Cari Wise

Author Archives: Cari Wise

Sunday Blues

I lost a lot of Sundays to Sunday Blues. ⁣⁣⁣
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For years it was my only day off each week… and I was so afraid of squandering it that I’d sit motionless on my couch, thinking about all the things I could (or should) do… and doing none of them. ⁣⁣⁣
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I’d watch the time tick by, counting down the hours until I had to be back at work… and with each passing hour my anxiety would grow… ⏰⁣⁣⁣
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And forget about getting a good night’s sleep on a Sunday night… never happened. ⁣⁣⁣
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The result: ➡️ MONDAY MADNESS⁣⁣⁣
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Let’s be honest- Mondays are usually a little crazy in the veterinary world… but when you add Peak Anxiety and No Sleep… they are hell.⁣⁣⁣
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Nobody wants that kind of job (or life)!⁣⁣⁣
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But here’s the thing… ⁣⁣⁣
👉🏻The problem wasn’t the job.⁣⁣⁣
👉🏻The problem wasn’t the clients.⁣⁣⁣
👉🏻The problem wasn’t my boss or co-workers.⁣⁣⁣
👉🏻The problem wasn’t even the lack of sleep.⁣⁣⁣
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😳 The problem was my inability to separate who I was as a person & veterinarian from outcomes of my cases and the way other people behaved. ⁣⁣⁣
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😥 The problem was the false belief I had created that my value was only intact when all patients got better, all clients were happy, and all coworkers got along. ⁣⁣⁣
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I KNOW I’M NOT ALONE!⁣⁣⁣
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🐾 Guys, this is no way to live! ⁣⁣⁣
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Unmanaged, misunderstood anxiety is killing our profession… because we don’t have the tools we need to deal! ⁣⁣⁣
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Joyful DVM is changing that. CLICK HERE to find out how.

Stop Giving Your Power Away

💥 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐏 𝐆𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐏𝐎𝗪𝐄𝐑 𝐀𝗪𝐀𝐘 💥⁣

📣The things that people say and do can only impact your mental health IF YOU LET THEM. ⁣

You Get To Choose… every time… in every situation… Your Choice.⁣

Most of us just believe that the way we feel in any given situation is just the way it is… that we can’t change it…⁣

… and this is why we’ve bought into a culture of victimization in our profession as a whole.⁣

🎉 The GREAT NEWS is we can take back the control over our lives, and the fate of our mental health! 🎉⁣

𝐃𝐢𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫?⁣

I promise, you do!⁣

So how do you tap into it?

➡️ For starters, you have to learn how to recognize and manage ANXIETY.⁣

I’ll show you how in my Free Webinar… CLICK HERE to check it out.

The World Needs You, Vet Med

Way too many veterinary professionals are suffering from⁣⁣⁣
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➤ career regret⁣⁣⁣
➤ feelings of inadequacy⁣⁣⁣
➤ feelings of incompetence⁣⁣⁣
➤ lack of confidence⁣⁣⁣
➤ generalized anxiety⁣⁣⁣
➤ compassion fatigue⁣⁣⁣
➤ financial concerns⁣⁣⁣
➤ mood swings⁣⁣⁣
➤ self-loathing⁣⁣⁣
➤ over-eating⁣⁣⁣
➤ over-drinking⁣⁣⁣
➤ over-spending⁣⁣⁣
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The shame that results is crushing. 😔⁣⁣⁣
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The belief it will never get better is overwhelming. 😩⁣⁣⁣
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The result:⁣⁣⁣
We hold on to the top of that Terrible Top 10 list. 😢⁣⁣⁣
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🤔 But there’s something most of us don’t know…⁣⁣⁣
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⭐️I𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐲!🌟⁣⁣⁣
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𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘷𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘦! ⁣⁣⁣
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How it is right now, is not how it has to stay!⁣⁣⁣
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The truth is, you already have everything you need to create a career you enjoy and a life you love, you just don’t know how to tap into it.⁣⁣⁣
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You don’t believe it is possible.⁣⁣⁣
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(I Promise, It Is!)⁣⁣⁣
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We CAN get off the top ten list, and it starts by proving false what we’ve been taught to believe about what is possible for us in this profession, and in our lives as veterinary professionals. ⁣⁣⁣
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We create the lives we want one decision at a time. ⁣⁣⁣
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Curious? Check out my Free Webinar.

The world needs what only you can provide to the veterinary profession.

Money. Estimates. Treatment Plans.

Money. Estimates. Treatment Plans.

Many of us dread these client conversations.

Given the opportunity to pass the task to someone else, we gladly will.

The entire encounter can create extreme anxiety.

Have you ever wondered why?

What is about money conversations that put us on edge?

The answer: the unknown

We don’t know how the clients will react to our proposed plan of treatment.

We don’t know how the clients will react to the cost associated.

We assume they will react badly.

We are afraid they will become angry.

And when they do, we somehow think it is our fault.

It’s not.

Money is neutral.

Dollar signs, and everything else on that piece of paper is just neutral.

None of it means anything alone.

Emotion only comes from one place… our very own thoughts.

