Ambitious Dentist: Dr. Judy Greenlea-Taylor

Dr. Judy Greenlea-Taylor is currently practicing general dentistry in Union City, GA at her office Greenlea Dental Care, P.C. She is currently the President of the National Dental Association.

What makes you ambitious and sets you apart from being average?

The Ambitious Dentist, is a matter of semantics,  With so many synonymous overlays…energetic, determined, enterprising, motivated, committed, go-getter, financially and  professionally empowered,  and one of my favorites purposeful, if you were to ask me 25 years ago I  directed all of these toward my drive to be “successful” as a dentist and as a healthcare provider. But somewhere along the way very early in my career along with this “ambition” I picked up a much required traveling partner of it, “humility”. I framed in my own mind a definition of what success looked like to me and not how it was defined by the practice management courses I had taken or the accolades showered upon the classified “top” dentists in magazines or media. My “purposeful” ambition became not about how much money I could make, how many offices, staff members or patients I could see in a day or media bites, but how could I make a difference in the lives of others. In the words of an unknown author, “Work for a cause, not for applause. “ Live to express, not to impress. Don’t strive to make your presence noticed, just make your absence felt” In this humility I didn’t have to find success, it found me!  Define you purposeful ambition, remember you can’t please everyone and just be unapologetically you!

What is your favorite quote or motto?

Be content to be simply yourself, don’t compare or compete or let others define who you should be or what you should be doing but make your own definition of yourself, then you won’t have to complain or explain but just be unapologetically you! ~ Judy Greenlea Taylor

Any advice or biggest thing you learn about being in real world dentistry?

Seek close mentorship from one or two dentists that share similar “purposeful” missions as yours. Do not become a hybrid of several dentists that you meet, read about or are educated by but establish your own identity and then dedicate yourselves to developing into the most happy, successful, quality productive dentists and leaders in your community that you can become as defined by your terms.

What do you do to ensure a positive work life balance?

In the quest  to achieve work-life balance  “work” (career and ambition) and “lifestyle” (health, pleasure, leisure, family and spiritual well-being), I quickly realized along the way that sometimes over planning our lives,  timing events and interactions comes at the expense of  actually living our lives, which leads to regrets and missed opportunities. Time is the one thing you can’t get back, never get too busy making a living and never get too busy planning a life. The balance comes in loving what you do, doing what you love and not losing all spontaneity in doing it.

Where can dentist contact you for future questions?

Greenlea Dental Care, P.C., Judy Greenlea Taylor, DDS CEO, 6740 Shannon Pkwy Ste. 2, Union City, GA 30291, (o)770 306-2996 (c) 404 374-7898, www.Greenleadental.com