Coping with your career
Work doesn’t always go to plan, but there are things you can do to deal with the highs and lows of life as a dental professional says Alun K Rees.
The New Year had started poorly for Trudy. “The start of another year? What is it now ’24, ’25, ’26!? Really?” Sighs. “By now I was going to have my own practice and would have liberated myself from any reliance on state-controlled and cash limited treatments.
“I wanted to be free. Away from any principal or interfering practice manager, inspecting my book, commenting on my treatment planning and limiting my well-earned holidays. They just don’t understand how hard I work, how restricting the staff they provide are, and how much better things could be.”
“Wait! I have just read this great book. Well, when I say read, I bought it and it’s on the way from Amazon. I saw an advert for it, a review in one of the Sundays and an interview in Forbes and another website of one of those business magazines. This is definitely the year I’m going to make it happen. For me! Blast, it’s raining, where are my car keys? I’m going to be late again, never mind reception are great at excuses for me, they know how good I am.”
In case you have anything in common with the above, not Trudy’s somewhat over-the-top attitude, but genuine dissatisfaction with your lot, then Stefanie Sword-Williams’ (not a name I would dare invent) second book, Career Comedown, may be worth a read. It does not have all the answers, but it poses plenty of questions and it might act as something of a catalyst. At least you can say you have read a practical business book, which is more than many dentists can boast.
If you are feeling lost or unfulfilled in your professional life and suffering from the previously mentioned, in Career Comedown, the author presents for your consideration three distinct pathways. Let me share, briefly, my take on the practicality of her ideas, collected through interviews with people who have successfully redefined their relationships with work.
The pathways are:
- Stay in your present job and reshape it to suit your needs: Stick.
- Change direction and reinvent yourself professionally: Twist.
- Step back from work as a central part of your identity: Tap Out.
My hint would be to take a few days, add a pen and notebook and, using every spare moment, examine where you are now. Then write the story of what has led you to being in this place and space. What could and should you have done differently? What clear mistakes have you made? Why did you make them?
This could be a very long list, but it is not meant to be a ‘whinge-athon’ nor a ‘pity-poor-me’. It should be an honest self-examination; if you are not used to be honest with yourself then you are in the company of many others. Who knows? You might find it revealing.
The catalyst that often leads to someone seeking my help is to assist them to answer the one apparently simple question: “Is that all there is?” They know something has to change; but they need help to find it for themselves.
For many, a radical change and reinvention is just not possible, or the necessary alterations can be made without massive disruption. Perhaps some self-honesty, acceptance of your position and making allowances for others and their positions will be sufficient. Live and let live isn’t too bad an attitude to adopt.
Like me, Stefanie suggests an audit of your current situation, your wants and your future plans. Are your dreams just that? Are they practical? Or are they ways of allowing yourself to revel in the discomfort that you are choosing?
Pathway one: Stick
Sticking is not failure. Discovering, defining and maintaining your core values can be a liberating experience. Not compromising on your standards of professionalism and behaviour is something to be proud of and makes you an asset. Being realistic and dealing with your challenges deserves praise and reward.
Pathway two: Twist
If on the other hand you decide that Twisting is the only way for you, then go for it, because if you
do not you will always wonder what you might have done. It’s never the easy way, but if, for you, it is the
right thing then embrace it wholeheartedly. William Murray, writing in The Scottish Himalayan Expedition said: “Until one is committed there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness.” He also quotes Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.” Go for it, indeed.
Pathway three: Tap Out
The final choice is to Tap Out and accept that work is not a central part of your identity. Not everyone has a ‘vocation’ for their profession; indeed, I believe that expecting the decision to become a dentist, a doctor or a vet at the age of perhaps 15 or 16 to be the right one is unreasonable and we should not be surprised when people decide to either leave the profession or choose simpler ways to make a living.
It is not my place to tell anyone what to do with their life. But my experience, and that of many others, has proved that punishing oneself by doggedly persisting with something that causes unhappiness benefits no-one. You only have one life; you deserve to enjoy it.
Career Comedown by Stefanie Sword-Williams* is published by Fourth Estate (ISBN: 9780008706340).
About the Author
Alun K Rees BDS is The Dental Business Coach. An experienced dental practice owner who changed career, he now works as a coach, consultant, trouble-shooter, analyst, speaker, writer and broadcaster. He brings the wisdom gained from his and others’ successes to help his clients achieve the rewards their work and dedication deserve.
*Affiliate link: Scottish Dental may make a small profit from any purchase you make after visiting the link to bookshop.org – which supports independent local book sellers.