About the Author
Go With the Flow co-columnist Dr. Jeff Thoren is the founder of Gifted Leaders and an expert coach specializing in leadership and team development. He is one of only five veterinarians in the world to hold a credential from the International Coaching Federation.
Written By This Author

Personal Wellness
How to Achieve Authenticity
Look within yourself and admit your thoughts, feelings, aspirations and insecurities in their fullness.
Personal Wellness
The Power of a Pause
In our quest to boost and reward productivity, have we lost sight of something equally or perhaps more important?
Personal Wellness
Putting Intention to the Test
How we think and feel seems to have far more significance than most of us ever realized.
Personal Wellness
Balancing Sacrifice and Renewal
Are you paying the price for too little recovery time?
Personal Wellness
One Subject We Were Never Taught
Self-mastery is within reach if we have a clear vision of what we wish to experience and are committed to the endeavor.
Personal Wellness
Discover Your Secret Sauce
When your inner genius lines up with what you’re doing, you’ll feel more joyful and energetic

Personal Wellness
When Clients Become Flow Stoppers
We take on needless suffering if we take personally anything another person says or does.

Personal Wellness
What’s Missing in Your Workplace?
In the absence of psychological safety, fear can become the enemy of flourishing and flow.

Personal Wellness
Following Your Bliss
Find what tickles your heart and use it as a pathway to a calm, clear focus.
Personal Wellness
Play to Your Strengths
Capitalize on learning opportunities and choose activities with the right amount of challenge relative to your current skill level.
Personal Wellness
Paying Attention to Intention
How we feel is dictated at least in part by where we choose to put our attention, or perhaps more helpfully, our intention.
Personal Wellness
How to Cultivate a Happier Workplace
The psychological health and safety of all employees should be as important as productivity.
Personal/Professional Development
Minding Our Thoughts
If we are thinking thoughts of love, the body produces dopamine and oxytocin. If we are trapped in a cycle of fearful thoughts or anxiety, cortisol can flood the body.
Personal Wellness
A Few Antidotes to COVID Stress
When stressed, we ruminate on things, repeatedly thinking about past or potential events and attaching negative emotions to them.
Personal Wellness
It’s Time for Renewal
Letting go is the first important step in any renewal process.
Personal Wellness
How Do You Handle Busyness?
Build a healthy relationship with busyness in your work and life.
Personal Wellness
Find What Moves You
Whether it’s sports, painting or something else, engaging in an expansive activity will lead you to a more balanced, centered and sane life.
Personal/Professional Development
Your Unique Path to Mindfulness and Flow
Identify an appealing activity that you can consistently incorporate into your regular routine.
Personal/Professional Development
Flow in Uncertain Times
Rather than being overwhelmed by a unique and daunting situation, practices and their owners seemed to tap into their inner reserves and resources and then meet the challenges with agility.
Practice Management
‘Yes, and’
Most people and teams default to some variation of “no” or “yes, but.” The alternative is your ticket to resilience and peace.
Personal/Professional Development
The Slippery Slope of Judgment
Some of our richest and most helpful learning comes after our failures or someone else’s. A little humor can help.
Personal/Professional Development
Are You a Human Being or a Human Doing?
The cult of productivity has its place, but worshipping at its altar can rob us of our sense of curiosity, joy and wonder.
Personal Wellness
Minimize maxing out
If you’ve reached your mental limitations as a veterinary professional, get centered, exercise self-compassion and remember to do something fun every day.
Personal/Professional Development
Realize your potential
If you’re ready to elevate your leadership game, hire a coach to help you tap into your natural strengths and make better decisions.
Personal Wellness
Douse the flames of early burnout
Recognizing signs of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion in veterinary medicine is the first step in returning to your natural flow state.
Personal Wellness
Feel Good-ology
Self-esteem can leave you when you need it most, so try building more self-compassion into your daily experiences.
Personal/Professional Development
Courage: the strength behind it all
Compassion, curiosity and courage are a potent antidote to the common fears that can paralyze us as human beings.
Personal/Professional Development
Activate Your Latent Superpower
When we are sincerely curious, we unlock new fields of possibilities.
Personal Wellness
Wholeness and Self-Compassion
Finding peace in the present means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life.
Personal Wellness
The art of centering
We can all benefit from taking a moment to see our situations a little less seriously and treat ourselves and each other with a little more care and compassion.
Personal/Professional Development
Surrender to the present
Presence is an internal state. It’s being fully here and being fully present with reality as it is, not as we would like it to be.
Personal Wellness
Learn to trust the process
A number of meditation apps, such as Headspace and Calm, are available to help demystify the meditation process and get you started.
Personal/Professional Development
Choosing wisely
By being aware of our mindset in the moment as an open-minded observer of ourselves, we have the possibility of choosing.
Personal/Professional Development
Flow in the face of adversity
While hardship will never be avoidable, the avoidance of suffering is, perhaps surprisingly, within our control.
Personal/Professional Development
When in doubt, improvise
In today’s unpredictable world, the simple principles of improv might just be your ticket to a greater ability to rebound from setbacks, cope with stress and disappointment, and thrive in times of disruption.
Personal Wellness
The Surfer’s Guide to Life
Every once in a while, we come across a reminder that there is another way — a middle path — that resonates with us.