Ep. 98 | 3 Myths Leading To Overextension In Vet Med (& How To Have Sustainable Success)

Feeling overextended in veterinary medicine—even though you love what you do?

In this episode, I break down three common myths that are quietly driving burnout, overwhelm, and unsustainable work environments in vet med—and how to start shifting out of survival mode into something that actually feels good.

We’ll talk about why “more patients = more money” isn’t always true, how saying yes can actually hurt the client experience, and why learning to say no is one of the most important skills for long-term success.

I also share how to use your nervous system as a real-time guide so you can recognize when you’re at your limit—and respond in a way that supports you, your team, your clients, and your patients.

If you’ve been feeling stretched thin, this episode will help you start looking at things differently in a way that’s more sustainable.

Resource mentioned:

• The Simple Leadership Strategy to Reduce Overwhelm and Recession Proof Your Veterinary Practice: https://www.lifeboost.today/thriveinvetmed

Disclaimer: The information provided in this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical, mental health, or professional advice. I am a certified health and life coach, not a licensed medical or mental health professional. Please consult with a healthcare provider before making any changes to your physical or mental health routines. If you are experiencing a crisis, seek help from a qualified professional or contact emergency services.

Connect with me on your favorite social media channel: Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn! 

To learn more about my approach and the programs and free resources available to support you, visit my website: www.lifeboost.today

I love to hear from you. You can always reach me at amelia@lifeboost.today.