Our emotions are not created by the actions (or reactions) of others.

So when clients have a negative reaction to a treatment plan and cost estimate you’ve presented, and then you feel frustrated about it… that’s all on you.

That feeling of frustration is coming from what you are believing about the client and the situation in that moment.

Similarly, the words the clients speak and the actions they take while evaluating your treatment plan and cost estimate are not caused by the estimate.

The client’s actions and words are simply in response to their own emotions… and those emotions are created by their own thoughts and beliefs…

The estimate is still neutral.

It’s great news, because it means you can decide in advance how you want to feel before, during and after the money conversation… and generating that emotion is totally within your control.

Curious about how all this works?

I explain even more in my Free Webinar.


There are dates available this week, to check it out, CLICK HERE.

It’s time to stop allowing our happiness and mental health to be at the affect of things we can’t control… in the webinar I’ll show you how.

Entitled Clients

Entitled Clients.

You know exactly the ones I’m talking about, right?

The ones who call and demand an appointment the same day, and get it.

The ones who show up late for their appointments, and are seen anyway.

The ones who show up with more pets than scheduled for, and they all get seen.

It’s easy to be frustrated with these types of clients.

In many of our practices, we might even consider these clients to be “Star Clients”.

They have earned this status because they come in often, and pay their bill.

They get special privilege.

But, why?

Why do these people, and in some cases the entirety of our client population, get to come in whenever they want, be seen no matter how late they show up, and bring more pets than they were scheduled for without consequence?

Why is this type of behavior okay?

The truth is simple… and a little painful.

BECAUSE WE TAUGHT THEM THAT THIS TYPE OF BEHAVIOR IS ACCEPTABLE.

We teach our clients how to interact with our practices.

We cater to these “Star Clients” out of some misguided sense of obligation… and a fear that if we don’t let them come when they want, with whatever they want, that we will miss out on revenue.

So What?

This scarcity mentality is ruining our practices.

Nobody, NOBODY, in your practice wants to cater to these clients. Nobody wants to stay late. Nobody wants the schedule disrupted by the unpredictable appointments.

It’s easy to blame the client… but, that’s the easy way out.

It’s actually not the client’s fault. It’s ours. It’s our “come on in” culture, anchored in fear of not making enough money, that created these clients.

They are not bad people. They are not even behaving badly. They are simply doing what we’ve taught them over time is acceptable to do.

That’s on us.

What we are totally missing is the population of great clients who flee our practices because we are always running behind, for no good reason. We have shown them we don’t respect their time, nor our own, and they have moved on.

How much revenue is lost there?

If you’re an owner, and this sounds like your practice, you have the power to change this behavior and culture immediately. You can institute hospital policies around appointment scheduling, arrival and rescheduling… and you can implement them today.

No “easing in”… just do it.

Save the “come on in” option exclusively for truly urgent appointments… and you’ll find those are actually more rare than you believe.

You’ll learn that your clients will appreciate your commitment to respecting their time… and you’ll find they are way more understanding when you get behind because of true emergencies. In those moments, they will know you’d do the same if the emergency was them.

And those “star clients” who have been calling the shots for so long… some of them will probably get mad and leave your practice. That’s okay… and great evidence that they were never the great clients you thought they were in the first place.

You’ll find your entire hospital culture and morale will increase… and probably your bottom line as well.  When you focus on good medicine and great customer service, the money takes care of itself.

For you associates out there… I hear you trying to tell me you have no power to change the culture. I say you do.

It starts with a conversation… one you are probably believing will be pointless to even have.

Do it anyway.

Discuss the situation with your manager or owner, explain the problem, provide the solution.

What happens next may not be yours to decide, but the information you gain in that meeting will equip you with what you need to know to decide what’s next for you.

Stay or move on… equally available options, but now made from an informed position, instead of from a position of helpless, powerless victim of your boss and job.

One decision can change everything… someone just has to be willing to step up and have the conversation.

Why not you?

I got a little fired up about this in a recent FB Live. To watch, CLICK HERE.

What Defines You?

What defines you?

What determines your value?

Who decides your self worth?

Most of us have never considered these questions.

Day-in, day-out we just keep going and doing.

We uphold our responsibilities.

We meet our obligations.

We show up… or at least someone does.

But, is it you?

It probably was at some point.

But is it still you?

Many of us find ourselves looking up one day and wondering, “How did I get here?, How did this become my life?”.

It happens gradually, through the going and doing and going and doing.

We stop recognizing the choices we make every day as habit sets in.

And then one day we look up… and we don’t like what we see.

This is not the life we wanted… but we stopped carving our own path along the way, and here we are.

Is this what defines you?

Does the state of your life in this current moment determine what comes next?

Is this a reflection of you value and self worth?

No.

Not even close.

Everything before today is over. It exists only as a memory.

Everything in the future has yet to be. It exists only as a dream.

Today is real. Today you can decide what comes next.

Today you decide how you will be defined.

All those reasons why you can’t have the life you really want… those are just excuses.

It’s time to let those go.

Question everything.

Decide for yourself… bravely.

Your value is absolute.

You are worthy simply because you exist.

