By Carrie Mauterer, D.D.S., CDA Editor
From the Summer 2022 Journal of the Colorado Dental Association
(This is an excerpt from the keynote speech I delivered to the University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine 2022 graduates.)
A career in dentistry is an exercise in the long game, especially if you are like me and work in the same dental practice for 17 years. I’ve learned a few nuggets along the way, and I would love to share them with you to give you a great foundation to your own long game.
Here goes my first pearl. I encourage you to choose to be content everyday of your career in dentistry. Don’t wait for it! Don’t tell yourself you will finally be able to be happy in your career when x, y, or z happens. I have a mantra that I tell myself every morning to help me center my mindset for contentment for that day. I repeat as many times as it takes… “You are worthy of abundance,” “you are worthy of abundance,” “you are worthy of abundance.” Sometimes it takes eight or nine repetitions to convince myself but once I focus on that mantra, I feel the energy building and the potential growing. Abundance can be anything I feel like I need that day…abundance of laughter, abundance of love, abundance of strength, health, wealth or joy. I don’t wait for abundance to show up. I manifest it every day.
The second pearl I want to share with you is that there are 4,001 career pathways in dentistry and they all have an equal shot at leading you to happiness. Only one of these career pathways is owning your own practice. Let me repeat that because I see so many of our colleagues struggling with this notion. 4,001 choices—only one is private practice. I was speaking to a public health dentist recently and she thanked me for hammering down on this point. She enjoys five weeks of paid vacation every year, a generous 401(k) match, a 32-hour work week, never has to bring work home with her and she could not be happier. And I don’t blame her! If we can all give each other the space to allow ourselves to choose our own adventure within dentistry without judgment, I think we could make great strides in mental health improvement within our profession. We all deserve to be happy in this profession—and there are so many pathways to achieve that happiness.
The third pearl is the most important pearl but possibly the hardest to convince yourself to embrace. Let’s set the stage. Over the many years of our education, we grew accustomed to pursuing the extraordinary. We were recognized for having something special so many times throughout elementary school, middle school, high school, college, dental school and even residency. That drive to chase the extraordinary led to many awards, scholarships, dean’s lists, leadership recognitions and attendance awards. We were told we were extraordinary so many times while growing up that eventually, that became a part of how we defined ourselves and we aren’t sure what to do without that recognition. Do you think that being recognized as extraordinary is the fuel that feeds you? It’s very possible (because we have trained you all these years) that you are stuck in that loop. Many dentists spend their entire careers pushing to be something extraordinary to keep that cycle of external validation going. That is one way to approach a career in dentistry, but it makes me worry about what we might be missing out on.
Instead, what I want you to consider (just go with me here) is a life of embracing the ordinary. I have found that the more I dig into my ordinary life and the aspects I love about it, the happier I am. The happier I am, the more success I enjoy. Here is the greatest secret of all time: Success comes very easily to happy people. Brene Brown tried to guide us in the same direction when she says, “Joy comes to us in the ordinary moments. We risk missing out when we get too busy chasing down the extraordinary.”
The biggest mistake I see dentists make in their careers is this: They are too busy competing with ghosts and trying to be something extraordinary within the profession that they miss out on all of the great and joyful ordinary moments.
The truth is that wherever you are in your career, you are successful. So, take a moment and dismiss that nagging voice in your head that is asking if you have done enough. You did. You are enough. The truth is that you accomplished what less than 1% of the people in this world have accomplished. So let go of that need to be recognized for the extraordinary. You are worthy of abundance. Discover the joy that all of those delicious ordinary moments can bring to you.
Here at the CDA we support you in any and all of the 4,001 pathways that can lead to happiness. Finding a career that leads to joy and abundance is easier than you think, and we are here to cheer you on.