Olympic Inspiration

Are you watching the Olympics? Well, Bethany is. She admits that the only thing on her TV for the last week has been the Olympics. She draws inspiration from these athletes in today’s episode and challenges all listeners to harness the power of the Olympics. She reminds everyone of the importance of being dedicated to the profession of dentistry like the elite athletes are dedicated to their sport. If your are looking for some Monday inspiration, then look no further than today’s episode! 

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Transcript

Are you looking for a podcast where you
0:04
can hear from real [music] people
0:06
regarding their real dental drama? If
0:08
so, then you've come to the right place.
0:11
Join hosts [music]
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Bethany Penny and Dr. Reena Kuba as we
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dive into the solutions we've created
0:17
and the mistakes we've made while
0:20
managing dental drama.
0:22
Let's get started. Happy Monday,
0:25
managing dental drama community. Thanks
0:27
for tuning in today. I hope you had a
0:29
wonderful Valentine's Day weekend.
0:32
I am pumped to get into our topic today,
0:35
but I just want to give a few quick
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reminders before I do so. Number one, we
0:41
have fantastic February content. If
0:45
you're not a subscriber, you need to go
0:47
and do so. We've even created little
0:51
quick tips for our subscribers so that
0:55
if you're short on time this month and
0:57
you just need a quick 5 10 minutes of
1:00
practice tips, we've actually condensed
1:02
it down and you get both the full
1:04
version and the condensed version. It's
1:07
just really good stuff. So, go check it
1:08
out today. Also, um, in light of what
1:11
we're going to talk about, we've got
1:13
some great things on our hub, which will
1:17
also be listed in the show notes.
1:19
Particularly, I want to point you in to
1:20
the direction of a morning huddle
1:23
template, which can be found on the hub.
1:26
It actually gives you lots of quick tips
1:28
for a great morning huddle. Okay,
1:31
switching gears here. I want to talk
1:34
about the Olympics. I am such a fan of
1:38
the Olympics. My family knows that once
1:40
it comes around to Olympics, it doesn't
1:43
matter summer or winter, I am all in.
1:46
And the only thing that's going to be
1:47
playing on our TV is Olympics. I love
1:51
it. It's just to me to see these
1:55
athletes achieve such amazing
1:58
feats just physically, emotionally.
2:02
you see people that retired and then
2:04
came back and powered through so much
2:07
adversity to get there. I just am so in
2:12
awe of the people that do this every
2:16
year or every couple years. And so I
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wanted to actually use some of the
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things that's been inspiring me as I've
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watched the Olympics over this past week
2:26
or so because I think so much of it is
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applicable for us as professionals. So
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I'll go through three main tips. We'll
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keep it short and sweet today. And my
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hope would be if you haven't watched any
2:40
of the Olympics yet, like what are you
2:43
doing? but also hopefully after
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listening to these tips today, you'll go
2:47
and watch some of these events and
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really understand what I'm talking
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about. So, first of all, I am always
2:55
amazed at how dedicated these athletes
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are. They are what I would call true
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professionals, dedicated to their craft,
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spending their entire livelihood on this
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this sport. And you can tell the great
3:14
ones from the good ones. I I wouldn't
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say there's any bad ones in the
3:20
Olympics. There's just really really
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great ones and then there's good ones.
3:25
And you can tell the difference in those
3:27
athletes. And you know, I've studied
3:31
these athletes through the years just to
3:33
kind of figure out how do they get to be
3:36
so good? And of course, some of it's
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just natural talent, just God-given
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gifts that they're born with. But the
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really, really great ones have this eat,
3:46
breathe, and sleep mentality towards
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their craft, towards their sport.
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So, they may spend hours and hours and
3:54
hours training today. Sometimes upwards
3:57
of 8 to 10 hours a day in training, but
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they also have a lifestyle that supports
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their craft. So they have certain sleep,
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they have a certain diet, they have a
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certain amount of days of week, days a
4:12
week off. Sometimes that is boiled down
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to one off day, one rest day, and then
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they're back at it again. So it's not
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just, hey, I'm naturally a great
4:25
snowboarder, but they are dedicated to
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perfecting their craft by dedicating
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their whole life to it. They eat,
4:34
breathe, and sleep this sport in order
4:37
to be at the top of their game. And to
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me that's humbling to think about
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because as much as I am a super fan of
4:47
the Olympics, I realize that in the
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grand scheme of things, Olympics or
4:52
sports um ultimately are fun and
4:56
fantastic to watch and just I'm so glad
5:00
that they're a part of our life, but
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they're not truly crucial to living like
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we might think of a health provider.
