Episode #460: Wisdom from the Greatest Gift Idea, with Dr. Kevin Groth

Dentistry can put you in a dark place. Some days, you will ache from your feet to your soul. But you have the power to change that! And to share some motivation and inspiration, Kirk Behrendt brings back Dr. Kevin Groth, an amazing Adjunct Faculty Member at ACT, with resources that helped him find the balance for a better practice and better life. To learn how he continues to find happiness in life, listen to Episode 460 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

• Find your core values and essentials of your life.
• Surround yourself with the people you love.
• Keep your mind and your body sharp.
• Balance time, money, and health.
• Don't be limited by your thinking.
• Embrace the struggle.
• Stay humble.

Quotes:

• “It’s all about your perspective on things. Your positive outlook creates positive results.” (6:06—6:11)
• “It's important, for anybody listening, to find fulfillment in their life.” (7:13—7:16)
• “Everyone strives for happiness right now. And it seems like it’s a constant theme of, ‘I'm not happy with my job. I'm not happy with my life. I'm not happy with my marriage. I'm not happy with my kids,’ whatever it is. Well, you can control that. Dictate it. And ultimately, what it comes down to is, if you can identify, ‘These are the things that make me happy,’ then do it.” (7:38—7:56)
• “A person is limited only to the thoughts he or she chooses.” (12:31—12:35)
• “I think dentistry can spin you to [negativity] so quickly. You have a bad patient experience, bad patient, things didn't go that well in the operative realm of things, or whatever it may be, and you start being like, ‘I'm tired. I'm tired. I'm tired. I'm done. I don't want to do this anymore,’ and you start getting negative. But then, those negative thoughts turn into negative outcomes. And negative experiences shape everything about your environment. And to me, I'm just like, ‘I'm done. I am done with negative thinking.’ As a Man Thinketh [says] the power of your thoughts shapes you. And I said, ‘No more of these negative thoughts. Positive thinking only.’ And I've had the best couple weeks now.” (12:49—13:25)
• “I control the things around me. Enough of the external life scenarios dictating what I am and who I am. It’s all about what I do based on my thoughts. And those thoughts drive the results that come out of the chair, come out of my life, come out of my experiences with people, my relationship with others. I come home happier because I am the one that's in control of my life. You push positive thoughts, and you're going to have positive results.” (13:27—13:53)
• “You don't want to die with a bunch of money in the bank, because you then become something that, ‘I worked for this much time. And this much energy I put into this, and it didn't relate to anything at the end of it all because I wasted five, 10, 20 years of my life, because it just sat in a bank account when I'm in a coffin in the ground.’” (15:48—16:07)
• “There are three things in life. You have time, money, and health. And in each segment of life, you have a deficiency. So, when you're in your 20s or so, you have your health and you have time, but you have no money. And then, in your middle life, you have your health, hopefully, you have your money, hopefully, but you don't have time because we’re running around like crazy, taking care of family. But then, when we retire, you have your time, you have money, but you don't have health, necessarily. So, ultimately, the whole secret of life is trying to navigate the deficiency.” (17:41—18:17)
• “In our phase of life, time is our most valuable possession we can have. So, why am I wasting time at work doing things that aren't allowing me to fulfill my time with my family? Cut the hours, cut the days.” (18:29—18:42)
• “The other thing is that we’ve got to take care of ourselves. Because if you take care of yourselves at an early age, it’s going to delay the health component later on in life. [Die with Zero] talks about how for every pound overweight, you put four pounds on your knees. And we all have different patients that have had knee surgery, after knee surgery, after knee surgery because they’ve gone X number of years with that much extra poundage that's literally destroying your knees to a point you need a replacement. So, that's my motivation now, is to get healthy so I don't have to have that, so it delays my health component later on in life.” (19:57—20:27)
• “[Die with Zero] talks about looking at your life in five-year increments, and then write down the things, like a bucket list of things, that you would want to do in your life and what you would want to experience. And then, start throwing the experiences into the five-year buckets.” (23:08—23:21)
• “There are five principles in this EOS Life book. And they are: do what you love, with the people that you love, making a huge difference, being appropriately compensated, with time for other passions. And those are the five pillars of what we all should abide by.” (26:36—26:54)
• “Why do we surround ourselves with people that we don't enjoy? It’s amazing to me. And my father is living proof of this, because he would come home and complain about his employees every freaking day. And then, when I took over the office from him, I started complaining about the employees every day. And it was just like, ‘Something has got to change.’” (30:10—30:27)
• “You are literally the average of the people you surround yourself with. So, surround yourself with people that you want to become.” (32:01—32:07)
• “Longer hours are never the answer. Longer hours are the worst thing you could do.” (40:23—40:27)
• “Have the time for other passions. We work hard. But we should not be working to the bone. Because if you work to the bone, now you don't have the energy to do the things that you love to do.” (41:20—41:31)
• “Say no and say it often. I've learned that so much because I used to be a yes to every single thing. And now, I say no to everything. Unless it’s a hell yes, it’s a hell no.” (45:17—45:30)
• “Be humble. Because as soon as you get a little ahead of yourself, the world is going to come back at you with a whole different vengeance.” (46:17—46:24)
• “The Four Agreements, it’s a great, easy read. I really like that book a lot. 1) Be impeccable with your work. It speaks to your integrity. 2) Don't take anything personally. Life kind of happens. 3) Don't make assumptions. 4) And ultimately, always do your best.” (46:56—47:13)
• “We’re always expecting our best of ourselves all the time. But it’s impossible. I mean, LeBron James doesn't shoot career highs every single game. Right? But he’s okay with missing some things. And that's the same expectation we should have in our lives. We really shouldn't go through every single experience thinking that we should be our best all the time. As soon as you feel like you gave your best, I feel good about that. And that's really what it comes down to, is just accepting that.” (48:09—48:39)
• “[Live] by these five pillars. And these five pillars would be: good nutrition, fitness and exercise on a daily basis, appropriate sleep, living with a purpose, and socialization. Those five things are so valuable to us on a daily basis. And if you have those five things, you will be healthy mentally, and you will be healthy physically, and you will be healthy emotionally.” (50:46—51:18)
• "You can't be everything to everyone. But you can be impactful to those things that you select that are important.” (53:45—53:51)

