Motivation

This week, let’s take a step back on our journey and remember why we are doing this! 

I’ll go first, my “Why” is because we want you to achieve Financial Wellness during your path in veterinary medicine. I want you to be successful and happy in veterinary medicine. 

Let’s dig into your “why”. 

One step along that path is to master the concept of financial attitude. 

Research shows that the way you think about money and your financial motivation is an excellent predictor of happiness in your career and life. Remember this is much more than budgets and student debt this is about your wellness, your happiness and your contentment with your choice to be a veterinarian. 

So, what motivates you? 

Let’s look at motivators! There are 2 classes of motivators, extrinsic and intrinsic. 

Extrinsic motivators are seen as status symbols or possessions. These are your fancy cars, designer clothes, big houses and opulent vacations. Keep in mind that our  consumer society conditions us to want and desire stuff and things. Buying those things, responding to advertising, that’s what keeps businesses running! 

Back to the personal level, when people are driven by extrinsic motivators, it’s much harder to be financially satisfied and well. They constantly want the newer car, the bigger house or the latest trend. To say it another way, it’s impossible to keep up with the Jones’. These extrinsic motivators are a trap, and it’s really hard to unwind what we’ve been conditioned to think of as success and happiness. 

On the other hand, intrinsic motivators are what PFS is all about.

Intrinsic motivators are about securing financial wellness through peace of mind, comfort and control over your finances. It’s about shifting your mindset away from status and instead to your internal wellness. It's knowing that you and your family will be taken care of, because you have been financially wise. It’s sleeping well at night, not constantly wanting more. It’s being happy and content with what you have. 

This is difficult, you have been exposed to consumerism your entire life. You see examples of opulent spending all day every day. Our entire economy is built on businesses creating a need for you to spend! 

But today, I’d like you to spend a minute or two painting the picture in your mind of what financial wellness looks like once you are out of school. 

What are the intrinsic motivators that should be driving you? 

Is it being debt free? 

Is it a college savings account for your children? 

Is it the freedom to work and live when and where you want? 

Is it a warm fire in a house that doesn’t have a mortgage? 

Is it a loving family that is financially secure? 

Everyone’s ideas are going to be different, but you should take a minute to reflect on your intrinsic motivators and how they can create a totally different financial attitude.

This is huge, because this is where you are going. What you see in your mind is where this journey is leading you. That should be your motivation to keep going, to keep doing the hard work. Now we just have to find a path to get there! 

First-timeritis

Do you have a fear of doing something for the first time? Trying something new? 

Today we need to get outside your comfort zone! Over the course of your career and especially during the few years of practice, you will do many things for the first time. 

Earlier, we introduced the learning curve and progression through the stages of mastery,  Unconscious Incompetence, Conscious Incompetence, Conscious Competence, or Unconscious Competence. 

Then, we covered the struggle and its necessary role in learning. We talked about embracing the struggle, and knowing that learning comes from those little neurons forming synapses. There will be struggles in your education process, hopefully you can get to enjoy the struggle and look forward to learning new stuff. 

Today’s topic is about expanding your comfort zone. By default, if you are trying something new, it’s going to be uncomfortable. It’s outside your comfort zone. What is it that keeps you from trying something new? 

For most veterinarians and veterinary students the fear of failure induces anxiety. Could it be the fear of classmates and co-workers seeing you struggle? Could it be the possible harm to a patient? 

Unpacking the why is a big deal.  Practicing veterinary medicine will have you doing new surgeries, procedures, treatments and diagnosis on a daily basis. The path to financial wellness contains many new ideas, conversations and plans. Getting good at doing something new is essential for successful veterinarians. 

However, for some veterinarians, the fear of the new is overwhelming. We call this first-timeritis. This fear produces anxiety. The anxiety inhibits thought and performance. Remember that when your body is in anxiety, flight or fight mode, your mental capacity drops. This inhibits performance and makes us feel inadequate. 

