Is Your Practice Stopping You From Being Creative?

– By Dr Nav Ropra. 

Can you remember what it was like to be childlike again, to be care free and enthusiastic with a boundless energy and vitality for life?  Is this how you life is at the moment or has something got in the way?

We tend to forget what is was like to be free from responsibilities and accountabilities and with that, we can lose the ability to be spontaneous and creative.  Dentistry is a profession which requires us to be at the peak of our abilities at all times in many different areas, from patient care, practice management, time management, continuous learning, social etiquette etc.

‘Is this how you life is at the moment or has something got in the way?’

Our authentic being and nature just wants to be free and grow and to be loved and appreciated for who we are.  Can there be an overlap?  Yes there can.  We are all creative in certain areas of our lives. Artistic creativity can be doing something simple like adjusting a filling, to something complicated like designing a new dental practice with personal expression.  Technical creativity refers to the creation of new ideas or technologies.  Both require the use of our creative abilities.  How well we are up to the challenge depends on our values.

‘Our authentic being and nature just wants to be free and grow and to be loved and appreciated for who we are.’

Look and see where you are already creative as this will be in the area of highest value to you.  Understand how this works for you and watch how your physiology and vitality come alive in that area when you talk about that subject.  For some it may be cooking, others it may be playing golf, their beauty, skiing or dentistry.  Whatever you are doing, this expression of creativity can be harnessed and linked to your practice. Bring that same creative quality into your care of patients or the management of staff.  Use the same sharpness of mind, character, feeling of state and slowly integrate this into your practice so that your creative power is unleashed and your career and your creativity are not separate.

‘Bring that same creative quality into your care of patients or the management of staff.’

Do more of the things you love and delegate the things which stop your creativity to those who enjoy doing them.  In the beginning it may be changes in the way you do simple things, like improving your appearance, your mannerism towards staff and patients or learning new treatment techniques and mastering old ones.

‘Your creative power is unleashed and your career and your creativity are not separate.’

Let your creativity in your practice show in the colours and pictures which you hang on the walls of your practice.  The physical space around you is a reflection of the knowledge, resourcefulness and attitude you have on the inside and remember to remain professional.  Bring inspirational music, photographs or art into your practice and clean up the space so that it has no clutter or dirt.

‘Do more of the things you love and delegate the things which stop your creativity to those who enjoy doing them.’

Then as your skill set evolves, you can brainstorm with your team and bring new ideas into the practice on how to grow. Set parameters where no one is blamed for their creativity or thinking outside of the box.  Challenge assumptions and change your attitude and mindset.

You will find that as you hold the space long enough for your working life to be more creative, you will slowly start to overflow with creativity and share it in your relationships, your friends, your family and outside of your practising life.

You will then start to have an abundance of creativity.  The creativity of a child with the responsibilities of an adult and the freedom to choose.