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

Are you smarter than a neurosurgeon?

Recently my Dad experienced a brain issue and was hospitalized for a few days. I had the opportunity to leave work to be with him at the hospital.  After his minor brain surgery (if you can call a brain surgery minor), I was spending the day with him and my mother in his neuro intensive care hospital room.  Because it was an intensive care unit, a parade of doctors and nurses attended to him regularly.  He was doing very well, but they do not put anyone on autopilot in intensive care.  At some point during this parade of health care professionals, a resident neurosurgeon arrived in his room to check on his progress.  The resident neurosurgeon had assisted with my Dad’s surgery the previous day and was stopping by to check on him.  When he entered the room, he greeted my Dad, who in turn introduced me to the doctor. 

My parents often introduce me to strangers as; “This is my daughter, Julie, she is a veterinarian.”  The doctor showed some polite interest in my profession because he is a dog owner. He asked me about my job – how did I like it - and then about how I thought my Dad was doing today.  I told him that I loved my job on most days and that my Dad seemed to be doing remarkably well after what he had been through the day before.  I then shared that my Mom and I were a little embarrassed that we didn’t pick up on my Dad’s symptoms earlier and get him to the hospital.  I felt that we should have known that something was not right sooner than we did.  My Dad had been showing some insidious symptoms for the past few days and none of us picked them up.  I was particularly embarrassed that I didn’t see it earlier.

The neurosurgeon laughed and said, “Let me tell you a story.”  He preceded to tell me that he has a middle-aged dog that sometime last summer started drinking more than usual.  She was losing weight and passing some urine that seemed a little sticky and strange. He told me that it went on for weeks with his dog drinking and urinating more and dropping weight.  He really did not know what was wrong with her. The dog had a huge appetite for water, but he just kept thinking that the water drinking “was because it was hot outside and the dog was drinking due to the heat”.    He said he finally decided to take the dog into the veterinary hospital to attempt to diagnose her problem. 

As soon as the veterinarian heard the symptoms and looked at the neurosurgeon’s dog, she told him that the dog may have diabetes.  As the veterinarian left the room to get her technician to draw the pet’s blood, the neurosurgeon said he sheepishly removed the hospital credentials - clipped to his scrub pocket identifying him as a neurosurgeon - and slowly hid them in his pants pocket.  He could not believe that he didn’t think of diabetes.  He did not want the veterinarian to know that he was a physician and he was quite embarrassed.

He told me, “Do not feel bad about not diagnosing your father’s condition because I couldn’t diagnose my dog’s diabetes.”  He said, “I will take care of your father’s brain and you can take care of my dog’s diabetes.”  I laughed and told him that I appreciated his story because it did indeed make me feel better about my lack of knowledge when it came to my Dad.  

By the way, I also had another neurosurgeon at the hospital tell me that he always wanted to be a veterinarian.  So, when you start doubting yourself and feel as if your job is not all that important, remember that you may be smarter than a neurosurgeon.

"I cannot do everything, but I can do something. I must not fail to do the something that I can do."  - Helen Keller

Dr. Julie Cappel

A Night at the Opera.

This week I spent a few days in Indianola Iowa at the Des Moines Metro Opera. They have a beautiful theatre in which they perform full scale opera with a large orchestra and chorus.  My daughter was performing in Candide and La Bohème and I was able to attend multiple performances.   While I was there, I got a great education in the theatre/opera arts as well as a lesson in overcoming obstacles.

During the Friday night performance of Candide, one of the main characters came onstage after a costume change.  As she started singing her scene, the side zipper of her costume completely ripped open.  Her pink bra and entire side were exposed to the audience, so she quickly made a parting comment and hurried back off of the stage. That left the audience and the actors standing awkwardly by while the costumers backstage tried to put her dress back together.  The orchestra played the same bars of music over and over and the actors onstage made a few jokes to lighten the mood.  The actress with the ripped dress called out from the wings that she was “so close!” and “almost ready!”; the audience laughed and played along, and the other singers waited patiently for her to return to the stage to continue the opera. 

Once she was back on stage with a table cloth pinned around her to cover her damaged dress (yep, that was the best they could do), she continued the performance with a few new jokes woven into the story about her unfortunate dress.  This grand production that the team of artists had worked on for weeks, fell prey to one defective zipper. The show carried on and was more warmly received than the previous night’s performance.

Watching this unfold, I was reminded that life is full of obstacles and we all fall victim to unexpected circumstances.  So how can we take a lesson from this opera singer and continue to perform in spite of our challenges? 

Don’t get caught up in the mental drama that your mind will create around a challenge.  Try to gain perspective either by taking some time to explore options or talking to another person that is not emotionally involved with your obstacle.  Getting outside perspective is a great way to keep your mind from indulging in stressful drama.

Focus on solutions and resources needed to address your obstacle.   Often times an obstacle presents that revolves around a lack of resources.  If you focus your attention on understanding what is needed, then take steps to acquire those resources, you will start to chip away at the obstacle and get closer to a solution.  

Author Jeff Olson writes in The Slight Edge: “There are going to be all types of obstacles placed in front of you during your lifetime. And you can determine the size of a person by the size of the problem that keeps them down. Successful people look at a problem and see opportunity.”

Develop a growth mindset, be strong and don’t quit.  Most people do not overcome their obstacles because they feel inadequate.  Having mental strength and resilience when you tackle a problem will get you over your hurdles and propel you to success. 

Overcome your obstacles and continue to sing!

Dr. Julie Cappel



Join me on the Podcast - The Veterinary Life Coach Podcast with Dr. Julie Cappel
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-veterinary-life-coach-podcast-with-dr-julie-cappel/id1451549730?mt=2