Page 29 - Bulletin Vol 26 No 2 - May - Aug. 2021 - Final

Article | Finance

Go Beyond Work-Life Balance to Personal and Professional Satisfaction

By Rob Brinkman
Imagine bringing together practice success, life-work satisfaction and fulfillment, retirement preparation and
minimized tax liability all in one place. This ideal is within reach for every dentist. As a matter of fact, we are
capable of almost anything we approach with the “over time, not overnight” attitude.
For example, consider an Olympic triathlon which consists of a 0.93-mile swim, a bicycle route of 24.8 miles
and a 6.2 mile run. If you wanted to compete in a triathlon, how would you go about it? You could enter a
competition and just start, but what are the odds you would finish, much less compete? You would most
likely fail. A triathlete coach would say to you, “Don’t just try…train!
We should all strive to strike the right balance between our professional and personal lives. A key to soaring
without growing weary is training our brains to capitalize on possibility instead of negativity which can block
overall success and satisfaction.

We all try daily to manage the constant onslaught of competing demands for our attention. Scientists
estimate we remember only one of every 100 pieces of information our brains must attend to. In the end,
we only really see what we look for, and we miss the rest. Shawn Achor, the author of The Happiness
Advantage, suggests if our brains could operate like a spam filter, we could set them to follow specific rules.
Our brains would accept the essential and delete the noxious and unimportant; freeing our attention and
energy.

The challenge is that spam filters, whether neural or in our emails, cannot be trusted without proper training
as they only scan according to what they have been conditioned to look for. The importance of being able to
train our brains to constantly scan for and focus on the positive cannot be undervalued. “We can profit from
three of the most important tools available to us: happiness, gratitude, and optimism,” says Achor.
Countless studies prove that people who consistently possess these attributes are less likely to be anxious or
depressed, more emotionally intelligent, more energetic, etc., all proven to be causes of positive outcomes.

We all know motivation determines what we do. So,

Let the Training Begin
It’s Sunday night, you are looking at the calendar for the upcoming week.

Question 1: What are the top 3 items that are on your calendar you are excited about and looking

forward to?
Question 2: What would you list as the top 5 things on your calendar that make you cringe?

Take note how the 3 to 5 ratio is framed as it gives insight into the state of job and career satisfaction levels
frequently expressed by dentists today. Certain nuances are at play. For example, you might be a dental
practitioner within 10 years of Residency who may be presented with a 5 to 5 ratio, but if you are a
practitioner past the age of 45, you are more likely to require assessing your satisfaction levels to factor in
one of the differing degrees of wear and tear.

Early on in your career, working chairside and delivering quality interactions with your patients may

Nassau County Dental Society ⬧ (516) 227-1112 | 29