Everything comes down to poo….

I was sitting drinking my coffee this morning, talking to my family, and trying to come up with an idea for the blog.  Both of my adult children were home and we were chatting about ideas concerning leadership, positivity, and self-improvement.  As we batted around these ideas, my younger dog Parker pooped right in front of us on my living room carpet.  He has been house trained for at least eight months now and never pulls this kind of stunt, but I recently changed his yard routine - I fertilized his backyard and have been taking him out in the front yard.   I guess he is thinking, you change my routine I poop on your carpet. 

As I cleaned up the odiferous mess, my daughter jokingly said, “Life be like that some time.” Then I added, “Everything comes down to poo.”  Referring of course to the “Scrubs – My Musical” episode that aired in 2007 featuring a song about poo.    If you have not seen the episode, look it up and listen to it on YouTube.  It is funny and so relatable to veterinary medicine.

The talk and laughter that ensued as we listened to that song again, got me thinking about how a veterinarian’s and veterinary team’s life involves a lot of poo - both literally and metaphorically.   If we can retain the correct attitude about it, we can remember to laugh and enjoy our job in spite of the fact that much of our job revolves around poop.   

Veterinary life is like puppy poop on your carpet.  A blog is born…

There are so many opportunities to deal with literal “poo” in our profession and we actually make some money as we deal with it.  We have the fecal smear, the fecal flotation, fecal gram stain, and fecal culture. We deal with dog poo, cat poo, rabbit poo, lizard poo and the ever so frequent bird poo on my white lab coat. 

Everything does indeed come down to poo. We also deal with a lot of other negative stuff (poo) daily.

Poo is inherently negative right?  Wrong!  Our thoughts about it can be negative.  Sorry, I keep using the “poo” as a metaphor and you are probably tired of reading that word.  What I really mean is, the negative thoughts that you choose about your day cause your feelings of stress and negativity.

You can choose to think about anything differently in order to experience better feelings.

When something happens, it is a fact.  It happened and you can’t change it.  You get to choose how you want think about it.  If you think the fact is sad or negative in some way, you will create sad, negative feelings in your body.  If you find a different way of looking at it, thinking a more positive thought, you will feel more positive about it. 

For example, a client’s dog is severely ill, and you don’t think you can save it.  That is a sad fact. You can either choose to feel helpless and sad, or you can change your focus to one of helping the client navigate the decisions that need to be made.  Focus on your talent for working with clients, not saving the patient.  If you can focus on the conversation and counsel the client and your abilities therewith, you will feel useful, not useless.  If you focus on what you can’t do, you will feel helpless. If you focus on what you can do for the client, you will feel helpful.

Remember that every veterinarian and veterinary technician has insecurities.  It is totally normal to feel negative emotion.  Just realize that the negative emotions come from your thoughts about any given situation.  You get to choose those thoughts.  Your brain is powerful! 

This is your life and you are in charge of your satisfaction.  If you are not happy, work to change your mind.  You may not be able to change your situation, but you can change your thoughts about your situation.

If you are experiencing difficulty seeing the humor in the “poo” in your life reach out for help. We all get stuck and need someone to help us out of our negative emotions. There are plenty of great therapists and life coaches (like me) that would love to help you get through it.  Taking care of yourself is always your first priority.

So, thank you to Bridget, Tristan, Scott and of course Parker for interrupting our blog brainstorming session to poop on the carpet.  You saved me some time by giving me a great example for creating positive thoughts. 

Stay positive this week!

“I enjoy life when things are happening. I don't care if it's good things or bad things. That means you're alive.”  -  Joan Rivers

Dr. Julie Cappel

Join me on the Podcast!  The Veterinary Life Coach Podcast. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-veterinary-life-coach-podcast-with-dr-julie-cappel/id1451549730

Let me talk to the boss!

Each day the lovely veterinary technicians at our practice call all of the clients from the previous day to see how they are doing after their vaccinations or surgical procedures. They politely call each one and listen to the owner’s reports, answering questions as they arise. It is usually a somewhat pleasant exercise.  Clients are often friendly, appreciative, and grateful for the fact that we care enough to call them for a progress report.

 

Not so on Friday.

On Friday I was working in the pharmacy area (where the call-back phone is located), getting ready to enter an exam room when I heard my technician Samantha making a follow-up call.  The gentleman had been in with his dog on Thursday for a routine annual examination and vaccines with one of the doctors.  When the client answered, Sam politely said, “Hello, this is Sam from Warren Woods Veterinary Hospital and I was calling to see how Fritz is doing after his vaccination appointment yesterday.”  What happened next was so fascinating that I had to stop what I was doing to listen to Sam’s side of the call. 

She repeated the entire sentence again but a little bit louder.  “This is Sam from Warren Woods, I was calling about Fritz, to see how he is doing after yesterday’s visit.”  Then, “Yes, I can hear you, can you hear me?” she said politely.  Then again in an even louder voice, “This is Sam from…………., perhaps I should call you again on another line.”  Sam kept getting louder and the gentleman kept telling her to speak louder.  After about the fifth or sixth time she repeated herself, each time upping the volume saying, “I am sorry, I cannot speak any louder, but I would be happy to call you back on a different line, if you like.”  “I AM SORRY but I CANNOT get any LOUDER, maybe we have a bad connection.”  Then she paused and said, “Of course, let me place you on hold for a moment so I can get her for you.”  She placed the phone on hold, looked at me with desperation in her eyes - as the rest of the team, now very interested looked on - and said: “He wants to speak to the boss because he said that I am very rude.”   

I could only laugh out loud and the absurdity of her situation.  I had heard the whole conversation and Sam was not rude at all.  In fact, she is one of the sweetest most patient people I know.  She was indeed talking very loudly, but not rude.  Hilarious!

So, what do you do when someone falsely accuses you of being rude or handling them (or their pet) in an unsatisfactory manner; especially when you know that you are in the right?  Our first instinct is to fight back.  Our natural reaction is to go into defense or fight mode; the automatic response - our fight or flight reaction.  The problem is that you can’t run away from your clients, so flight is off the table.

When someone falsely accuses you, stay calm and keep a positive mindset.  Getting upset or fighting has no place in this conversation. Give up the idea of being right.  There is no right or wrong, there is only understanding. If you become agitated or defensive you will not be able to diffuse or remedy the situation. 

Assume that what the client is telling you is true - to them - and try to understand why it is true.  Once you understand where they are coming from you can move into solution mode.  Agree on the facts of the situation and in this case the fact was that the client could not hear Sam properly.  No fault of Sam, but the client needed to know that her intentions were honorable because she just wanted to check on his dog.  Once we got past the confusion and moved to understanding, we were able to agree that the phone connection was the problem, not our sweet Samantha. 

“Seek first to understand and then to be understood.”     

Stephen R. Covey

Dr. Julie Cappel

Join Me on The Veterinary Life Coach Podcast!  Click the Link.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-veterinary-life-coach-podcast-with-dr-julie-cappel/id1451549730