Woman Crush Wednesday.

We love to celebrate female movers and shakers who are successful locally, nationally, internationally, and most importantly, personally.

We are so excited to highlight orthopedic surgeon Dr. Kristen Fleager this week, who is the newest addition to our Experts panel! We asked to share with us her thoughts on success.

““Success….I think a lot about what this means. Is it happiness? Prosperity? Power? Beauty? A strong resume? This is a tough one, and I certainly do not know the answer, but I can at least provide you with two concepts that helped get me to where I am: 1) mentorship, and 2) perspective. As an orthopedic surgeon in a male-dominated field (only 7% female!), it is easy to get a bit lost as you try to juggle career advancement, kids, personal health, and sanity. I come back to these two concepts daily, and they help keep me grounded.

Mentorship: For me, a mentor is someone you admire, or aspire to be like. I have several such mentors from my training years, both male and female, and several are so impressive that I could never possibly live up to them (shoot for the moon and land among the stars!). He/she is my “What Would ____ Do” person. My criteria for such mentors: admirable integrity/character (this is SO important), a strong work ethic, a reasonable personal life, and positivity. When I am down, or frustrated, or uncertain, I ask myself the “What Would ____ Do” question, and this is incredibly helpful. You must find these people, and model yourself after them!

Perspective: This is the “10,000-foot view”. I ask myself this question daily, “Is this REALLY that important, in the grand scheme of things? At the end of my life, is this something that I will care about?” Things that, in fact, are not that important: the milk that just spilled on the floor, the grey hair that decided to sprout in the most visible part of my head, my daughter refusing to poo on the potty, the rude patient that ruined my clinic day….you get the idea. Make yourself step back, examine, and eliminate these worries and frustrations that simply don’t matter, and focus on the ones that do!”

— - Kristen Fleager, M.D.

Check out her full bio on our Experts page!