Revitalising Your Veterinary Career Through Strategic Renewal and Work-Life Harmony

You're listening to the Vet Staff podcast, the place where you, the veterinary professional, can go to get your head screwed on straight, so you can get excited about going to work on Monday mornings and be the most fantabulous and resilient version of you you can be. I'm your show host, julie South, and this is episode 173. Welcome to the third of four episodes 100% dedicated to helping veterinary professionals take proactive steps towards getting work life harmony the way you want it, whatever that looks like for you. Today, we're going to look at the concept known as strategic renewal. It's a way of helping you create your own sustainable work life harmony arrangement, and this episode is about helping you ensure that the oxygen, the O2 levels, in your oxygen mask tank is full so that when you need to use it your oxygen mask it works. If you're a people pleaser, then this episode is for you. If you're feeling a bit frazzled around the edges, this one is definitely for you as well, and if you're contemplating quitting the veterinary sector altogether, hopefully you'll find some work life harmony tips, strategies and hacks that make you reconsider leaving, if that's right thing for you. If you haven't caught up with the last two episodes in this series, then please check out episodes 171 and 172 as a way of helping you get some of the highly coveted work life harmony in your life and in your work, because we've covered quite a bit already.

Okie dokie on to strategic renewal. What on earth is that, you might be wondering? Strategic renewal when it comes to us people, versus, say, strategic renewal in a business or a corporation type sense. It refers to our to yours and my intentional practice of deliberately setting aside time for R&R type activities in our lives, in our days and our weeks time and activities that restore and rejuvenate our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual energy levels. It's about having harmony balanced. Too much work does not a happy person make. It's about having and making a conscious effort to break away from all of those things in those times when everyone wants a piece of you I'm sure you know what I mean there for being able to switch off from all of those demands in your daily life and your work where you constantly feel like you're being stretched more and more thinner and thinner and if it carries on, you're just going to snap. Strategic renewal is about being able to focus on and make time for your own self care and your own personal well being whatever that looks like for you. It's about making time, so, like I said earlier, that when you need to put your own oxygen mask on first, you've got the O2 in your cylinder so that it works when you need to use it. Because pear shaped events pop up when we least expect them.

For us humans, as opposed to being a business or the clinic, because that's different for us humans strategic renewal could include, for example, our physical renewal. This is where we take part in, engage in, participate in things and activities that, surprise, surprise, benefit our bodies. For example and it's not the hard out, ironman type, endurance type exercises, it's the ones that renew us on a very calm and cellular level, for example, like yoga or Pilates, getting enough sleep, going for walks that are rejuvenating rather than refreshing. There's a difference. It also could mean taking time for relaxation, perhaps through massages, warm baths or soreness whatever works for you. Now, although a rope exercise, hard out, huffy, puffy, is good for us, so too is taking the time out to relax in that renewal process. Mental renewal extends to taking part in activities that stimulate the mind in a refreshing way, for example, like reading, like learning a new skill or engaging in a hobby, something that brings you joy. It gets you smiling on the inside and also brings about a sense of accomplishment mentally for you as well. We also have emotional renewal, and this is time to for you to connect with those people who are important to you your kids, your family, your friends. It's about practicing gratitude, maybe doing volunteer work. It gives you a sense of connection with other people and, like I said, emotional fulfillment. We have spiritual renewal on that continuum as well. Now, for some, that could mean. For you, it could mean meditation, prayer, spending time in nature to feel a sense of peace and a connection with something greater than yourself, something bigger than yourself.

There's been a huge uptick in activities or even references involving nature, and I use nature in air quotes. I think we're pretty blessed here. In God's own New Zealand, nature for most of us is almost on our doorsteps. Even in our largest cities, we don't have to go too far to find ourselves either in a beautiful park or a forest or by the water, the sea or a river or a lake. There's plenty of research that supports the benefits of being able to get outside into Mother Nature's playground, because it's good for our souls.

Now, if you're listening to this and you're thinking, julie, I just don't have time to take time out, I'm far too busy for all of that stuff. Then, please, this is definitely for you, because you need to slow down and you need to listen, because there's plenty of research that consistently shows that spending time in nature has lots of benefits for our mental health and our overall well-being. Just in case you're wondering, it improves mood and reduces stress. For example, a study conducted by the Mental Health Foundation found that 70% of UK adults reported that being close to nature improves their mood and 49% stated that being close to nature helps them cope with stress. It's all a good thing. Another study by the University of Exeter, which is out of the UK, revealed that spending at least 120 minutes a week in green spaces such as it's only two hours, that's not that much 15 minutes a day such as parks or forests, significantly increased participants self-reported good health and psychological well-being feelings.

