When does it get easier?!

Spoiler: work shouldn't be stressful all day, every day

I was talking to another vet recently about how life never really seems to get easier 😅

As students, we think it’ll get easier once we graduate.
As new grads, once we’re confident.
A few years in, once we’ve got more experience, a certificate, or all the negative publicity with the CMA blows over...

So when does it actually get easier?!

I wonder whether part of the reason it doesn’t is because our brains never switch off. We’ve trained them to always be on high alert.

Checking the same discharge instructions three times.
Looking up a drug dose you know, just to be sure.
Asking a colleague to “sanity check” something you’ve already decided.

So even when we have a “good” day, a day with clients who appreciate us, positive outcomes, cute cats to cuddle, we don’t feel good.

Because we’re knackered from all the thinking. All. The. Time.

Maybe we just need a reminder like this on the wall in prep - surely if we just worked a BIT harder it would all be ok. Right? RIGHT?! Photo by Jordan Whitfield on Unsplash

Learning how to let your brain stand down, even briefly, changes how the day feels.

It stops every day feeling like a low-level emergency and lets you actually experience the good bits, instead of racing past them.

Tell me more. Photo by Bogdan Farca on Unsplash

That’s why I’m talking more about stress in veterinary practice.

Not as something to eliminate (because if you know me by now, you’ll know I’m honest and realistic about life being stressful sometimes), but as something to work with differently.

Practical, in-the-moment skills that help you feel calmer during the working day, not just collapse once it’s over.

And more importantly, a space to practise that.

Because practising how to stay calm in an emergency when you’re in an emergency, is… well stressful.

If this resonates, I’d love to welcome you an in-person CPD day, Too Stressed to Pee, where we practise these skills together.

It’s for you if,

• You WANT to enjoy vet work, it just doesn’t feel great right now

• You feel constantly “on edge”, even when things are going well

• You worry about outcomes you can’t fully control

• You struggle to switch off after work

• You want tools that work in practice, not just in theory

It’s designed as a relaxing day away from practice that also happens to give you tools to carry that feeling with you.

And whether you join us or not, I hope this serves as a reminder that work shouldn’t be stressful all day every day. And if it is, maybe that’s a sign things need to change.

Sending love,

Lucy x