It’s my word for the year 2025. What’s yours?  

Since 2021, I’ve been coming up with a word or a theme that sets the pace for the year ahead. I vision-board in the first few weeks of January and then look at the board I’ve created throughout the year. Perhaps it does not work for others, but manifesting works for me. I’ve gone back to see boards I created years ago and found that most of the things I put on my boards come true. Maybe not the same year I intended them to, but a few years later. 

There is power in manifesting. And putting out our intentions into the universe. Try it if you have not. 

Why is the theme for the year, courage?

I am doing a lot of things I need courage for. Everyone has fear and self doubt when embarking on risks. The risks I am taking this year are big. The hope is that the risks pay off in the long term. Well, we have to do a lot more than just hope. Behind every successful risk taken, there is a sheer amount of willpower being put by its founder. 

Business risks 

This is the year I invest in furthering my skill set thereby providing greater access to care for my patients. I am taking CE nearly every month and investing the time and resources to train my team so we can serve more patients. 

Currently, we refer less than 5% of our patients for sedation or general anesthesia services. While the overall number seems small, the patients who get referred find themselves stuck at the end of a long line, often months if not years, to receive comprehensive dental care. 

Other patients, especially those with dental fears and anxiety, often request if more dental treatment can be carried out at the same visit so as to reduce the number of appointments and overall wait time before they get their dentures/partials. Getting trained in IV sedation has been a focus for me, for this very reason, for many years. I am excited to be able to finally complete my training this year and start offering it to my patients!

FAGD examination

After a gap of several years, I am finally re-taking my FAGD (Fellowship in the Academy of General Dentistry) exam this summer. I last took it in 2019 and missed the pass mark by 2 points. I now know that I was not fully prepared. This time, I will be. I am also looking forward to taking the review course in Montreal and writing the exam in person. It would be a better experience compared to going to a Prometric center and being stuck in a tiny room for 4 hours. 

Due to all of the other CE I am taking this year, the course content will also be fresh in my mind. I am hoping that that helps and I am able to finally pass the coveted exam!

Team risks 

I’ve noticed a major change in my attitude towards my teams and employees, since having a baby. I can no longer tolerate lacklustre performance. Back in 2018, when I was just a fresh graduate working my second big corporate job, things were different. I had a dental assistant who would chronically show up late to work. Her ‘car broke down’ nearly every other week. Her ‘son was sick’ every couple of days. And she would miss days, leaving my office manager and I in a scramble to find a last minute assistant to help out for the day. We spent significant resources to have temporary dental assistants help us, often at the cost of our office’s profitability and team morale. 

Guess what? We actually never let that employee go! I cringe when I think about this. We continued to tolerate that attitude for the better part of a year. Towards the end of 2019 I wanted to change my work hours and offer evening appointments to patients. When we implemented that change, this assistant left and we hired a fantastic replacement. And that’s when we all took a collective deep breath! It made me realize that we should have just let her go much sooner. It would have saved us months of anxiety. 

Today, I cannot imagine having to go through that. I need a team of A players around me. And people who genuinely love their jobs and want to be the best at it. It’s about integrity. If you have high integrity, you bring that to everything you do that day. If I am spending the day away from my baby, I need the day and the work to be worth it. It can’t be worth it if I’m stuck working with people who would rather not be there. 

I came back from maternity leave and noticed new people on my team. In just a few days, one can tell who is excellent at their jobs and who leaves much to be desired. Again, it all comes down to attitude. In the words of Elon Musk, hire for attitude.

Skills can be taught. A change in attitude requires a brain transplant!

I switched out one of my assistants in a matter of weeks. I did the same with our new nanny. It was stressful while in the thick of it, but when you find the right person to be on your team, the feeling of calm and happiness that envelops you is priceless. Your other team members also take note of your swift action.

Family 

It’s so hard and yet so wonderful to be a parent. Our daughter has made me the happiest person in the world. At the same time, she has given rise to fears and worries inside me that I never knew existed. Having a child can be a very selfless thing. You realize how much of the day you spend thinking about them, rather than all the other stuff you could be doing. 

For working parents it is doubly hard, because you spend most of the day looking at them through a camera on your phone. The guilt of leaving them with a caregiver never goes away. 

It makes the little time you do get with them precious. I need courage this year to continue doing all the things above and build my career despite having a small baby at home. Why do I not want to just be with the baby or continue a job so I can balance my time more with her? Because, all of this is for her. 

Almanack of Naval Ravikant is a powerful book I read a few years ago and continue to re read every few months. It taught me a very simple thing about assets.

If we continue to live by trading our time for resources, we will be stuck in an endless loop of time against health, wealth and happiness. Instead, we need to own a piece of a business (an asset), that continues to build and create wealth, at little to no cost to our personal time. 

In other words, be part of something that can scale and grow and help you earn wealth while you sleep. Continuing to work in a job (even a high paying one), is finite. It loses its value when you run out of steam. And then, what? You are left with nothing. 

Someday our daughter will grow up, look at the legacy we have built, and be proud of it. Perhaps she will want to be a part of it too! 

Courage 

It’s my word for the year 2025. What’s yours?