Transcript

0:09

Welcome to the Life Boost with Amelia podcast where we're changing the narrative around what true health and success look like. They should give you energy, not drain it. I'm your host, Dr. Amelia multi-passionate integrative health and life coach, entrepreneur, and recovered burnout veterinarian. Together, we'll explore the science behind how your brain and body work, including the unconscious mind while also connecting with what your heart needs in order to stand up to the norm of feeling stuck on a hamster wheel-working hard yet feeling exhausted and not where you want to be- and instead live a life that makes you excited to get out of bed in the morning and in love with who you see when you look in the mirror. The reality is if you do what everyone else is doing, you're not going to feel good. Let's break the norm. Let's talk about three myths that are leading to overextension in vet med. That is something that I have been hearing consistently over and over is these feelings of overextension. And so I often hear someone saying, I really love what I do, but. They're feeling burned out or they feel like they just can't keep going at that pace. And this isn't just for people who have been in Vet Med for a long time. I hear it from people who are just out as new grads, new to the profession, already feeling overextended and practice owners who just feel like they just don't have enough time to really do the real leadership that they want to. So let's go over some reasons why that is happening, why it's understandable, and what we can do about it. The first thing is over extension really is a sign of operating in survival mode. And survival mode is for surviving. It's like getting through the day, but it is not for thriving or long-term success. And so with all of these examples, you're going to see that when you're in survival mode, we're focused on making it through a moment in time,, and if we instead are focused on thriving, if we are in more of a re regulated parasympathetic state, that's when we can start to look at the big picture and how everything is connected, and that's what helps us to lead towards sustainable success. So the first myth is this belief that more patients equals more money. And certainly we can see this in a corporate setting, especially if the leadership or those making the ultimate decisions are not in the practice every day. But we can absolutely see this in any practice. So that could be true when we just look at one day in time. It's true. If you say yes to more patients, then likely it's going to lead to more money. But let's look at how everything is connected. And so there really is a sweet spot, right? There's kind of this bell curve where the, to a certain extent, it's like the more patients you're seeing, the more money you are getting. But there is a sweet spot and there's this inflection point where suddenly the more. Patients that you're seeing, it's going to lead to less profit long term, and that's because of the ripple effect. Saying yes to more and more patients is going to have on your team, on your patient care, and for the client experience. And so if we look at the veterinary team, there's that point where we reach and we're just like, oh my gosh, this is too much. I am feeling rushed. Right? That's when care gets rushed. We feel like we maybe don't have time to educate clients well or to explain the value of our services. It's easier to have errors and to make mistakes, and that ripple effect can be. Number one, it can lead to burnout, right? It can lead to suddenly losing members of the team, and that can cost so much having to replace someone and go through the training. I think that's a almost 60,000 for a vet tech and much more for a veterinarian. And so you would have to see a lot of patients in order to make up for that. If we look at the client experience, if we are overextended, then that tends to lead to increased wait times. We are not communicating very clearly. It leads to a team that's probably feeling a little bit more on edge, maybe more irritable, reactive. We're not able to create as enjoyable of an experience. For that client when we are overextended. And so if you go to a business and you feel like they're not really hearing you, they're not very connected, um, you have this long week time, you don't know when you're gonna be seen, then what are you gonna do when you leave? Probably you may leave a negative review. You may tell your friends and family about it and say, I don't recommend going there, and so that you, maybe you had that client for that one day, but in terms of building trust, having a lasting relationship, and having clients who are telling their friends about you and recommending you, that stops happening when we are overextending. And then of course, with our patient care, if we are having mistakes, if we aren't providing them the care that we need, then that also is going to lead to not sustainable success or a great reputation for the practice. Let's look at number two. That is saying yes, creates a better experience for clients. So again, that is true in the moment. Say somebody calls you up and they want a, an appointment right now, or maybe they just walked in and they want to be seen, saying yes is very convenient. That is going to make them happy in the moment, but. Let's pause.'cause that is just a moment where they are happy. And what really matters is the entire client experience, right? And not just for that one client, but it is for all of the client, the clients that you have that day, right? And so, a lot like we just talked about in myth number one, if we do look at that ripple effect or the big picture for that client. They may not have a very positive experience. The one client that you said yes to, maybe they're just so grateful that you're seeing them, that they are going to maybe leave a positive review or they'll have a, a, they'll be grateful even if there's a wait time. But what about the other clients, right? Because again, if you are saying yes, and you have the capacity. Then you're not overextended, and that's not what we're talk, what we're talking about, but it's the times when you are already stretched, the schedule is already booked, and you're like, okay, we'll squeeze you in. And so that's likely to lead to longer wait times for those clients who you already had, who you are going to want to be creating a great experience for. Right? And so maybe yes, you made one client happy, but maybe that created a ripple effect of. All the other clients that you had frustrated that they had scheduled this and appointment in advance and now they're having to wait a long time. And, and again, that is leading to overextending the