Nov 19, 2019
After brief stints playing in a band in Mexico, working as a waitress and putting herself through veterinary school, H. Howells learned that she enjoyed supporting veterinarians much more than she enjoyed practicing. This inspired her to create Agents of Change, a coaching program focusing on the health, life and team aspects of veterinary medicine.
A self-described extrovert who went into school with a ‘B is for Badass’ mentality, H is here today to share how you can look at veterinary medicine through her mindset. Instead of placing your entire identity in what you do, H wants to destigmatize doing something ‘just as a job’ and give veterinarians the freedom to be okay with being more than what they do for a living.
H loves to listen to other veterinarians and provide an outlet outside of your immediate workplace to let others know that they are not as alone or as trapped as they think they are. Learn how she was able to resuscitate herself by giving back to the community, why she loves to help others find meaning in veterinary medicine and explore the importance of staying connected as a vital tool to not getting sucked into your daily routines and pressures.
If you are looking for a way to find meaning in what you do without it becoming an all-consuming aspect of your life, H. is who you need to hear from. Are you able to look at your role in veterinary medicine as ‘just a job’? Share what you think about H’s perspective in the comments on the episode page.
In This Episode
Quotes
“I can only envision going back and doing more school if I promise myself that it is not going to swallow me alive.” (7:30)
“The only thing that I could think was ‘I got to figure out how in the world to get myself out of this profession without incurring another dollar of debt, the end’. And that was really hard.” (18:03)
“I really love coaching and connecting with other veterinarians. And the way that I always describe it is, over time I realized I feel a lot more fired up about supporting other veterinarians than I do about being one.” (21:39)
“I think we need to start to have a little bit higher level of being willing to be vulnerable and say when we are struggling so that we can receive the support that exists out there.” (24:37)
“That’s where I think the danger lies when you conflate veterinary medicine with your identity so much so that the rest of our life takes a back seat.” (29:58)
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