The Wagging Tail

Do you believe some people are luckier than others?

According to John D. Krumboltz and Al S. Levin, there’s no such thing as luck. In fact, they shirk the use of the word in their book Luck Is No Accident: Making the Most of Happenstance in Your Life and Career, opting instead to use “happenstance”, a term with less baggage. Krumboltz and Levin argue that happenstance isn’t something that randomly effects us — it’s something that we create out of the chance situations and encounters that run through our lives:
Have you ever noticed that unplanned events — chance occurrences — more often determine your life and career choices than all the careful planning you do? A chance meeting, a broken appointment, a spontaneous vacation trip, a “fill-in” job, a newly discovered hobby — these are the kinds of experiences — happenstances — that lead to unexpected life directions and career choices.

The key is to recognize these opportunities and to act on them. Here are some techniques the authors suggest we can use to turn happenstance to our advantage.

1. Make the most of unplanned events. Most of the time, we dodge unplanned events in order to return to our normal lives. We fear the spontaneous. But if you can open your mind, and roll with the unplanned, new opportunities unfold.
2. Share your interests and experiences with people you meet. Learn to strike up conversations with people you meet. Ask them about their lives. They’ll ask you about yours. In this way, you may sometimes turn a random encounter into a possible “lucky break”.
3. Keep your options open. Goals are good, but devotion to a goal may blind you to other opportunities. It’s a mistake to cling to one path out of a sense of obligation. Pursue goals, but reassess your progress and your priorities at regular intervals to prevent yourself from becoming trapped in a miserable reality.
4. Try it — even without knowing the outcome. Two of the best ways to “be lucky” are to be willing to take calculated risks and to embrace unexpected opportunities. Try new things. Go new places. Don’t just do the things for which the outcome is certain.
5. It’s OK to fail. It’s trite, but it’s true: those who never try, never fail. And those who never fail, never learn. “First ask yourself: What is the worst that can happen?” Dale Carnegie once advised. “Then prepare to accept it. Then proceed to improve on the worst.”
6. Take action to create your own luck. The authors offer a number of useful tips for creating your own luck:
   • Act now. Don’t procrastinate. Begin pursuing your goals today.
   • Avoid the “sunk cost fallacy”. Just because you’ve spent time and money on something doesn’t mean you can or should continue doing so.
   • Take advantage of timely opportunities. Don’t be afraid to say “yes” when a favorable circumstance arises.
   • Always do your best work, even when you think the task is unimportant.
   • Ask for what you want. If you do not ask, you cannot receive.
   • Be persistent. Don’t give up. Work hard.
   • Become a lifelong learner. In 50 Success Classics, Tom Butler-Bowdon notes that most successful men and women have made a habit of reading, and of constant self-improvement.
7. Enjoy yourself — the good life is a balanced life. Here’s advice I sometimes forget. A person who leads a balanced life is happier, more relaxed, more open to new experiences. If you maintain good relationships, explore satisfying hobbies, prioritize physical fitness, go out of your way to help others, and continue to pursue personal growth, you will become a well-rounded person, just the sort that “luck” favors.
8. Overcome self-sabotage. Finally, in order to make the most of “luck” and happenstance, you must learn to face down your greatest enemy: your self. Each of us is capable of thwarting good fortune through negative self-talk. We beat ourselves up over our pasts. We tell ourselves that we “can’t” do something before we even try.

Dale Carnegie once said, “Happiness doesn’t depend on ay external conditions — it is governed by your mental attitude.” And research bears it out. Don’t worry about circumstances beyond your control. Learn to control the things you can, including your reaction to the world around you. How you respond to an unfortunate event is often more important than the event itself.

I bet as a veterinarian you must have your days at the hospital where you had a most unusual, notable, favorite or memorable case. I’ve read a few interesting stories recently and I wanted to share a couple of them with you.

It seems a family’s Iguana had stopped eating and was brought in to be examined because he was feeling rather “grumpy,” according to the owners. The vet touched the Iguana’s tummy and felt several abnormal shapes. X-rays revealed the presence of a number of round, metallic objects. I guess Pets, like small children, will put coins in their mouths and then sometimes swallow them (I remember my younger brother swallowing a penny as a child and my dad holding him upside down by his feet to get him to cough it up, but that’s another story).

Generally the coins pass, but if there are enough of them, or if the GI tract is small (like in the Iguana), the coins get stuck. The vet used a fluoroscope to find the exact location of the coins, but couldn’t remove them with an endoscope. Although they had to be surgically removed, the Iguana went home the next day and had a full recovery. But, say the owners, he’s still grumpy. Turns out the Iguana had taken the money from a piggy bank. At the end of it all, it was the vet’s comment that made me laugh: “Maybe there was something he wanted to buy.”

Another story I read was pretty amazing. Did you hear about “Dutch” the Dachshund? He was bitten by a Mojave green rattlesnake and actually survived. The veterinarians cared for the dog 24 hours a day for about six days. It was the first time the team had successfully treated a bite from what is known as the deadliest rattlesnake in North America. Usually it’s fatal. Apparently the dog was battling the rattlesnake with another Dachshund in the owner’s backyard. The dogs killed the snake but the 10-pound miniature Dachshund became lethargic shortly thereafter. The owner was unsure if the dog was actually bitten and even after being examined by the vet, it was still unclear (there’s not much reaction at the site of the bite initially, say the vets). Antibiotics and IV medication were given as preventive measures.