The student or recent graduate despises the experience, vowing to “never do that again.”  This self defeating prophecy locks the veterinarian out of higher levels of procedures and practice. Why? It all has to do with their comfort zone and ability to push outside of it. 

It’s not that successful veterinarians are brazen or risky. They just understand their comfort zone and have learned to deal with first-timeritis. They have turned the anxiety into excitement. They calculate the risks and put safety nets in place. They can control their emotions, particularly the fight or flight situation to allow peak performance. 

So, how do we conquer first-timeritis? 

1. When I’m facing a new challenge or surgery or financial topic, I read about it and learn everything I can. Even though I’m years into practice, I research, learn and read about new topics regularly. Veterinary medicine is constantly evolving, there is no standing still. I learn everything I can. By the way, VIN is my go to resource for learning new stuff, because it allows me to learn from other clinicians that have gone before me. 
2. When the anxiety starts to creep up, I find it healthy. I remind myself, that’s it’s a signal that I’m in Conscious Incompetence or Conscious Competence. It means I have more to learn and more to experience. It’s my “pay attention” signal. I know it’s just a phase in the learning process that I’m going through. 
3. Next, I ask myself, “What am I afraid of?” Is it the fear of failure? Is it the fear of looking incompetent to a client or another veterinarian? Are these fears founded? Usually not!  Use your rational brain to override your primordial, emotional center. During the procedure I don’t let my fight or flight response take over! I concentrate on staying in my forebrain and push down the runaway train of fear and anxiety. I ask myself direct questions, like, “What’s the worst that could happen through this part?” 

It’s usually much less than my fight or flight response perceives. Surgery is a prime example of this, you’ll get to points in surgery that are overwhelmingly scary, However you have to keep yourself calm! 

1. When I’m in that position, I think of all the training, learning and experience that I do have. I remind myself to rely on that training and not stray from it. 
2. After the procedure or that first-time surgery I don’t let negative feelings in. Stay positive on the inside. Why? Our brains are hardwired to learn from and avoid negative situations. Our ancestors had to learn to run from snakes, bears and other things that would kill them. The solidification of the negatives in our memories is how our ancestors stayed alive. Today, we can help our brains rewrite memories by staying positive and not letting our brains go to the negative after a new experience. 

You may already have negative connotations with financial matters. You may think, “I’m not good at that,” “That sucked,” or “I’ll never do that again” when thinking of budgeting, compounding interest or having a financial conversation with your significant other. You have to rewrite these memories to power through first-timeritis, so the second, third 4th time is possible.    

Here’s another way that many veterinarians cope with this. They think - I’ll do an internship and/or residency, that way I’ll have someone at my side every time I do something new. So, the structured training environment will keep me safe. Wrong! There is no way that you can see and do everything that makes up veterinary practice. Ask any veterinarian and they will tell you they see and do new things regularly. It’s up to you and your brain to build that confidence. 

You may also think - I’ll pay an accountant or personal financial planner to take care of my finances. They will walk me through new stuff. Wrong! They can give you advice and support, but they can’t do the hard work for you. It’s like a personal trainer, they can show you how to lift weights, but they can’t pump the iron for you. 

There’s no way we can cover every financial situation that you may encounter. The point of personal financial success is to give you the tools to tackle these topics, empower you to learn more and know how to ask the right questions. 

This is about becoming a lifelong learner, both in veterinary medicine and in your personal financial life. This is about embracing the struggle, conquering the first time and finding excitement and fulfillment in learning something new! This is about becoming a learning tiger! And enjoying the journey. 

So to summarize -find your why, look to those intrinsic motivators to power you through, and when you do get to a hard part, when self doubt and anxiety creeps in, use your knowledge of the learning process and first timer-itits to hack your brain and make it through. This stuff works in all things life, medicine, surgery, and financial skills. Trust me, it will be well worth it! Until next time- keep up the good work and keep reaching toward your goals.