5:10
ider or a cardiologist or a brain
5:14
surgeon, these things that are just so
5:16
these people that are so pivotal to
5:20
life. And so we think about an athlete
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and the amount of dedication and time
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and energy that they put into their
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profession.
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And I wonder how many of us, whether
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it's you dentists,
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you business team members, you
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hygienists, you assistants,
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consultants, whoever you are. I I
5:45
wonder, do we live and breathe our
5:48
profession like these elite athletes do?
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And if not, it begs the question, why?
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Why do we not live it, breathe it, sleep
6:01
it, eat it? Why is this not something
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that just compels us?
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Because in the dental field,
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we may not be doing brain surgery or
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heart surgery, but we are certainly a
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critical part of somebody being
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systemically healthy, but also
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functionally healthy. The ability to eat
6:24
and chew food and nourish their bodies
6:26
is critical. The ability to prevent
6:30
disease from being rampant in the body
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because we're protecting those gums.
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These are important things. And I know
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we often minimize it compared to the
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neurosurgeon or the cardiologist, but
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dentistry is important. And whether
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we're the one working on the teeth,
6:47
whether we're the one supporting the
6:48
working on the teeth, or whether we're
6:51
picking up the phone and getting those
6:52
patients on the schedule, it's all
6:54
critical to patient care. And if we
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really want to call ourselves
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professionals, then I think we need to
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take some inspiration from these
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Olympians and go, hey, if they're
7:05
willing to put their entire
7:06
[clears throat]
7:07
life into this sport that is a sport. It
7:12
is not life or death. And a lot of it's
7:15
for entertainment, right? They they yes
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yes they want to be at their top of the
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game to prove it to themselves to win
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competitions to go to the Olympics but
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in at the end of the day I'm sitting on
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my couch watching them and I'm
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entertained by them. We have a chance to
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truly impact somebody beyond
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entertainment. impact their health,
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impact their livelihood
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by being the best possible professional
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that we can ultimately be. And I just
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want to call us all to step up and to
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live like these Olympians do, to to eat
7:54
our profession, to breathe our
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profession, to constantly be perfecting
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our skills with it. Whether that's
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reading about procedures or best
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practices in a dental office, whether
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that's attending seminars, whether
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that's trying new skills within our own
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scope to go, hey, what if I did it this
8:19
way or that way? Would it would it be
8:20
better? Would it be faster? Would it be
8:22
more comfortable for the patient? So
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we've really got to step up our game and
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bring this level of eliteness to our
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profession of dentistry.
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So that's inspiration number one is are
8:39
we eating, breathing, sleeping, living
8:42
our profession. Here is inspiration
8:46
number two. [sighs]
8:48
I find it mesmerizing to watch these
8:53
athletes and to know that many of them
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have been winning competitions prior to
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the Olympics. And in those competitions,
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they are competing most often with the
9:06
world. It's not just their little local
9:09
chapter where they were a fantastic bob
9:13
sled team and they beat out one other
9:16
team. They have competed on a world
9:20
level with people from all over the
9:23
world. And I am just amazed by that when
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we think about these Olympians that have
9:30
previously competed against these other
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Olympians and then they have worked
9:36
their way into being nominated and
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selected to represent their country. It
9:42
means that they've already compared
9:43
themselves against other people in their
9:46
field, other elite athletes in their
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field. They've most likely competed
9:51
against these people and they have still
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won a spot to represent their country.
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Mind-blowing to me. And then I equate
10:02
that to dentistry and I go, "Wow." I I
10:05
can't tell you how many times I'm
10:06
sitting with a client that we are
10:08
directly engaging about who is our
10:10
competition.
10:11
Who should we be comparing ourselves
10:13
with? If they didn't come to us, who
10:16
else in town is the other orthodontist,
10:20
the other periodonist, the other general
10:23
dentist that people would be going to?
