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Welcome to Optometry Simplified.

In this weekly newsletter, I've curated the best resources to help you grow personally and professionally.

My mission is to find what's best for my patients and my practice.

Here's what I've found...

Links I Liked

"Unexpressed gratitude is perceived as ingratitude."

So says Andy Stanley in his recent 2-part podcast on the critical leadership habit of expressing gratitude. A good reminder that it takes more than a paycheck to show appreciation to our employees who bring their time, energy, and creativity to our organizations. Part 1 and Part 2 ​

BOOKS I'm Reading

I'm taking a break from research articles this week and diving into a few good books.

Here's my list:

• ​1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History by Andrew Ross Sorkin
• ​Against the Machine by Paul Kingsnorth
• ​The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack

What's on your list to read this week?

Please message me on LinkedIn and share what you are reading. I'd love to know!

Deep Thoughts

Are you truly grateful, or are you just using gratitude as another tool to get what you want?

Every November, my feeds fill with reminders to “practice gratitude.”

Influencers and gurus lean into it as a strategy for better mood, better productivity, better focus. And while those intentions are fine, something about the whole trend feels off.

So let me set aside my clinical and consulting hat this week and put on my philosophical hat for a bit of reflection.

We have begun treating gratitude the same way we treat everything else in American life: as a technique to optimize the self. That is the culture we live in. It is individualistic, technological, and deeply utilitarian.

We filter everything through a single question, “What will this do for me?”

Once gratitude is filtered through that lens, the irony is that it becomes a subtle form of ingratitude.

Because genuine gratitude is not about improving the self, it is about recognizing that we are receivers before we are achievers. It is outward-facing. It is humbling. It opens our eyes to what is already true, not what we hope to extract.

We also tend to limit gratitude to the good things that happen. But we rarely acknowledge the imperfect, the surprising, the disappointing, the experiences we would never choose but which often shape us the most.

True gratitude receives both the welcome and the unwelcome parts of life.

Gratitude in its truest form is not a hack. It is a posture. A way of seeing that refuses to treat life as a transaction.

And this includes our work.

When we only give thanks for the obvious wins, we miss the deeper shaping that comes from setbacks, slow seasons, staff challenges, insurance headaches, and leadership missteps.

None of these feel good in the moment, but they often lead to the greatest breakthroughs.

So as you move through this season, practice gratitude in a deeper sense.

Not as a strategy to extract benefits, but as a posture that receives all of life with humility, curiosity, and trust.

Practice Performance Partners Pick

Remote workers are exploding in popularity across optometry, but most practices don’t realize the HR, compliance, and liability risks they’re quietly taking on.

​This article breaks down the legal landmines that come with remote billing teams, virtual scribes, and outsourced admin support, and what every OD needs to know before hiring their next remote worker.

If you want to protect your practice before a costly mistake forces your hand, this is the one to read.

Can you do me a favor? If you found any of these resources helpful, share this newsletter with one of our colleagues!

See you next week!

--Kyle Klute, OD, FAAO

1515 S 152 Avenue Circle, Omaha, Nebraska 68144
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