3 overlooked benefits of prioritizing your wellbeing

“What’s in it for me?”

That’s what I had to start asking myself about my life. I was done with struggling as a veterinarian and as a human! 

After going all in, I discovered 3 awesome benefits of prioritizing wellbeing, and I’ll share them with you in this article.

If you’re looking for some simple strategies for cultivating wellbeing, check out this article, where I go into specific strategies you can use to quickly and effectively improve your wellbeing as a veterinary professional and as a human! 

If you go all in on your own wellbeing, you’ll probably discover these 3 benefits for yourself! 

Let’s jump right in!  

1. Prioritizing wellbeing will help you become a master problem solver 

Once you start your wellbeing journey you will find that you can handle just about any combination of circumstance, conditions, or life events that come your way. 

The skills and tools and strategies that you’ll discover on your wellbeing journey will also help you have a clear cut way of solving problems. This has been my favorite hidden discovery of learning the skill of wellbeing!

This means that you’ll be better equipped to handle those days at the veterinary hospital when people call out, clients are difficult, and when there is a surgery that goes wrong. 

You’ll also be able to handle all of Life’s throat punches more effectively.

2. Prioritizing wellbeing will help you change your perspective of the profession and the world around you

Changing your perspective will allow you to do what you love - veterinary medicine - without feeling bitter or being burnt out. 

Ultimately, you can have your dream job and enjoy your life simultaneously, but it all starts with wellbeing and perspective! 

How about your home life? How are your personal relationships with your significant other? How about with your kids? 

What do you think of the world outside of veterinary medicine? Who are you when you stop playing the role of veterinarian? Do you ever stop playing the role of veterinarian? 

Even with COVID, do you see the world as a something that is becoming and getting better, or do you see it as something that is falling apart? 

Do you see people as basically ‘good’ or as evil creatures creating their own doom? 

The perspective that you take in life is POWERFUL as it relates to your experience as a vet and as a human. 

While we can’t discuss perspective in detail here, you can learn 3 perspectives that will change your life in this 4-hr RACE-approved, online course.

3. Prioritizing wellbeing helps you prioritize YOU 

Whether you call this self-care or something else, you have to prioritize yourself. It’s much easier said than done, but it is possible to take AMAZING care of yourself AND be there for your clients and patients. 

If it seems like an impossible thing to do, my best guess is that you haven’t spent enough time brainstorming how to make this work. It may take hours, days, weeks, and months of trying to move all of the life puzzle pieces around before you truly figure out how to best prioritize yourself while still making the veterinary impact you took an oath to resolve. 

However, once you take the time and effort to figure it out, you will be more effective at providing care for clients, patients, family, and friends, which means you will be able to cultivate stronger and more meaningful relationships. 

You’ll no longer be resentful at everyone else for not looking out for you. Have you ever experienced that before? Have you ever been mad at someone else for not putting you first? Once you start caring for yourself, you’ll notice that others do more for you, as well! 

I know it seems backwards, but it is what it is! 

Wellbeing is a skill that needs to be cultivated. We can all start reaping benefits from simply committing to being well, but there are aspects that need to be practiced and refined. 

Once you learn the skill of wellbeing, you will be able to start reaping some of these hidden benefits!

For more tools, strategies, and resources on how to take your wellbeing to the next level, check out Get MotiVETed Universtiy: School of Wellbeing for Veterinary Professionals.