10:25
And we take a look at that other direct
10:28
competitor, and we go, okay, how are we
10:30
better than them? How are we worse than
10:32
them? What do we need to do differently?
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We have such a microscopic scale of how
10:40
we compare ourselves. And to me,
10:42
watching these Olympics has inspired me
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once again to go, "Oh my word, we have
10:46
to broaden that perspective. We have to
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look beyond our town or our little
10:52
suburb of a big city or heck, even
10:56
comparing ourselves to the big city. We
10:58
need to stand way out and go, how do I
11:02
hold up against people across my
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country, against people across the
11:09
world? What are they doing that I can
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learn from? Because I need to sharpen my
11:13
skills so that I don't just stand out in
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my small community, I stand out in my
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county, I stand out in my state, I stand
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out in my country. And I know that
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sounds lofty and some of you may even be
11:28
like, "But why?" The but why is because
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we want to be our best. No, we may not
11:36
be running and going to the world
11:38
dentist competition, but we are a
11:42
professional and we should push
11:44
ourselves like those athletes do. And
11:48
part of the way that they push
11:49
themselves is they're going for their
11:51
own personal best time, but they also
11:54
know what they have to do to beat the
11:56
competition. And so my question is, do
11:58
you know what you have to do to beat the
12:00
competition? How do you compare to other
12:05
practices, not just in your city or in
12:07
your county, but in your state and in
12:09
your country? How do you stack up? And
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what can you do to push yourself and
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push your team to be the top of your
12:19
game, the best in the world at whatever
12:23
your specialty is. So that's inspiration
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number two. Compare yourself against the
12:29
world and how do you rate and what do
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you need to do to be better?
12:34
third inspiration from the Olympics that
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I have just really enjoyed watching.
12:40
Especially if you go and look at any of
12:43
the halfpipe videos, which I would
12:45
absolutely encourage you to go do. It's
12:48
it's phenomenal to watch these these
12:51
athletes. But I could really see this
12:54
ritual that these snowboarders would do
12:57
before this competition. They get all
13:00
this, you know, pats on the back, fist
13:03
bumps, hugs from their coaches up at the
13:06
starting gate and then they kind of
13:08
slide down the he hill, kind of wedge
13:12
themselves into the snow and they sit
13:13
there. Sometimes it's for 10 seconds,
13:16
sometimes it's for a minute, but they
13:18
sit here and all of them are looking
13:21
down at that halfpipe and they're going,
13:23
"What? How am I going to slaughter this
13:25
thing? How am I going to just do a
13:27
phenomenal job?
13:29
But their rituals are all very unique. I
13:32
watched young one young lady that sat on
13:35
that hill for a longer time than usual
13:38
cuz again clock's kind of running.
13:40
People are waiting for you to go at this
13:42
point. And she's sitting there and she
13:45
is saying all kinds of stuff to herself
13:48
and ping herself up and talking to
13:50
herself. And that was her pregame warm
13:53
up warm-up so to speak. I watched one
13:57
young man, a 17-year-old, I can't
13:59
remember what country he was from, um,
14:02
but they may have been a USA guy now
14:04
that I think about it. And he sat on
14:07
that hill and he would find his rosary
14:10
beads around his neck and would kiss the
14:12
cross and pray. And then he would reach
14:15
over and grab his snowboard and run his
14:18
fingers across the front of that snow
14:19
snowboard. My thought was he was
14:21
probably praying over his snowboard. and
14:23
that was his ritual. I watched uh one of
14:28
the um Australian competitors in that
14:31
same competition and it was he was
14:34
really fun to watch cuz he approached
14:36
that little pause a lot more lightly and
14:38
fluidly and he would almost smile
14:41
through the whole thing and then you
14:43
could tell he was about to take off cuz
14:45
his smile would get really big and that
14:47
was his ritual. And so these rituals
14:51
prepared them
14:53
for what they were about to do, this
14:55
this massive undertaking that they were
14:58
embarking on. They had this way of
15:00
pinging themselves up and getting
15:02
themselves prepared. And I think what it
15:05
did for them is first of all, it did
15:07
help them, right? They had this moment
15:09
of pause before they did their big
15:11
activity.
15:13
It centered them, so to speak. But I
15:16
also think that it gave them confidence.