It enhances cognitive function as well. Research has shown that exposure to nature can improve both our cognitive function and our attention. Spending time in natural environments, even for short periods, has been associated with improved memory performance, attention restoration, which means that we can hold onto a thought for longer, and increased mental clarity. Research published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found evidence for associations between nature exposure and improved cognitive function and brain activity. It also reduces symptoms of anxiety and depression. This is another good thing. Numerous studies have suggested that spending time in nature can significantly reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Nature has been found to promote relaxation, reduce rumination. That's when we go over and over and over and over and over again thoughts in our heads. We just keep going on and on and on, and it also helps increase positive affect. A systematic review and meta-analysis was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine and it concluded that outdoor activities in natural environments were associated with lower levels of anxiety and depression. So that means go for a walk in a park or by the river, or by the lake or by the sea. It also boosts the physical activity levels.

Now there's a surprise. Nature provides an ideal setting for physical activity, which is known to have, as I've just said, many mental health benefits. People ask you me we are more likely to engage in physical activity, such as walking, jogging or exploring, when we're in natural environments compared to urban or indoor settings. Spending time in nature can therefore contribute to a more active lifestyle, which is good for us, which leads to improved physical and mental health. And then the last one being in nature fosters a connection and well-being. It's found to have a positive impact on social connection and community cohesion. Natural environments provide opportunities for social interaction and a greater sense of community, which are important for everyone's overall well-being. Additionally, studies have shown that exposure to nature can enhance feelings of awe, awe, or gratitude and connectedness, which leads to us feeling better, our overall well-being. I'll put links to these research notes in the show notes for you at vetstaffpodcastcom so you can go and check them out if you are interested in knowing a bit more about those research studies.

Factoring in times for strategic renewal in our lives is about recognizing the potential signs that we each have which are different for all of us for stress and burnout, and then proactively taking steps to counteract these. A symptom of of stress could be that we're suddenly more techy, more itchy, more we don't have the we're snappy, we're not nice people to be around sometimes. It's about having strategic renewal. It's about proactively creating a balance that supports your overall health and happiness, which in turn means then, if you're a workaholic, that you can work at sustained levels of healthy productivity, and the end result is then that you have a more manageable and a more harmonious work-life balance, which has to be good for you, right? Hopefully it's what you want as well. That's all well and good, julie, that you might still be thinking that, but how? What does that look like in real life? Let's have a look.

The first thing you need to do is find yourself some quiet time, preferably in a space that you think is a nice place for you to be Trying to do this. Trying to do this exercise on the bus or a train on your way home to or from work probably isn't the most ideal place. So, then, what you need to do is look at the pinch points, the bottlenecks, the stress points. Where are they in your life? And each of those headings that we've just talked about physical, the mental, the emotional and the spiritual? Where do you feel most stressed and out of kilter, for example, when it comes to your level of physical fitness? What's that like? Are you healthy? If you had to, could you climb a few flights of stairs, or run a few flights of stairs without it puffing you out too much? Or do you always look for the lift, the elevator? Do you have the energy to chase and play around with your kids or your grandkids after work or at the weekends, or is that just too much effort for you? Maybe you've gone to the other end of the scale. You've somehow moved into the excessive, compulsive, obsessive edge of the of the fitness continuum, the physical fitness continuum. You're extreme in what you're doing. You'll know where you sit on the physical, health and fitness scale for you. So is physical one of those pinch points for you, one of those areas of concerns for you in your life?

When it comes to mental, the mental continuum, are you so strung out that if or when someone asks you to make a decision, perhaps a really simple, easy decision like what are we going to have for dinner tonight, what shall I get out of the freezer for dinner tonight, or what would you like me to pick up from the supermarket for dinner tonight? If that kind of decision feels like it takes up too much bandwidth, too much energy for you to make, then strategic mental renewal could be where you need to put your focus on right now. How about emotional? Do you constantly feel like you're just one event away from a total meltdown? Do you struggle to keep your call. Do you feel like you always want to explode, to rent and rage, to scream and yell? Or maybe, at the other end of that continuum, do you just want to go to bed, hide under the covers and not get back up again until 2025, or something extreme like that?

Are you relying, perhaps, on medication to keep you balanced? Has your one glass of wine each night extended to two? Or are you starting now with a pre-dinner cocktail? Or perhaps spirits straight up, of course, with dinner, followed by a liqueur or that we can joint? That you smoke has become an almost nightly joint, or you find yourself having thoughts of going for something stronger, perhaps to help you chill out, or maybe to lift you up, to energize you, to keep you awake, to wake you up. Maybe you're smoking more, eating more, eating less. Whatever it is what is keeping you calm, balanced. That's not actually healthy.

