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The definition
of success in the modern society is often a direct measure of one’s wealth. Irrespective
of one’s profession, money has become the only parameter used by the world to
measure the career growth story of every individual. Dentistry is no exception.
Ask any budding dentist out there who they think is more successful according
to them? A dentist who spends most part of his/hers day at the clinic and
returns figures running into lakhs of rupees per month complete with
materialistic possessions envied by peers or the dentist who is just at peace
with his/hers practice, returning enough figures to handle home and work
expenses, a decent enough profit and a seemingly overall healthy quality of
life even if it means not possessing a Mercedes or the latest that apple has to
offer? Very few will say the latter and that is completely ok. It is ok because
that is how the mind tends to work for most people. One of the biggest problems
budding dentists in the country today are facing is the sheer lack of “career
satisfaction”. While there are plenty of reasons one can point out as to why
that is the case, ranging from saturation to a lack of jobs to expenses, I feel
the biggest hurdle in the way of budding dentists today is a mindset that is
primarily or rather exclusively oriented financially. The end result of this
being, the budding dentist today is neither financially nor personally
satisfied in terms of the definition of success.
While this
does not necessarily mean that all budding dentists out there are performing
poorly on a financial and personal level, it does indicate a grave need for
inculcating the right mindset at the onset of one’s career journey no matter
what kind of practice he/she aims for in the future.
In other
words, irrespective of whether your aim is a mass set up, a class set up, a
speciality set up or a completely lateral approach to dentistry, a few basic
mindset hacks are all that you need as a budding dentist in order to be
satisfied with the field and the profession today and not fall into the trap of
measuring your success based on pay-checks alone.
#1 Be passionate about
what you’re doing, if not, train yourself to be passionate!
The first
mindset hack to a successful practice. Lucky are those who wake up every day
looking forward to go to work! For the rest, it is just a routine. Do what you
love is the generally accepted ideology of millennials today. In reality, this
generally isn’t true for all. Loving what you do is what will lead to a better
state of mind that will eventually lead to setting your priorities right and
being satisfied with what you are doing. It is ok to not having it all figured
out as a budding dentist at the start of your journey. Not liking what you’re
doing? Do you have a better option? Yes! then go for it. If no, then learn to
like your daily routine. Develop an interest, meet new people, seek guidance
from those who do it every day. The key to being a successful dentist in
general and a satisfied human being in particular is to be completely immersed
at the job at hand. As British masterchef Mr. Gordon Ramsay has rightfully
said,
“don’t
take a job for the sake of money...go and get knowledge...the money will come
once you’ve mastered your craft and become incredibly talented.”
#2 Dedicate yourself to working hard before
you decide to work smart
Another mindset hack that is key to
your personal and professional success. Doing the basics well, practicing hard,
and mastering the bare essentials. In order to know the smartest way to do the
job at hand, you must have in depth knowledge of the job itself. Many budding
dentists today jump the gun on advanced treatments without having a good knowledge of the basics. Such an approach is often met with failure later on which in
turn demoralizes and results in a negative state of mind. The mindset that
budding dentists need to develop in order to be more satisfied overall with
their progress is that of having mastered the basics first. Not only does this
approach lead to a lot of self confidence but also helps you plan your journey
ahead in a better way!
#3 Plan ahead but live every single day
separately
It is common for budding dentists to
live life on a monthly basis, i.e. gauging your performance every month by
comparing it to your finances and profits. While there is nothing wrong with
it, the biggest flaw with the numbers is that they fluctuate. So if there is a
month where you did extremely well, there will also be one where you just
managed to scrape by. The final key to achieving career satisfaction as a
budding dentist is to let go off this mindset and approach everyday on its own.
Improve every day, build every day, work every day and then let it culminate in
the end instead of focussing on just monthly targets. Approaching every single
day as it comes, living it to the full, making the most of it and letting go
the bad ones while learning from the good ones is the mindset that will lead to
a positive state of mind eventually.
To conclude, everyone has their own
definition of success which is acceptable. What is not acceptable is being
affected by that definition, letting it ruin your state of mind and being
dissatisfied with what life has to offer. The basic mindset hacks mentioned
above aren’t a sure guarantee that you will reap in the monetary benefits but
what they will do is lead you to adopting a mindset that puts you on track for
personal and professional satisfaction!
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