Living with Depth and Intention (E.248)

“It’s much more impactful to think about what we are doing with our days to make those land deeper and more significant onto our soul.” ~Dr. Maggie Augustyn

In this episode of the Everyday Practices Dental Podcast, Dr. Chad Johnson is joined by the always insightful Dr. Maggie Augustyn to explore a profound and thought-provoking topic that resonates far beyond the walls of a dental practice. Inspired by a powerful quote from H.L. Mencken, Dr. Chad and Dr. Maggie dive into a conversation about the true essence of life — not just its length, but its depth and meaning.

They discuss the balance between extending our lifespan and enriching the days we have, considering how our choices, connections, and relationships shape the richness of our existence. Whether you’re contemplating your own life’s purpose, curious about the role of stoicism in everyday decisions, or simply looking to hear a meaningful dialogue, this episode offers a reflective journey that will leave you pondering how to live more fully and intentionally.

Listen in to hear Chad and Maggie’s perspectives on living life in “multiple lanes,” and discover how you can add depth to your own life in a way that truly matters.

As you listen to this episode, we want you to think about the following questions:

• Am I prioritizing the quality of my life over just the length of it?
• How intentional am I in my daily life?
• What connections in my life are most important to me, and how can I strengthen them?

Episode Transcript 

[00:00:00] Regan: Doctor, are you living the dream or just dreaming of living? It is my honor to announce the PDA 20th anniversary special conference this September 12th to the 14th in Frisco, Texas, the nation’s leading course on dental practice growth. If you feel isolated as a leader who is frustrated that your schedule is unproductive, maybe your team is disjointed or your systems are inefficient. This is the conference for you. The PDA 20th anniversary conference has all new features, including keynote speaker, Emmett Smith, who is a pro football hall of fame, running back and entrepreneur. You can choose your own educational track to customize your learning experience. Go to www.productivedentist.com and click the pop-up or select Productive Dentist Academy Conference under the Dental CE and Events tab. That’s www.productivedentist.com. Seating is limited. Register today and we look forward to helping you make your dreams become reality.

[00:00:54] Maggie: So yes, maybe we can extend the length of our, of our life. Maybe we can, but I think it’s much more  impactful to think about what we are doing with our days to make those land deeper and more significant onto our soul.

[00:01:10] Regan: Welcome to the Everyday Practices Podcast. I’m Regan Robertson, and my co-host, Dr. Chad Johnson and I, are on a mission to share the stories of everyday dentists who generate extraordinary results using practical, proven methods you can take right into your own dental practice. If you’re ready to elevate patient care and produce results that are anything but ordinary, buckle up and listen in.

[00:01:35] Chad: Hey everybody. It’s Chad Johnson with Everyday Practices Dental Podcast, and Regan is on a special assignment. Her special assignment is to be enjoying her family time while she’s on vacation. So today we have Maggie Augustyne and Maggie, how are you doing?

[00:01:54] Maggie: I am doing very well. Thank you. Chicago has pretty nice weather and I can’t say  that happens very often. We’ve got, I don’t know, maybe, listen, I’ll be generous. We have 24 amazing days in Chicago during the year and this might be one of them.

[00:02:09] Chad: Yay and here we are taking it up rather than you going down to the beach.  Yes or something. How far are you Like from getting to Lake Michigan, what would it take right now during traffic hour? Are you like an hour out?

[00:02:23] Maggie: Oh yeah, but longer than that. Even an hour and a half. Yeah.

[00:02:26] Chad: Okay. Well, there you go.

[00:02:27] Maggie: With traffic, maybe on the train, it might be less than an hour.

[00:02:31] Chad: Okay Um, just for the listener’s sake, Dr. Maggie and I were discussing a topic earlier this week via text and call and stuff like that, discussing it. And we thought we should record a little bit. On this Maggie, was this a quote that you had read that stirred up your imagination on this?

[00:02:47] Maggie: It is and it started with Ryan Holiday, who you are trying to get on this podcast. We are really big fans of Ryan holiday. Um, he’s the one that introduced me to stoicism. You’re the one that introduced me to stoicism and then I started reading Ryan Holiday and then stoicism dailies got these things that they put on social media, um, daily, as you would expect and there’s a quote, there’s a quote by H L mannequin M E N C K E N and this really landed pretty deep with me. And he said, “You can’t do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its wit and its depth.” I found that really impactful because surrounding yourself. Well, so let’s talk about this. We probably can do some things to extend.

[00:03:33] Chad: Yes, exactly.

[00:03:34] Maggie: The days of our life, right?

