Lots of leadership books and experts detail steps you can take to become a better leader. Trouble is, many times they omit the single most important trait of exceptional leaders – a positive attitude. Fact is, your attitude and emotions determine how effectively you lead others. How we deal with bad attitudes around us and how we confront our own sour feelings directly influence our abilities to inspire and lead our teams. Fortunately, there are tips and techniques to help keep us centered and focused on being the best leader possible.

No Bad Days?

Bad days lead to burnout. Many veterinarians lead an existence of "getting through the day" and never reaching their maximum potential. How do we optimize our abilities while maintaining enthusiasm for our profession? The short answer is by preparing ourselves intellectually, being as physically fit and healthy as possible and including diversity in our lives. Research conducted during the past twenty years has shown that our physical state has tremendous impact on our ability to think, process and retain information and regulate our moods. In other words, how healthy and fit you are tremendously affects how well you perform mentally and emotionally while still enjoying it. To enjoy more "good days" takes work. By staying physically fit and healthy, you can maximize your potential as a veterinarian and avoid "bad" days. The more productive you are, the better you'll be and ultimately the more successful you'll be – and avoid burning out.

In 1999, Duke University conducted the SMILE Study (Standard Medical Intervention and Long-term Exercise) to determine the effect exercise had on patients suffering from depression. They compared subjects treated with the popular psychoactive agent Zoloft (sertraline). The researchers found that exercise was as effective as medication in treating depression. Moreover, when the test subjects were evaluated six months after the study's conclusion, they found that 52 percent of the patients receiving Zoloft were still suffering from depression compared to only 30 percent of the exercise group. Perhaps even more interesting, the more exercise a patient did the less likely they were to be depressed. The Duke study found that every fifty minutes of weekly exercise correlated to a 50 percent drop in the odds of being depressed. The more patients exercised, the better they felt and the more stable they became.

Aerobic exercise increases the neurotransmitters dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine. These compounds play a vital role in the regulation of our moods and feelings. Exercise is our body's natural means of keeping the brain chemistry stable and enhancing our chances of survival. Our estimated energy expenditure is less than 38 percent of our Stone Age ancestors. To make matters worse, we take in far more calories than our caveman relatives ever dreamed. Even if you follow the government recommendations of thirty minutes of aerobic intensity exercise each day, you'd still only burn about half of what our genes are encoded for. Overweight and obese individuals now vastly outnumber normal and thin people in the United States and Canada, and the number of patients diagnosed with mental and physical disorders linked to excess weight continues to escalate. We were designed to move and when we don't, bad things happen, both physically and mentally.

Cold Coals: Life in the Shadows

A bigger concern for many people is what psychologists term the "shadow syndrome" of sub-clinical depression. These individuals experience common mood swings, are quick to anger, have trouble remaining focused and experience sadness and negative thoughts more frequently. While not technically depressed, these people are functioning sub-optimally. These individuals benefit tremendously from exercise. A recent doctor I worked with commented that "she had forgotten how much fun veterinary medicine was" after four weeks on a five times a week exercise program. She was sleeping better, feeling more energized and found that "life was going her way." While exercise is certainly no panacea, many people have lost sight of how good their life truly is due to the veil of sub-clinical depression brought on by abnormal brain physiology that a sedentary lifestyle creates. When the neurotransmitters released with aerobic exercise flood the brain and reset the normal neurochemistry, people feel better and experience optimism and happiness, something everyone could use more of in their life.