team. And that's when we start to have unsustainable work environments where we're ending the day and we are just feeling like we have nothing left to give. We have no energy, and it's hard to recover for the next shift. And then myth number three would be that saying no is bad. Right? It, it's true. It feels really nice in the moment just to make somebody happy and to say yes. And as veterinary professionals, of course, we want to help other pets. It is a terrible feeling thinking of saying no. We think, okay, I want to say yes because I feel good when I'm able to help another pet. And that is true to an extent, but there's always going to be this limit, right? Where there is a certain number of patients that we can see in a day. And beyond that, it starts to sacrifice the way that we are able to provide care in a way that feels good. And so that is when it leads to, again, feeling rushed or overwhelmed, feeling like we aren't able to be educating in a way that feels good. It feels like we are multitasking or we're being pulled in a lot of directions, and that is when it leads us to, at the end of the day, just. Probably feeling irritable, having zero energy, and then looking at what does that have, what ripple effect does that have when you're home? Right. That happens to me a lot where I, you know, would be go, go, go feeling kind of overextended at work, and I'd be looking forward to going home and seeing my husband and my dog at the end of the day. But if I had been completely overextended. Then instead of getting to enjoy that time with them, I would feel kind of irritable or I wouldn't really want to talk to him at all. Or even to see my dog. I love my dogs and that should be a sign for us, right? Because if then when you are getting home from work and it means that you're not able to connect with your partner in a way that feels good, you're not able to connect with your pets, maybe you don't have energy to. Throw together that healthy dinner that you had planned. If you are just getting home with nothing left to give, then that's not allowing you to recover for the next shift or to do the other things that are really important for you to support your brain and your energy so that you can come to your next shift, feeling ready. Right? And so all of this is. As a profession, we really need to be recognizing when are we overextended and questioning these things that we often normalize because in the moment they can feel so true and good, more patience, more money saying yes, great client experience saying yes feels good to me. But the reality is we have to start being aware of. What is that sweet spot? What is that great limit where we are able to do work in a way that feels fulfilling? We're able to help as many clients and pets as we can. We are profitable without the negative impact so that this is sustainable. And the way that we can do that without having to get to that burnout point or that negative review from a client is to start recognizing signs of a stress response in ourselves and others, and using that as a guide. So if we look at the stress responses, the parasympathetic, regulated, relaxed, state, safe, and social state, that is where we want to be most of the time. That's where we should be most of the time. That is where our body is able to function and to thrive. That's where we can problem solve. It's where we're able to think, uh, before reacting. It's where we can feel creative and, and calm and playful. If we are in a stress state, that's where we see fight, flight, freeze, or shutdown or fawn. And if we look at freeze and shutdown, that is really when. We are beyond overwhelmed, so that can look like having no energy, no motivation. Maybe in freeze your mind is kind of going blank, or you may just kind of have brain fog. It's really hard focusing. You may start to feel hopeless and depressed, and so really that's what burnout is when we start to get stuck there. But you may have days when you just feel like that at the end of the day. It's not good or bad, it's just really important information because that is your nervous system saying This has been felt like too much for too long, and so I'm just kind of disconnecting. But what happens before that is fight, flight and fawn. So flight is if we are starting to feel anxious, or you can't slow down. Or you're working through lunch, maybe you have a hard time even pausing in the middle of the day. That can actually be a sign that you're stuck in flight mode. Or fight, right? If you start to feel irritable, if it's just like everything around you is negative, you feel like the people around you aren't doing things right, then that's a sign that you are in the fight stress response. And that can be really valuable information because if someone asks you, Hey, can you take this, this new patient, um, or add another one to your schedule, and you have this reaction that is anger or irritability. Then we should be listening to that because that's a really important piece of information that your nervous system is just saying Right now, something is feeling like too much. I am at my limit, and so something needs to change in order for it to be a good decision to take this next. Client. And so maybe that could be you realizing, oh, I am feeling irritable because I have been go, go, go, and I have not paused to drink water or to have a lunch break and I need 15 minutes to pause. Maybe step outside, eat some food, and then yes, I can see that patient. Or maybe it means. I'm at my limit. I really cannot take more without sacrificing the level of care or my wellbeing or the client experience. And that is something to really, um, to listen to. And then fawn is important because that is more that we will say whatever we think is going to help the other person to be happy with us. And as a profession, I think so many of us are, people pleasers are used to that fawn stress response. And so it's so important to know that we may in the moment really want to say yes because that feels so much safer. But recognizing that that often leads to overextension. And so going back to that third myth, that saying no is bad. The reframe to really think is when I say no to that one extra patient, I'm saying yes to the patients that I already have. I'm saying yes to being able to provide the care that I want. I am saying yes to doing that med in a way that is going to feel fulfilling and sustainable for the long run. The more that you start to notice the signs of a stress response in yourself, and use that as a guide to understand the boundaries that you need, the easier it is going to become to say no comfortably when you are at your limit. Because it isn't bad. It is actually helping to support the wellbeing