[00:03:36] Chad: One idea is, I mean, you don’t know when you’re. I mean, these guys might have been thinking, you don’t know when in the day of battle that you’re going to be taken out and at the time there, you know, more polytheistic where they’re like the gods, no, but, or, you know, these days we’re a little bit more, you know, monotheistic in America of sorts. If, if you’re a God believer that you’d be like, I mean, only God knows or fate. If, you know, if you want it to put it that way, but we don’t know when we’re going to be taken out or early long, but even if like, to your point, if we’re, if we live a long natural life to 80 years old, but then if from age 40 onward, you start stretching and exercising and eating a proper diet and not doing, you know, horrible things and you go, “Maybe I could extend it to 84,” you know, it’s still just a finite difference, right? You’re not going to make such a difference that you’re going to live to be 120 when let’s call it your fatalistic or which is kind of stoicism of sorts, you know, like that your fatalistic or your God-appointed time with grim reaper is 80 versus 84. What’s the difference? That’s 5%. So I think something could be said about, you know, the fact that you could lengthen your life. Now, here’s the point then quality of life.

[00:04:49] Maggie: Well, so I was more thinking if you don’t eat well, if you don’t exercise, if you stay out in the sun, if you don’t treat your sleep apnea, you might be done at 62.

[00:04:58] Chad: Correct.

[00:04:58] Maggie: But if again, if we take the God out of the Equation that that we should for the sake of the argument, right? Like if you are vegetarian or vegan and you exercise, you might be able to extend your life more significantly, a Mediterranean diet, whatever it is. Okay. So yes, maybe we can extend the length of our, of our life. Maybe we can, but I think it’s much more impactful to think about what we are doing with our days to make those land deeper and more significant onto our soul.

[00:05:31] Chad: Sure.

[00:05:32] Maggie: And so what can we do there?

[00:05:34] Chad: Right. That’s where reflection helps being intentional helps. I think of two, if from age 70 to 90, your wheelchair-bound, paraplegic, something, you know, where you’re not fully functioning with all your ambulance and mentally, if at the same time you were, um, you know, not with all your faculties, that just because you lived to 90, that those last 20, or let’s even say 40 or 60 years, you know, if you live that way, just because you lived to 90, but you weren’t able to live satisfactorily, doesn’t sound appealing to a lot of people versus how about you live your best years, the longest that you can. So living to, let’s say to 65, fully healthy and which sounds awfully young, doesn’t it? But you know, like living to 65 awfully healthy versus if someone said, well, how about from 55 until a hundred, you are bound in a bed and not even able to recognize family or friends or think, you know, but other than watch, you know, tv and just sit there and watch tv. It’s like, oh, that sounds horrible. Maybe not to everyone and I’m not saying that life isn’t valuable. That life is still valuable. Utilitarianism plays into this, you know, like, uh, what is that person worth? And it’s like, we almost feel like it’s a worker kind of thing, you know, like how is that person even worth, you know, society keeping around. It’s like, no, we’re, we’re more valuable than our utility, but it’s still no. I’ve talked with patients about this, especially elderly patients. None of them are excited about, you know, living long if it meant that they’re also not living well,

[00:07:16] Maggie: You know what this quote makes me think about is surface area, right? So you could have a really long strip, you know, long, shallow and thin.

[00:07:25] Chad: Yes. Well done.

[00:07:26] Maggie: Or you can give it depth.

[00:07:29] Chad: Yes.

[00:07:29] Maggie: And it’s a little bit like how much time we spend as parents with our kids, right? You could be next to your kid watching TV while they’re doing something. You can do that for hours and hours and hours and hours and that’s one kind of parenting or you could be with your kids and you could spend an hour a day with them in communication, finding out how their day went, eating dinner together, but the surface area of the time that you’re giving them is different. Could be the same, sorry, it could be the same. It’s just compacted and it’s different and so living life on multiple lanes versus living life on one lane going a long distance.

[00:08:02] Chad: Yes.

[00:08:03] Maggie: Those are, you could still gain similar experiences and emotions and it can all add up to the same thing, but it could be two very different ways of living but I suppose my question then is. When you talk about these multiple lanes of living a life and making the life richer, if you can’t make it longer, what is it that makes life have depth? What can you add to the life to make it richer? Like, what is your opinion? And if you don’t have one, I have one.

[00:08:31]Chad: Let me start.

[00:08:33] Maggie: That would be very rare for you not to have an opinion.

