The Golden Rule is great, but there is one area in which it is lacking. Howard Farran recently wrote a column in Dentaltown titled, “Follow the Golden Rule.” In it, he offered excellent examples of how we can share our greatest and highest good with patients. When it comes to clinical care, we should only do treatment on patients that we would choose for ourselves. I like that. It allows us to lead with our integrity. Equally as important, he dives into how we treat patients on a personal level. We can get so caught up in the nitty gritty...
Which came first– gratitude or success? Chances are that growing up you learned that the more success you would have in life, the happier you would be. Somewhere along the way I believed that too, so I set my life up to create the ultimate happiness. I accumulated it all– the degrees, the friends, a husband, a home, and the perfect dental career. Eventually I learned the joke was on me. I found myself living this successful life, but I was unhappy, and I couldn’t feel grateful for all of the wonderful “things” I had. It turns out, success does...
If Covid-19 highlighted one thing, that is the need for easy access to support for our mental well-being. A few months ago I was lucky to connect with a new friend from across the globe. My friend Ziv founded an amazing coaching program that can be used anytime, anywhere– all on your smartphone. The program is called Kai. Kai is “an AI-powered, personal companion designed to help ease anxiety, depression, sleeping disorders and many other psychological stressors by integrating wellness tools, techniques and exercises according to the Acceptance Commitment Therapy ACT model.” Their mission is to make support for mental...
As I watched 2020 roll out and the excitement for 2021 build, I couldn’t help but remember my New Year blog post from two years ago. It was a surreal New Year for me, different from all the others I’d experienced in my lifetime. What’s even more surreal is how applicable those old musings are today. As you read this, imagine changing out the details of my cancer journey to what happened to you in 2020 and what you anticipate for your 2021. I hope it gives you an interesting reflection on how we label time. FYI, The only words...
The other day I saw a 2020 hindsight meme. It made me laugh, but of course, now I can’t find the exact meme. Ugh. That is so 2020. It got me thinking, though, which I guess is a good thing. 20/20 is a term used to describe visual acuity or sharpness. To me, that means clarity. I actually thought 20/20 was defined as “perfect” vision, but a quick Google search clarified that for me. I’m glad for that. We should really ditch the pursuit for perfection anyway. Some might consider it a cliche, but it’s so true. At some point...
My favorite part of dentistry was always creating the positive and fun relationships with patients. In fact, the good relationships may have been the only thing I liked about practice. I’ve always enjoyed connecting with people. Unfortunately the actual practice of dentistry got so hard for me that I lost sight of that for a while. Now that I get to help people while filling my own bucket, I remember how important connecting with people is to me. Since I’ve begun coaching, I have had the chance to connect and get to know the most incredible people– mostly dentists, of...
Last Thursday I had a really good cry. I can assure you it was a good, long, ugly cry. And it felt so good. That day was the one-year anniversary of my last targeted chemotherapy infusion. It’s been quite a year, a tough one for many. But given how 2019 was for me, 2020 has been a breeze. I’ve been happy. It seems almost suspiciously happy, the kind of happy that you don’t think is humanly possible. Most of the time it’s a carefree feeling. I’ve not been bothered by the small things, and when I am, I can quickly...
Getting through the current events will either require or create a lot of resilience in each of us. It seems like there has not been a time in our lives where we have felt so much discord. With Coronavirus, the economy, politics, racism, the media, social media, and more; life just feels hard these days. Despite all of the negativity we experience in this present moment, one good thing will come out of it: we will all become more resilient– no matter what. We might struggle to see the good that can come out of this, but becoming more resilient...
How are you passing the time? If you’re at home with no “work” to do, you might be feeling kind of lost. You don’t want to sit and watch Netflix all day. You’ll go nuts if you spend any more time on Facebook. There seems to be nothing productive you can do, and yet, maybe there is. We all wish for more time at home, but under these circumstances, enjoying a forced staycation is not so easy. It would be easy if we didn’t have to close our businesses, worry about ours and our employees’ lost incomes, or become our...