What comes next… that’s for you to decide.

You will be defined by something…

How about you decide.

Feeling totally stressed out with life and VetMed, and not sure even how to take back control? Join my free webinar where I share tips on managing anxiety and creating the life you love.

Why Happiness Is The Wrong Goal

Have you ever wondered, “Why can’t I just be happy?”

We ask ourselves this a lot, don’t we.


The bigger question, why is happiness the goal at all?

What do we believe about achieving happiness?

What is happiness anyway?

What creates it?

How do we measure it?

Here’s a better question:  What if being unhappy wasn’t a problem… but just a normal part of the human experience?

Life is 50/50… homeostasis drives our physiology. Our medical education taught us that.

If we take the time to look around, we’ll find the power and pull of homeostasis present in every aspect of the world.

Balance is king!

We actively seek it….  how often have you said you really want work-life balance?

Our emotions are no different!

We experience 50% positive and 50% negative emotions by design.

100% positive was never the goal!

In absence of tangible means of measuring the success of our lives, our minds will latch onto anything to determine if we are doing it right.

In school it was test results and degrees earned that reassured us. We were happy when we got good grades and graduated.


In practice it’s often patient outcomes and happy clients… and when either goes bad the only available conclusion is that we are doing it all wrong.

We aren’t cut out for this.

We are unhappy.

We are messing up our lives.

But happiness, just like patient outcomes, is not a true measures of our abilities, value and worth.

Happiness is not created by the events around us, and the absence of it is not a problem.

The negative emotions are not a problem.

Negative emotions are not evidence that something is going wrong.

They don’t need to be solved for.

They are intentionally part of the human experience.

50/50 positive/negative means everything is going right.

The key is learning to Allow and Process the negative, rather than resisting it, reacting to it, and avoiding it.

When we learn how to do this, everything becomes available.

What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

We miss out on so much of our lives simply because we are unwilling to feel negative emotions.

It comes down to basic neuroscience.

Curious? I explain it all in my free webinar.
Check it out: https://joyfuldvm.com/webinar

What Do You Believe?

What do you believe?

Beliefs are just sentences that we’ve thought so many times that we now accept them as truth.

What’s really interesting is that many of our beliefs don’t even come from our own thoughts!

They come from sentences we were introduced to through parents, schools, churches, etc.

Questioning our beliefs is one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves, because often we are holding on to beliefs that don’t actually benefit us.

This is definitely true in VetMed.

I’ve identified FIVE Common VetMed Belief Errors that hold us back from having  joyful lives and careers, and I shared them during a Facebook Live Event. To listen, CLICK HERE.

Here’s the truth…  the way that we feel on the inside is created by our own thoughts and beliefs, NOT by the things that happen around us.

If you want to take back control of your life, you’ve got to start by taking control of what you’re thinking about.

I show you how inside Vet Life Academy… to check it out, Click Here.

Anxiety. Depression. Suicide. Vet Med.

Do you every wonder why I keep talking about anxiety?

It’s simple.

Anxiety leads to depression… and depression leads to suicide… and suicide is not an acceptable solution.

I don’t want to lose any more VetMed professionals to suicide.

But so far, we aren’t doing enough to stop it.

So I keep trying.

I know when I talk about anxiety through Joyful DVM people hear me. The exact right people hear me at the exact right time.

I know the messages make a difference

I know the teaching is life-changing.

This is not just my opinion either…
I have proof in the stories, breakthroughs, and gratitude I receive by email and messages on a regular basis.

You remind me this is not about me, it’s about you… so I keep going, and I keep pushing you to step up and make a different choice if you are not happy with your life.

Take back your power.
It’s possible.
It’s critical.
I can show you just how easy it is.

Curious? Check out my free webinar, CLICK HERE.

Bucket Emotions

Anxiety and stress in the veterinary profession seems like an inevitable reality for many of us in the profession.

We regularly describe ourselves as begin “stressed out” or “anxious” people.

Some of us have been wearing these labels for a long time. We believe them to be true. They are part of our identity.

But most of us have never considered what being anxious or stressed out really means.

Anxiety and stress are what I call Bucket Emotions. They are lots of different negative emotions, existing simultaneously, and dumped all into one container which we carry around.

This is part of the reason they feel so overwhelming…  it’s hard to fix what you don’t really even understand.

When we give ourselves the opportunity to analyze our buckets of anxiety and stress we often find emotions like fear, sadness, inadequacy, scarcity, and frustration.

If we then remember that emotions are created only from thoughts, we can ask ourselves these questions:

What am I believing that is creating fear right now?
What am I believing that is creating sadness right now?
What am I believing that is creating inadequacy right now?
Etc.

The answers to those questions will reveal much, including opportunity to consider the validity of each thought, and to offer yourself alternative perspectives.

Getting to know the real causes of our anxiety, instead of just accepting it as inevitable and pushing on to function despite it, is the key to decreasing it, or even helping it go away.

It’s not an easy process.
It will require you to question things you’ve long-believed to be true.
It will force you to grow.
But, it will always be worth it.

So I’m wondering, what’s hiding in your bucket?

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