[00:08:34] Chad: Let’s talk in generalities for people in general because it’s going to be different for everyone, right? Do you have kids or not? Are you married or not? So like in other words, a better question would be what is your family dynamic currently and what do you wish or hope it to be? Um, for someone that’s single and completely satisfied in that or mostly satisfied in that, hat’s not looking to get married. That’s going to look different than someone who is single, but wants to get married or whatnot. So a family dynamic would matter. Second, a spiritual component of, do you feel like you have big purpose or that you’re serving a God or of sorts that gives you hooks you into a bigger purpose. Another is are you doing work that is satisfactory, that connects you with people that then makes you feel like you’re being intentional and making a difference in society? I almost feel like this list could be pre-populated and it probably has a hundred times over, but those are three things that I’m thinking of, you know, family, God, and work that would, uh, be significant, I suppose, if there was another, it would be aesthetics. One could maybe even put in harmony with nature.

[00:09:55] Maggie: That was, that was definitely going to be on, on my [00:10:00] list.

[00:10:00] Chad: So those are kind of some general ideas, but they were just like, I was just throwing them out there. Uh, now you go.

[00:10:05] Maggie: So I think everything is connection and it’s funny because I tell one of my friends, Sean Zias, all the time that I hate people because I really don’t like people, but I love humans.

[00:10:16] Chad: Yes.

[00:10:17] Maggie: I think what. I think to, to gain that depth in life, that richness, the feeling that we matter, I really think it comes to humans. I really think it comes to relationships. I think that even if you’re, even if you’re single, not planning on, on getting married, I think even if you are, uh, single, wanting to get married, even if you are a parent, I think humans and connections with other humans and relationships are still what ties it all together. Even if you are a stoic monk in segregation and in meditation for weeks at a time, there’s still a connection with your higher power. I think that the connection to something to someone is what gives you that depth. However,

[00:10:56] Chad: In a spiritual sense, I feel like we’re in agreement and I’m [00:11:00] hearing you say, so I’m just reiterating that connection and relationship matters.

[00:11:06] Maggie: Yes.

[00:11:07] Chad: Okay. Keep going.

[00:11:08] Maggie: This could be a whole different podcast, but we’re moving further and further away from that. I think in our culture,

[00:11:13] Chad: I would posit to say that we are designed for connection or relationship. Exactly. . Sure.

[00:11:18] Maggie: Absolutely and I actually think that is an incredibly important reason why there is so much mental health issues that we are facing. I think that is the number one reason why we are all so unhappy That’s the reason why we have so many mental health care professionals so many drugs for depression So many life coaches. I think it’s because we are losing the human dimension. I think we’re losing the depth of life

[00:11:43] Chad: How about this? We’re so often told that we’re supposed to live our truth and live our purpose and live, well, our collectively, I’m going to change it, live your truth, live your purpose and everything like that, that we have a very narcissistic culture and that narcissism is wonderful when it’s feeding you, but then you realize you’ve just eaten everything around you because it’s about you and that you painted yourself into a corner of narcissism.

[00:12:11] Maggie: So I just started watching, um, the morning show on Apple TV and there’s a line in there that Jennifer Aniston says, super narcissistic that says, “I’m sorry, you’re a jackhole.” Like, I mean, that is that, that is the culture that we live in today. I didn’t do anything wrong. If I am sorry, I am sorry because you did something wrong as we talk about this. However, I do think if we go a little sideways and back to what we talked about before, I think nature’s plays an incredibly important component on this. I just don’t know how to bring it back into connection. Are you there with me?

[00:12:46] Chad: Let me see.

[00:12:47] Maggie: Depth of life, nature.

