by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS
The VET Recruiter®
What you think about and focus on affects your mood, your attitude, and your approach to life in general. These days, there is a real danger in focusing on the wrong things. Simply put, when you focus on the wrong things, you limit your opportunities for growth (now and in the future) and stunt your ability to reach your true potential.
The fact of the matter is that we WILL recover form the COVID-19 pandemic. After all, we recovered from the financial crisis and subsequent Great Recession of more than a decade ago. Before that, we recovered from 9-11 and the bursting of the dot com tech bubble. And during those recoveries, the economy and workers both prospered.
Sure, before those recoveries began, things looked dire. However, that’s why it’s important this time around to focus more on the market recovery and NOT on the pandemic. I know it can be challenging with all the negative news. I personally turn off the news as much as I can because if I watch it too much it has a negative impact on my day and despite the circumstances surrounding me, I try to have a positive outlook.
Your Animal Health and Veterinary success
Unfortunately, people often sabotage themselves. Specifically, they can’t—or more specifically, they don’t allow themselves to—see anything other than their current circumstances and the circumstances that exist in the world around them. They can’t see beyond the circumstances, and consequently, they can’t consider a world in which the circumstances do not exist. As you might imagine, that is not helpful during the current pandemic.
The pattern is predictable, as you can see below:
- People read online headlines and articles and watch the news every day.
- They read about the increasing amount of new cases of the virus, continued economic disruptions, and mounting layoffs.
- They focus only on this information and see their personal and professional life only through the limited lens that the information provides.
- They repeat this pattern on a daily basis, thus perpetuating their tendency to focus on their circumstances and not the eventual recovery.
When you participate in this pattern, you short-change yourself. Not only are you hampering your quality of life in the short term, but you’re also hindering your prospects for Animal Health and Veterinary success in the long run. And why is that? Because you won’t be properly prepared for the market recovery when it does happen. I’ll say that one more time:
If you’re not focused on the market recovery right now, before it happens, then you won’t be properly prepared for it when it does happen.
‘Catching the wave’ of Animal Health and Veterinary success
I don’t know how many of you are surfers, but I am not afraid to disclose the fact that I am most definitely NOT a surfer. But there is one thing that I know about surfing. You can’t decide that you’re going to ride a wave as soon as the wave reaches you. It doesn’t work that way. If you try it, the wave will “wipe you out” and you’ll find yourself gurgling and flailing in the water, your surfboard churning under the relentless surf.
No, as any surfer knows, you must start paddling in the direction of the wave before the wave reaches you. Then, at the right time, you stand up on your surfboard and catch the wave as it arrives, allowing it to carry you in the direction you want to go. It’s the same with the market recovery and your Animal Health or Veterinary success.
A wave of opportunity is coming our way. However, if you want to ride that wave and allow it to help you and your career, then you must start paddling (preparing) before the wave reaches you. In fact, in this case, you must start paddling before you can even see the wave. And even more importantly, you can’t see the wave unless you’re looking for it.
And here’s why that is important: we could see a rapid recovery. Once the pandemic and the corresponding lockdowns and “shelter-in-place” orders are over, the economy may resume in earnest. People will go back to work, the unemployment rate will decrease, production will increase, and there will once again be more employment and career opportunities.
The VET Recruiter’s role in your future success
The VET Recruiter has been helping professionals achieve more Animal Health and Veterinary success for about 23 years. We were in business when 9-11 happened and when the dot com bubble burst. We were in business during the financial crisis and the Great Recession. And we continue to be open for business during this COVID-19 pandemic. We have seen crises like this in the past, and we’ve seen the market recoveries that have followed them.
Since we’ve seen and been through crises and situations such as these, we are well prepared and positioned to help you achieve greater Animal Health and Veterinary success once the market begins to recover. In addition to focusing on the right things and preparing for the “wave of opportunity” that will inevitably occur—hopefully in the near future—we encourage you to stay positive and focus on what you can control. The VET Recruiter website has many resources that could help you in your career plans and goals.
If you’re looking to make a change or explore your employment options, then you can create a profile and/or submit your resume for consideration. If you are an employer needing to hire top talent in the Animal Health industry or Veterinary profession, reach out to us. We want to help you.
We help support careers in one of two ways: 1. By helping Animal Health and Veterinary professionals to find the right opportunity when the time is right, and 2. By helping to recruit top talent for the critical needs of Animal Health and Veterinary organizations. If this is something that you would like to explore further, please send an email to stacy@thevetrecruiter.com.
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