Antivenin was administered but then Dutch had to be hooked up to a ventilator when the venom paralyzed his lungs. He was on assisted breathing for several days and was continually monitored to make sure he didn’t vomit while on the respirator. The vets had to manually lubricate his eyes because he couldn’t blink. They had to transport the dog back and forth between the hospital by day and the emergency clinic by night. Dutch started to improve after the owner brought in another Dachshund to see him at the hospital. Eventually, Dutch was taken off the ventilator and sent home. He lost nearly a third of his body weight during the whole escapade, has recovered significantly but still has some damage to his eyes. When he is fully recovered, the doctors will check to see if he was blinded in the ordeal.

So there you have it. We welcome you to share your experiences with us…

Has this ever happened to you…You come home from a long day at the hospital, tired and ready to unwind when you see that you’ve got a message on your machine; you press the button and listen. The message goes something like this: “Hi, Dr. Smith. This is Carrie Taylor. My son Zack attends school with your son James. I’m calling to see if you would be available to “chair” the up-coming career night at school.” Here comes the hard sell… ” No one has come up to the plate and if we don’t find someone soon, it won’t happen this year. Please call me and let me know if you can help out. Here’s where she goes for the jugular…You did such a great job presenting your veterinary career to the children last year, I know you would be perfect as the lead on this. Please call me at…

Your first thought is complete and utter dread. You have neither the time nor the energy to spearhead a project like this. You tell yourself that you can’t and won’t do it! But after a few minutes of thinking it over, you cleverly figure out how to pull the wool over your eyes, convincing yourself that you will call Carrie back and agree to lead career night . With a sigh, you pick up the phone and begin to dial.

Congratulations! You have managed to push aside your own needs for someone else’s, but that’s okay, right? We’re supposed to always say yes even if we want to say no, aren’t we?

Saying no is difficult. It feels like being honest (by telling people we don’t want to fulfill their request) isn’t even an option. Thinking you are a bad person for saying no is a symptom of “the disease to please.”

I recommend three things to challenge your automatic pleasing button in order to do right for yourself and others who come knocking at your always open door:

Get in the habit of delaying your answer. There’s no rule that says you have to instantaneously decide how you want to respond to a request. The next time someone asks you to do something, tell them you’ll get back to them in a few days. Then weigh out the pros and cons, make your decision and don’t put off calling them back. We tend to worry, thinking people won’t understand if we say no. But I disagree. When I say no, (and I’m not saying it’s easy) I mostly sense an appreciation for my honesty. What I don’t sense is resentment, like I thought I would.

Ask yourself if the request is going to take up a little or a lot of your time. Weigh the yes-to-stress ratio. Making a presentation the evening of career night on what it’s like to be a vet will take a lot less of your precious time than heading up career night itself . If an activity is going to end up being another source of stress in your life — pass on it.

A typical way to start out a no response is to say, “I’m sorry but ,” because we think that it sounds polite. Don’t apologize. While politeness is a good thing, apologizing just makes you sound weak and whiney. Don’t feel bad about guarding your time. It’s possible to be polite and firm at the same time.

Do you have the disease to please? What do you do when you want to say no, but just can’t seem to make it happen?

When I tell people I’m a veterinarian, the second thing out of their mouth is, “That’s what I wanted to be when I grew up.” The first thing of course is, “Why does my dog ???” (I’ll let you fill in the blank). For many veterinarians, including myself, it’s that want, coupled with a love of animals that push us into the field.

Most veterinarians, however, will tell people that there’s a lot more to it than the want and love. The first semester of undergrad brings the sudden realization that science is now a major function of our everyday life. We hold a variety of jobs to help us gain valuable veterinary experience, like cleaning kennels, mopping the floor and placing the occasional I.V. catheter, hoping to get that precious referral for the vet school admission application.

Vet school brought a whole new set of challenges for us like managing time between a day full of classes, study groups and anatomy labs. The four years flew by and we were on our way to the first day of our career, stethoscope in hand, lab coat starched and pressed, ready to help Scooter stop “scooting.”

Before the first patient is seen, there is a very important part of veterinary medicine that many of us are still unaware of by our first day — and that is management! Terms like boss, mentor and leader were never talked about. Suddenly, you find yourself longing for the days of endless anatomy labs, and ophthalmology lectures.

Understanding business and managing those around you are skills I picked up as I journeyed into my career. I found the key to successfully honing those skills was utilizing my peers and employer for information. Different practices offer different resources to their veterinarians, which can include electronic record keeping systems, on-call support, and mentorship programs.

I personally benefited from a mentorship program. Now with eight years of practice under my belt, I am giving back and mentoring others. I’m confident in saying that people I have mentored benefited from my experience and perspective on good management and communication skills, in addition to everyday medicine.

My advice to anyone starting their veterinary career is to accept the fact that they will wear many hats: doctor (including both medical and psychological); manager (including operations, human resources, financial & marketing); teacher; leader; and, most of all, compassionate human being.

The sooner new veterinarians acknowledge the need for good management and communication skills, along with smart business and medical practices, the faster they will be able to achieve career success and happiness.