[00:12:48] Chad: Yes. So in, in that regard, if we are sterilizing ourself from our environment, I mean, first off, we make houses, which helps us have shelter and stuff and then we create windows. Then we create allergen tight window seals and then we, you know, have air purifiers and everything like that and we find ironically that allergenicities go up. I don’t know all the connections, but that’s kind of a weird correlation there. We’re further and further away from nature. You know, we go work at a bank business or we’re on zoom and doing stuff, but it’s not in, you know, it’s not out on the farm. It’s not out cutting trees. It’s not, you know, getting fish from the ocean. It’s not stuff, you know, organic stuff that we need mental breaks in nature and I love, for example, going out to the Pacific Northwest and hiking and as sociable as I am doing it alone. Cause that juxtaposes and is a communion time with nature, with God, that then when I am with people, I think I’ve got a range of balance, like lots of people here and sterile, and then in nature walking on dirt, like, uh, this next week, we’re going to Tahoe and I told the girls, I said, “I can’t wait to smell the pine needles.” It’s weird. It’s the number one sense of remembering. I’ve been there a couple of times and it’s just like, “I’m looking forward to the smell.” I can’t wait to see the stuff. I can’t wait to do the stuff, but I actually, it’s weird. Cause most people wouldn’t say this, but I’m weird. So I’ll say it, “I can’t wait to smell the smell.” When I get there and I smell it, I’ll be like, I know I’m there and I’ll remember this. Maybe better than the Aqua, you know, turquoise blue water. I’ll remember it better than, you know, the rock climbing and stuff like that but I’m also doing it with my family. I think something could be said about doing it by yourself though, your thoughts on the juxtaposition of sterility of our environment that we’ve created as a first world society, versus then we make all this money. So that way we can go to nature. I’ll tell you a good example on a tangent. I’ll make fun of working out at the workout place and I grab a cable and I’m pulling it from side to side. And, um, and I’ll see this guy that’s my age and I’ll say, “Don’t you find it funny that we work efficiently enough so we can buy a gym membership so that way we can go to a place and recreate same motion the, that,”

[00:15:05] Maggie: Yep. When you farm, that

[00:15:06] Chad: I would to be cutting a tree down because there’s no trees to cut down. So I’m doing this motion to

[00:15:12] Maggie: Well, even running on a treadmill.

[00:15:13] Chad: Yes, that’s right. You get what I’m saying? So you go with that.

[00:15:16] Maggie: I’m, I’m not like you. I, I, I am an introvert.

[00:15:21] Chad: What?

[00:15:21] Maggie: I love the darkness, I, I like being by myself. So when my family and I travels, my husband and my daughter, they’re concrete, jungle humans. They don’t feel that they need that. So when we travel, it’s usually me hiking by myself and I love that. I can’t get enough of that. There’s something very special about it. The juxtaposition I 100 percent get. This is one way that I can relate to it. You know how in Japanese food, if you’re going to switch eating one type of sushi on one roll, you’re going to put a little bit of ginger against your palate to clean your palate. I feel like that’s nature. I feel like going outside and seeing trees is a way for us to clean the palate of what happened today.

[00:15:56] Chad: Reset.

[00:15:57] Maggie: Yeah. You know, anticipating tomorrow. I know my doctor told me that there was some studies recently that were done that we used to think that blue light was so important in the way that we functioned and became awake. Recent studies have been done. That part of the reason why these are no depression comes around in the fall has to do with green and has to do with the fact that we are losing green. And the green light is actually extremely healing. And then if we see, I wish Reagan was here because she talked to us about the green specialist.

[00:16:24] Chad: Oh yeah. Oh yeah

[00:16:26] Maggie: If you look at the chakra system has to do with the heart and that’s where love is and so green is very renewing and when we think of nature, yes, there’s a lot of blue in the nature. You could see ocean, there’s a lot of brown, there’s a lot of green too and I think that is very rejuvenating, right? Who needs a rejuvederm mask from the dermatologist where perhaps you could just go outside and look at the trees?

[00:16:52] Chad: Sure. I dig. So I have a question, Scott and your daughter, do not feel that they need that rejuvenation. If you were the boss of them, would you disagree? Would you say, “Okay, guys, I know you don’t want to inherently, but I still think it would be good for you?”

[00:17:09] Maggie: This is a trick question for parenting. It’s a trick question for, for making a marriage work. It’s a, it’s a trick question for war versus battle. So there was a time we were in Tennessee for a week and, uh, I did make them go. on one track with, with me and that was a short one. It was like two hours and then I went seven hours by myself. Parenting is hard and sometimes winning those battles is hard, but I’ll tell you what I find encouragement in my daughter. So when she was little, she refused to get on the slide because there was a blade of grass on there and at that, at that point, I’m like, I think the, this kid was switched at birth. Like there’s no way this is my kid as she’s turned 14, all she wants to do now for the first time in her life is just be on her bike constantly and so she is driving between trees. Yeah. There’s some, you know, concrete jungle there, but we have a lot of parks and I have a lot of green around our house and she’s constantly on her bike and so maybe there was some, some sort of a subconscious way in her that all of a sudden she finds movement and the outside as healing as they are intended to be and one thing that we kind of touched on, but we left out was movement. That would have been an interesting thing to add depth because being sedentary, I suppose that doesn’t do anything for, for the length of your life either.