Snippets:

• 0:00 Introduction.
• 6:53 Find fulfillment in life.  
• 8:40 The greatest gift Dr. Groth ever received.
• 10:31 The book that helps you open your thinking.
• 13:56 The book that helps you balance time, money, and health.
• 24:27 The book that helps you with systems and core values.
• 46:38 The book that helps you think better.
• 49:27 The book that helps you keep sharp.
• 52:36 The book that helps you be a visionary.
• 54:26 Last thoughts.

Reach Out to Dr. Groth:

Dr. Groth’s email: [email protected] 

Dr. Groth’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/grothdental

Dr. Groth’s social media: @drkevingroth

Resources:

As a Man Thinketh by James Allen: https://bookshop.org/books/as-a-man-thinketh-9781585426386/9781585426386

Die with Zero by Bill Perkins: https://bookshop.org/books/die-with-zero-getting-all-you-can-from-your-money-and-your-life-9780358567097/9780358567097

The EOS Life by Gino Wickman: https://benbellabooks.com/shop/theeoslife/

The Diary of a CEO podcast: https://stevenbartlett.com/the-diary-of-a-ceo-podcast/

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz: https://bookshop.org/books/the-four-agreements-a-practical-guide-to-personal-freedom/9781878424310

Keep Sharp by Sanjay Gupta: https://bookshop.org/books/keep-sharp-build-a-better-brain-at-any-age/9781501166747

The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Iger: https://bookshop.org/books/the-ride-of-a-lifetime-lessons-learned-from-15-years-as-ceo-of-the-walt-disney-company/9780399592096

Dr. Kevin Groth Bio:

Dr. Kevin Groth’s primary goal is for every person to walk out of his office knowing that they received the highest-quality, most personalized care possible. Dentistry is more than just a profession for Dr. Groth. He sees every patient as an extension of his own family, and when you are in his chair, you’ll always be treated well.

Dr. Groth’s favorite part of being a dentist is that every day and every patient is different. He loves the variety of people he gets to meet and procedures he performs to help patients maintain their smiles.

Since graduating from the University of Michigan School of Dentistry, Dr. Groth has been recognized locally by Hour Detroit Magazine as a Top Dentist, and nationally as a Top Doc. As a passionate dentist who wants to provide the best care for his patients, Dr. Groth pursues continuing education through The Dawson Academy, serves on the executive board of the Periodontal Bunting Society, and is the Assistant Clinical Director of the Society of Comprehensive Dentists. He has also served as an adjunct clinical faculty member at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry.