talk about what I want to see from you in the next year as far as your leadership development and where I see potential for you to really blossom.” And then I talk not about them giving blunt feedback because blunt feedback is very subjective. It’s very subjective. What I consider blunt feedback living in the Southern United States my whole life is very different than what my friend, who lives in New York City considers to be blunt feedback. What he considers to be normal communication. I would like, “Oh, my God. You said that?”
It’s a cultural thing. And yeah, I say that with love, but there are places where very direct communication is just the norm and there’s other places where that’s just not how we talk. And so, this person may fit like a glove in another place. I don’t want to lose this person, but what they’re saying is not wrong. It’s just it’s being received in a way that they do not intend. And I talk a lot about how the person is being perceived. Not what they’re doing and that’s big important point in coaching people.
If I say, “Hey, you are doing this wrong,” that’s very different from saying, “Hey, I understand where you’re coming from and I appreciate you enforcing our policies and giving clear feedback. I do and I do not want that to stop. I want to work on how that feedback is being perceived because some people are hearing it as very blunt or they are taking it in a way that is probably stronger than you intend. And so, I want to work with you in how we can deliver the feedback in a way that’s not going to be perceived as over the top or aggressive. I want you to work on softening your delivery, so that it is as effective as you want it to be.”
And that’s how I put it. And really, I hope you can kind of hear that I’m really trying to take this away from being any sort of criticism of the person because it’s a skill criticism. And just say, “Hey, I want you to work on softening your delivery, so that your feedback is as effective as you want it to be. And we can talk about how to do that.” And if they want specific examples, I hopefully can give them and say, “Here’s some of the things that I heard.”
And it’s just, again, a lot of times, communication doesn’t happen at the mouth, it happens at the ear. And we don’t have a ton of control over what happens at someone else’s ear other than to receive feedback and make adjustments based on how they’re interpreting what we’re saying. That’s just life. It’s not a critique of you as an individual or your skill or your smarts or anything else. “I told you what it is. I gave you the feedback. This is where it is. Let’s just make some adjustments and go on. You’re doing great. I appreciate you.”
And that, I try to keep it low stakes and just give that feedback. If you want to unpack it some more, we teach a DISC in Uncharted. So, DISC is a very simple style of communication profile and so, basically people kind of fall into four categories. D is a dominant direct personality type and that’s often the ones that I get the feedback about, “This person is very blunt.” This person is probably just a D style communicator, which is I think it’s great. I’m very comfortable with these, but they are straight to the point. They don’t want details. They’re just, “Tell me what I need to know and I’m going to tell you what you need to know and let’s go on.”
And you guys probably work with those people. A lot of doctors are that way and they can be seen as uncaring. That’s not true. That’s not remotely true. It’s just that they are no nonsense, “Let’s go. Let’s get going.” And that’s their communication style. And what I love about DISC is it breaks people up.
And you can say, “Oh, I know those people. I know exactly who that is.” And I will say, “Great. Do you know how that person likes to communicate?” And you say, “Yes, they’re very direct.” And I say, “Great. Here’s a little trick. They also like to be communicated that way.” Which mean, and that makes the feedback even a little bit tricky if you don’t do it right, because the person is like, “I’m not blunt. This is how I would want people to talk to me.”
And that’s true. That is how they want them to talk. It’s like, “This is how I communicate. I told you what you need to know. Tell me what I need to know and let’s go our separate ways.” And that’s it. And so, anyways, like Ron Swanson from Parks and Rec, goes like, “Tell me what you want and I’ll tell you what I want.” And that’s it. Anyway, I don’t find it to be super problematic because it’s 100% just, “Hey. This is how it’s being received. We need to adjust so that these specific people are hearing what you’re saying and your feedback is effective. Can you work with me on that? Help me soften it.”
And they’re going to have to struggle because a lot of times they’re like, “I just want to say it and go on.” And I go, “I get that.” The worst case is I kind of have to get them to understand how blunt feedback does not save them time. They’re like, “I just tell them. It saves time.” I was like, “You just tell them, and then they come into my office and now, I’m talking to them and it takes me 30 minutes to talk them down. And now, you and I are having this conversation. And if it keeps happening, we’re going to have another conversation like this. And now, if you want to have a good relationship with this person, you may have to go and apologize and tell them that you didn’t mean to come off direct. And how much time does that waste?”
It’s like, “Just soften your delivery. And ultimately, it takes more time in the moment and saves more time in the long run by far.” And so, I might have to explain that. Usually, I don’t. Usually, I just say, “Hey, I want you to be more effective. This is what I need from you is just soften tone, so that people perceive it differently.”
Guys, that’s it. That’s what I got. Those are my questions that I got from the Uncharted community. Thanks to everybody there who dropped those questions for me. Gang, I hope you enjoyed it. It’s been a fun experiment. I’m going to go back to the lab and tinker around on this and maybe we’ll do some more of these. Maybe we’ll switch it up a little bit. I don’t know. We’re going to see what happens.
But anyway, gang, thank you guys so much for being here. If you enjoy the podcast, lead me an honest review wherever you get your podcast. If you’re watching on YouTube, click that Like and Subscribe button. Gang, I hope you all are well. Take care of yourselves. All right, talk to you soon. Bye.

Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Life With Clients, Perspective, Team Culture, Wellness

My Open Mic Night: Discovering Growth in the Uncomfortable

November 11, 2022 by Andy Roark DVM MS

When was the last time you did something that scared you? For me, it was this past weekend.

Six weeks ago, I signed up for a standup comedy class. While I have done improv comedy for about 10 years now, I’ve never done standup. I thought this class would be an opportunity to pick up some new skills and meet some interesting people. It turns out, standup is not like improv at all. 

Standup is more like telling scripted stories while juggling. During a routine, you are attempting to communicate a narrative while inserting punchlines in about every 30 seconds. It’s a lot harder than I thought it would be. 

Trying something new can be challenging and uncomfortable. But there is a lot that can be gained when you push outside of your comfort zone.

The Open Mic

As part of the standup class, I have to go to and participate in “Open Mics.” An Open Mic is where people are given a set amount of time to perform their standup routines. As someone who talks for a living, I didn’t think this would be all that intimidating. But, it absolutely was. 

Heading into my Open Mic night, I didn’t think my jokes were as funny as they could be. I was certain I could improve my set if I only had more time to work on it. And the fact that people paid to hear comedians tell jokes (not some vet telling stories about a pomeranian with one eye) weighed heavy on my mind. It was genuinely nerve-wracking.

I’d like to tell you that the standup set went fantastic… but it didn’t. It went fine. I got some laughs and at least one awkward silence after a joke that would have killed with cattle vets. But that’s life, isn’t it? We don’t try new things and find immediate perfection.

As much as I dislike being uncomfortable, I am absolutely certain that being in that state is a good thing.

Finding Growth in the Uncomfortable

It is very easy to live within our comfort zone. To simply be “good enough,” and to rely on what we know and have done before to make our way in this world. The problem is that in comfort, there is no growth. 

One of my favorite quotes is from French surgeon and biologist, Alexis Carrel, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1912:

“Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor.” 

I think this is completely true. We try new things, get mixed results, and then try again. That’s how we grow and get better. That’s how we keep life interesting.
Over the years, there have been a number of studies, including research on the concept of “toughening” conducted by Mark Seery, a psychologist at the University of Buffalo, that found that dealing with adversity can increase our tolerance for it and improve our perspective on it.

Final Thought

What was the last scary thing you did? When did you last try something new that made you nervous? Is it time to pick up a new challenge? Open yourself up to the uncomfortable for the sake of growth, self-improvement, and the chance to experience a piece of the world that has thus far been foreign to you. Yes, it’s going to be scary… and yes, it will be totally worth it.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Just For Fun, Perspective

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