[00:18:26] Chad: The movement factor. For example, you know, stretching, they say even what being able to get up from the floor without using your hands is a very important task. You know, like if you can do that into your seventies or whatever, then when you fall, you’re able to fall instead of to hit your head, but you can almost collapse. fall and roll with it, as opposed to puncturing a rib into your lung or something from, you know, a bad fall or hitting your head and having a stroke, you know, those kinds of things, um, along the health line, uh, beat the heart attack gene, uh, you know, something that would be very wise for our listeners, the doctors to attend to is, you know, like, what is your risk factor, which is where Dr. Bruce gets his risks from, um, that idea in the dental world and applying that to our systemic health is, you know, our heart health will, and our blood work will show us signs of where we could improve and maximize for longevity and quality of longevity.

[00:19:30] Maggie: Um, I remember going to see a doctor when I was about 35 and he asked me, “Do you work out?” I never worked out a day in my life. And he says, “You don’t have to work out, but you’re going to be in pain,” and I was like, “Wait, what do you mean? I’m going to be in pain.” He’s like, “Well, you’re going to be in pain. Your joints are going to hurt and your muscles are going to hurt. You have to start working out. You have to start moving your body,” and that really put the fear of God in me and so I have been way more active post 35 than I have been before.

[00:19:55] Chad: So for like the last year, that’s awesome. So for women, it sounds like loading your joints with weight is the last thing that women want to do by and large again, broad bro structure, but women don’t want to do that and get bulky and stuff like that, but it’s, it’s what their joints need for osteoporosis reasons and everything like that. You know, so I think it’s a turnoff historically for women to consider lifting weights and doing weighted squats and stuff, but it’s like, no, your back needs that. It doesn’t have to be 400 pounds

[00:20:25] Maggie: In this industry, in this unforgiving industry, what it does to our muscles and to our backs and the migraines and everything else, the bulging Yep.

[00:20:33] Chad: So my physique problems is lately my left shoulder and even in my right fingertips, uh, started having pain down my forearm and whatnot and it makes you start to realize I’m 44. Can I do this another 20 years? I know in my head, I want to, but actually can my physical hand hold the handpiece without it having a sharp pain and so, you know, going to an occupational therapist, uh, to have that resolved and getting all the stuff done that, you know, in 2024, they know how to do and, and rehabilitating that. So that way I can, you know, if I have my bills paid and I want to be able to help people with affordable dentistry and what a shame if in my mind I can do it, but I can’t actually even physically do it. You know,

[00:21:18] Maggie: whenever I’m asked, when do you want to retire? The answer, cause I love dentistry. I really do. It’s a, it’s a high for me. The answer is always however long my body will allow me. That’s how long I’ll work. Well, I think this has been a great insight into at least asking yourself the question of the surface area of your life.

[00:21:37] Chad: So I would ask the listeners to pause before going to the next podcast and reflect what is important to you. We mentioned a few ideas and you do have to reflect on what’s important to you. My caveat is sometimes I feel like even self-reflection can go wrong if it turns into a narcissism of how do I surround everyone with maximizing me and myself as opposed to a theory within, you know, Christian concept and it probably other concepts, you know, spiritual concepts too. I’m sure it overlaps is how do you pour yourself out as an offering to others and to humanity and so you’re actually expending yourself. You are spending your body and little by little you will become nothing and whittle away and did you spend it on yourself and your fun and everything about you or did you invest it in other people? I think that’s my closing thought, Maggie. You?

[00:22:34] Maggie: I’m going to go along with that, and I think connection is something that is healing both parties involved. Connection doesn’t just benefit one person. That, that’s the beauty of it. Killing two birds with one stone, if you want to put it that way. Both of the people, or three of the people, or four of the people that are connected, are the ones that gain the benefit. The depth of life from that connection.

[00:22:56] Chad: Well, listeners, this has been Deep Thoughts by Maggie and Chad and it goes back to stoicism. We reflect often on that within our podcast. It’s worth you checking out because in essence, boil down, control what you can. Don’t fret about what you can’t control. The end. Until next week, enjoy the rest of your week, keep your chin up if you’re having extra difficulty because we’ve all been there and I feel that Maggie feels that better days ahead. Have a great week.

[00:23:24] Regan: Thank you for listening to another episode of Everyday Practices Podcast. Chad and I are here every week thanks to our community of listeners just like you and we’d love your help. It would mean the world if you can help spread the word by sharing this episode with a fellow dentist and leave us a review on iTunes or Spotify. Do you have an extraordinary story you’d like to share or feedback on how we can make this podcast even more awesome? Drop us an email at podcast@productivedentist.com and don’t forget to check out our other podcasts from Productive Dentist Academy at productivedentist.com/podcasts. See you next week.