of. Everybody around you and you when you recognize what your limit is. So if you like this little, um, snapshot and you want to learn more, then there are two ways that you can. Recently I did a webinar, which is the simple leadership strategy to reduce. Overwhelm and recession proof your practice that is now available as an on-demand training, and it dives deep into how individually and as teams, we can normalize a nervous system informed approach and use that to understand how to have sustainable success. In that med, this is a really great way for everyone to be working together as a team and coming together to problem solve and have ideas about how can we think more strategically for sustainable success. For example, instead of seeing, just seeing as many patients as possible, what is our limit? And if we are especially in a recession, looking for ways of, increasing our revenue. Okay, well, within this time, this block of time that we have with a patient, what can we be different, be doing differently in order to increase, increase efficiency, increase the experience for the client, provide better patient care. Maybe that means. Um, better educating on the value. How can you be transparent about finances, uh, giving options to your clients? There are endless opportunities of how we can be bringing in more profit in Vet Med without overextending, and especially right now with the recession. This is a beautiful turning point and opportunity for us to start doing things differently and in a way that makes so much more sense. If so, you can comment leadership if you want the link for that masterclass that on-demand training. I'll send you the link for that. And if you are looking for more personal support, then I also have my six month coaching program, the aligned success reboot. That is a. Six month integrative mind, body coaching experience, and community for veterinary professionals and driven professionals who wanna thrive in their careers with less overwhelm. Feel confident in your body without restriction and have more time and energy left for you without the guilt. And I created this space because it's really rare to find a space where you're able to look at everything holistically and together and to see how it's all connected. So your health, your career, your relationships. And to also have a space where you can connect with other professionals who are ready to do things differently, who are practicing putting their oxygen mask on first and doing success in a way that feels good, unsustainable. And so we're combining these of you have support along this journey, and you also get to be in community with others who are doing that. And so the experience you can expect throughout this. The first month, our goal is just how can we decrease stress, frustration, overwhelm in your life so you can have more energy and more capacity. In the first month, you can expect to have your baseline stress level so much lower. People are probably already going to start commenting or asking, what have you, what are you doing? Because they notice that you're so much less stressed. You start actually wanting to go to work instead of maybe dreading it. And a really fun thing that happens is as you are decreasing your stress, you are just naturally going to have more motivation and energy to do things that you may right now feel like you should be doing. Like maybe. Eating healthier or having time to move your body in a way that feels good. Instead of forcing yourself to do that, you're naturally going to start wanting to, um, three months in. This is where we will have really been addressing the unconscious patterns and beliefs that have been getting in the way of sustainable health and success. And so this is where you're gonna notice changes in things like, um. Perfectionism or people pleasing. Um, you are just naturally going to start feeling more comfortable speaking up for boundaries. Maybe you're not going to be taking as much time'cause you're not having those impossibly high standards for you. Feeling more confident, not struggling with imposter syndrome. And when it comes to health habits, really, starting to do that in a way that feels really good and eating, um, finding nutrition, that that adds richness to your life. Really feeling like you understand what your body needs in order to support your energy. And then six months through, this is where you've really created your new norm. The beautiful thing is when you shift outta survival mode, when you shed and unlearn that unconscious programming that had been overextending you and stressing you, that's when you get to connect with the real you. And this is where you have created a new norm. You're have found this really beautiful rhythm in your career and your life and your healthy habits, and your life is giving you more energy than it's draining, and that is something that's gonna feel really sustainable. I have a number of ways that I support you through this journey so that it's customized for you and your needs. That includes weekly group coaching calls. Now these are a group, anyone who wants coaching can come, but you receive coaching one at a time and it's optional and recorded. There's a monthly deep healing and unblocking call, and that is where I guide you through reflections and more trance work and nervous system regulation. So you're not just creating change in your head, you are creating a full body experience. It's a great way to connect with inner wisdom. There's a community forum so you can ask questions and, um, share successes. Receive coaching anytime you have access to a private website that includes lots of self-paced courses from nervous system regulation manifesting, gut health, nutrition, all the things you need along with things just to make your life easier, like recipes, meditations, shopping lists. And there's always more being added. So the webinars that I do get added to that space, I have a private podcast. You get a life boost planner. There's just so many good things. And then there's private onboarding because there are so many options. When you first join, I get to know you, your personal challenges and your goals, and then I give you guidance on what I recommend so that you can make the most of your first month. So if you wanna learn more about that, you can send me a message or you can comment, curious, and I will send you the link to learn more. But I would love if you listen to this, let me know. How are you feeling? Are you seeing over extension in your workplace? And which of these three myths do you think is contributing most? And let's just reframe that because over extension is just leading nowhere. Good. Um, it doesn't have to be that way. So thanks for joining.