When it comes to things spiritual, what does that look like for you? Maybe you've never considered yourself a spiritual being and it's not even a consideration for you, but if once upon a time, this aspect of your wellness was important to you and you've now let it drop, maybe, just maybe it's time to pick this up again. It could be meditating, it could be praying, it could be just gazing up and looking at the stars and wondering, looking at, contemplating of something bigger than you. Spiritual doesn't necessarily mean religious and it can, but not necessarily, like I just said, it could mean stargazing. It could be walking in a beautiful garden, on the beach, in a forest, by a waterfall, something that helps stimulate that internal feeling of wow and awe, of recognizing something, that about life that is much bigger than you. And I'm not talking about big problems here, it's it's more the awe and the wow feeling that we're looking for Now, having looked at your life across the physical, the mental, emotional and the spiritual, and the bottlenecks and the pinch points that you have now rank which one of those needs the most attention right now, which one of those is where the wheels are most likely to fall off first.

Then what teeny, tiny, incy, wincy, dinky baby step can you take right now, today, to make a difference for the better in that realm? If, for example, it's physical, could you put out some walking shoes tonight, set your alarm 15 minutes earlier tomorrow morning and just go for a walk around the block, or can you pack your walking shoes and take a walk at lunchtime or after work. What can you do today? Something teeny, tiny, incy, wincy, dinky, just a baby step that can work, that can make it happen. Could it be going to bed, say, half an hour earlier, getting up half an hour earlier, getting off the bus a stop further away so you can get an extra few hundred meters of activity of walking each day? I've gone for a walk at lunchtime, like it just doesn't have. You're not starting a marathon training here, you're just going for a walk, a short walk.

Perhaps you need to ask for help from your family to make something like this happen. All you want to do is identify something small you can do to bring about change, to help take away that pinch point in your life. Then the next step is for you to look at your schedule, your diary, and decide when that's going to happen, which is the most realistically successful time that you can bring about this change every single day, so that you can start to make it a habit. Are there other considerations that you need to look at? Others schedules that need to line up with yours? Then make that happen too. And if you're thinking, oh yeah, fine, okay, how? Go back and listen to episodes 171 and 172.

So that's the first and second in the series of work-life harmony, because those talk about how to set up the conversations that you can have to support your work life balance and your work-life harmony, the changes in the adaptations that you need to make. Start with where you are, with what you've got, and do it just one teeny, tiny, insy-winsy, dinky, baby step at a time. Remember, five minutes here and there makes a difference. Sitting down for five minutes and totally enjoying and relaxing while you have that cup of tea or that cup of coffee or maybe even that pre-dinner wine, is far better for you than doing it while, than having it while you're doing a myriad of 101 other things at the same time. Appreciate that just taking five minutes makes a difference. Five minutes you can schedule in a few bundles of five-minute clusters throughout the day that are totally for you.

I hope that you've found this third segment of WorkLife Harmony helpful as a way to keep or to get your head screwed on straight, to strengthen your resilience and to get excited about going to work on Monday mornings again. If you like the Vet Stuff podcast and you found it helpful, can I ask you to do me a favor, please. Can you please help me spread the Vet Stuff podcast word by telling three of your friends or colleagues about how this show helps veterinary professionals get their head screwed on straight and build their resilience so that they can get excited about going to work on Monday mornings again. Thank you very much for doing that. If you enjoyed today's podcast, then please make sure that you've hit that follow button. Wherever you're listening to this right now, the best place is to make that happen is to visit vetstuffpodcastcom, and you'll find a whole stack of different audio platforms that are easy to follow. You can choose your favorite one there.

I look forward to spending time again with you next week, where we'll wrap up this WorkLife Harmony series, and next week we're going to look at the Colt how to cultivate work-life separation. So remember to tune in and visit vetstuffpodcastcom. Hit that follow button that suits you and you can make 2020, you can make 2024 your year for having work-life harmony by setting expectations and negotiating deadlines and having strategic renewal in your life. Until then, this is Julie South signing off and inviting you to go out there and be the most fantabulous and resilient version of you you can be by screwing your head on straight and getting excited about going to work on Monday mornings. The Vetstuff Podcast is proudly powered by vetclinicjobscom, the new and innovative global job board, reimagining veterinary recruitment, connecting veterinary professionals with clinics that shine online. Vetclinicjobscom is your go-to resource for finding the perfect career opportunities and helping vet clinics power up their employer branding game. Visit vetclinicjobscom today to find vet clinics that shine online, so veterinary professionals can find them. Vetclinicjobscom.