15:19
There's a a [clears throat and snorts]
15:21
soothing nature to rituals. If anybody
15:25
has practiced rituals in their lives,
15:28
you'll realize it's a very grounding
15:31
thing. It makes you feel safe and secure
15:35
and confident. And I think it propels
15:38
these riders in the Olympics into this
15:41
confidence that they might not have
15:44
without that ritual. And so I thought
15:46
about this for the dental practice and I
15:48
thought, wow, there's so many things
15:49
that we could talk about here, but I'm
15:52
going to home in on what I think is such
15:55
an important ritual, which is either a
15:58
morning huddle or an afternoon huddle.
16:01
some practice that you've put into
16:04
place, a ritual where you come together
16:07
as a team either in the morning before
16:09
patient care or at the end of the day
16:11
right after patient care and you have
16:14
these topics that you consistently talk
16:17
about.
16:18
Maybe that is maybe that's practice
16:21
numbers that you're coming together and
16:23
go, "Hey, this was our production
16:24
yesterday. This is what we're gearing up
16:26
for today.
16:28
Let's go get it. um let's get after it.
16:31
You know, it could be production. It
16:33
could be patient care specific in that
16:36
we go through each of our patients and
16:37
talk about their specific needs or what
16:39
they're scheduled for. It could be that
16:41
we're spanning into talking about the
16:44
family members of the patients that are
16:46
coming in on our schedule today. But the
16:50
point is we have this security
16:54
in this meeting, this little huddle.
16:57
Could be two minutes, could be 10
16:59
minutes, probably not longer than that.
17:01
But it's this ritual, this habit that
17:04
we've formed of getting together and
17:06
either preparing for the day uh in a
17:09
morning huddle or we're reflecting on
17:11
the day at uh [clears throat] for an
17:12
afternoon huddle. And these rituals are
17:15
something that guide us, something that
17:17
give us confidence and security. They
17:19
get us hyped up for the day. We feel
17:22
ready coming out of the gate or coming
17:24
out of that morning huddle. are
17:26
hopefully charging into that first set
17:28
of patients feeling really confident
17:31
about what all we've discussed. These
17:33
rituals are important and morning huddle
17:37
is just one of those. And again, if you
17:39
don't know how to do a morning huddle,
17:41
go look at the hub. We've got you a
17:42
whole bundle of options to look at. But
17:46
I think we've got to habitualize
17:49
something like a morning huddle or an
17:52
afternoon huddle. And we've got to stick
17:54
with it consistently, but not just stick
17:56
with it. We've got to stick with what we
17:58
talk about on a consistent basis. That
18:01
we all show up to that meeting ready.
18:04
Not just to slough it off and end the
18:06
day and go home, but to truly reflect on
18:09
how the day went or to come in prepared
18:13
for that morning huddle. so that we've
18:15
looked ahead of time at the patients and
18:17
the procedures and the previous meeting
18:20
notes and we know what we need from
18:22
those patients today.
18:24
So I would highly encourage us to adopt
18:28
this habit that we see so prominently in
18:32
our elite athletes at the Olympic the
18:36
Olympics right now. They've taught us or
18:38
reminded us that those rituals are
18:39
important. So, I do hope you'll take a
18:42
little bit of inspiration from our
18:44
Olympians. As a reminder, I want you to
18:47
eat, breathe, live out dentistry. Be so
18:51
committed to your craft that we could
18:53
call you an elite, an elite professional
18:57
in the realm of dentistry. Also, I want
19:00
to make sure that you guys are
19:03
committing to these habits, that you're
19:05
committed to the morning or the
19:07
afternoon huddle, and you do it
19:08
habitually. And then of course to really
19:12
be elite, you've got to compare yourself
19:14
with the world. And the world is a big
19:17
stage. So who out there is doing better
19:20
than you? And what can you do to up your
19:22
game and really
19:25
become even more perfected than you
19:30
currently are? So
19:33
go watch the Olympics. You won't be
19:35
disappointed. It's so fun. and go be an
19:39
Olympian in your practice.
19:42
Thanks for joining the conversation
19:44
today. We hope that you are comforted in
19:47
knowing that you are not alone, but we
19:49
also hope that you're walking away with
19:51
some really [music] great tips and
19:52
tricks to try in your practice.
19:55
We [music] value your feedback. So,
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