Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode

Love Your Practice

  1. All Episodes
  2. Every Dentist Deserves to Get a Little Weird: An Interview with Dr. Ankur Gupta

Every Dentist Deserves to Get a Little Weird: An Interview with Dr. Ankur Gupta

Feb 25, 2020

I’m very excited about my guest on this episode of Feeling Good. I met Dr. Ankur Gupta at a dental conference in January, and we had such an interesting conversation that I had to invite him on the show! Dr. Gupta used his own dental practice as a personal and professional experiment in self-improvement, and we’re discussing all the ways we as dentists can be healthier and happier in our practices. 

Success isn’t just measured by numbers. No matter how much money your dental practice can make in a month, that kind of success isn’t guaranteed to make you any happier. Too many dentists focus too much on making as much money as possible and ignore the other ways in our lives that we deserve to be happy. According to Dr. Gupta, when you take on too much in the dental office like that, you’re just making yourself age faster. 

Dentists need to make sure that the demands we’re putting on ourselves and our practices don’t exceed our capacity for handling that level of stress. Dr. Gupta shares ways you can minimize stress in your daily life, and some of his strategies might surprise you, especially when he starts talking about being a little weird. That’s the biggest takeaway you’ll get from my interview with Dr. Gupta - It’s okay to get a little weird!

Even as a dentist, we can all afford to get a little weirder. It can help you maintain your mental, emotional, and physical health. With a little weirdness, you won’t fall into the typical habits of being “normal”. In a world where it’s normal to look at your phone for an hour on your lunch break, you should get a little weird with it. Take a walk, feed some ducks, and be a little weirder. Your neural pathways will thank you!

Dr. Gupta and I each share our techniques for taking on the different burdens we all experience as dentists, and he even asks me a few questions about life coaching. This interview is filled to the brim with nuggets of information that will get you thinking about yourself and the way you run your dental office in a brand new light. Hopefully, we help you develop some new weird, yet constructive habits that allow you to build up your sense of self-worth instead of your sense of self-doubt. 

In This Episode You Will Learn

  • A bit of Dr. Gupta’s background before we start the interview 1:30
  • How the subjectivity of fighting and conflict can influence your whole day 8:17
  • Why your posture is so important when being a dentist 15:27
  • What’s really happening in our minds when we’re lusting over luxury items 25:59
  • How you can replace negative habits with more constructive ones 31:35
  • Ways you can check in with your thoughts and start feeling better about yourself 34:45 

Some Questions We Discuss

  • What trend did Dr. Gupta see in successful dentists that inspired his teachings? 4:24
  • Are you demanding too much of yourself? 11:41
  • What is the principle of pre-suasion? 13:23
  • Why does Dr. Gupta want us to be a little bit weird? 20:45
  • What does the concept of “buffering” mean to your thoughts and feelings? 29:20
  • Why are the burdens more complicated for female dentists who run their own practices? 39:30

Resources