Last week, I laid down the gauntlet for you. I asked you to challenge yourself to identify what self-imposed plateaus and self-limiting beliefs you have about your own success.
I was overwhelmed by the response. Though not surprised. The obvious question is always: WHY, if you are sitting there so secretly frustrated (or maybe openly frustrated to those around you), you wouldn’t take action and do something about it.
If you did, good for you. You’re in good hands. It’s all going to be fine from now on. (Great song by the way “From Now On” from The Greatest Showman. Listen to it and apply it to your next big breakthrough of great significance. It’s right there in the song.)
If you didn’t, why not? What’s it going to take? Hopefully not something tragic. Though most Doctors have a wake up call to their hardened schedule of constant go-go-go with no balance when someone they know experiences a close call. That’s when they vow to get their lives, schedules, financials, houses in order and practice set-up for their own autonomy because no one single hour in the office on anything but your own terms is worth the sacrifice of an hour of your life.
And by the way, even if you feel like you have physical balance in your schedule and time off, that doesn’t mean you have any emotional and mental balance let alone financial… and there in lies the problem. It’s important to think deeply about this.
The point is last week was all about what is standing in your way of your next breakthrough in any area of your life or practice. Whether that is financial, stress, dentistry, health – any area – always there is the next plateau to break through.
Today, some answers. Like Jeopardy, you can figure out the question.
The formula for breakthroughs…
1st – Set bigger goals, challenge yourself, backed by something that is motivating you.
If you are just setting a random number because it feels good or it makes sense on paper. Forget it. You want a real goal that moves you and drives you to want to make it happen.
How do you come up with that? Well, you have to have reasons to make it possible.
It could be giving back to your team. It could be an end of the line year of retiring or at least being in position to not have to work but choosing to if you wish. It could be an elusive challenge goal just to say you did it. It could be because doing more dentistry on your own terms without insurance as the majority of your production will lead to a bigger number – it always does. It could be your bucket list (or your spouse’s bucket list). Or charities, giving back, mission trips, and so on and so forth.
If you don’t have enough reasons why to force you to take your goals seriously then they will have no meaning.
And when the going gets tough (and it will), you’ll make excuses and put your head between your legs and just be ‘okay’ with starting over next month, next quarter, next year.
2nd – You want to take your plateaus that you have decided upon and your stretch goals that motivate you and you want to turn them into action statements with the key leverage points that are going to lead to your ability to explode through what’s holding you back.
If you have a health goal… Maybe you need a personal trainer. An accountability partner. A vacation to be in shape by.
If you have a clinical goal… Maybe you need more training with your team so everyone can talk on the same level with the patient.
If you are having problems with case acceptance and no one is saying yes to your dentistry then maybe you have the wrong person talking money or you have the wrong experience to cultivate what you want. Maybe you are leaving the patient behind.
So whatever plateau you identify – you set a goal for it – and then align it with the most specific action and focus that will create a forced acceleration of momentum to get you past it.
This can be done with new patients, with specialties, with your team, with your personal life, with your finances.
3rd – Next you want to put in place structured accountability for yourself to check in and measure your results and progress at specific intervals.
Before you do this you must commit to preparing for success first. No matter what compartment of your life you are dealing with – preparation is key because it reinforces your commitment and sets you up for success.
Healthy eating… Prepare by throwing away all the bad foods and buying the good ones. Hell of a lot easier to get and stay healthy when you make it easier.
Working out… Buy new shoes. Works every time.
In your practice, you want to make sure everyone is on the same page and then you have to have daily check points.
When practices are striving for aggressive financial goals (a shame it’s not all of them), then I expect them to manage their money flow at least every half a day… diagnosis, case acceptance, cash put down.
You can’t wait until a day is over to find out if it was good or bad.
Monitoring the schedule for tomorrow all the way through next week or at least the next few days so you know where there might be opportunity to make something happen.
Success is no accident. It’s deliberate focus on specific things with committed action and a force so great that it can’t be stopped or even if slowed down. That’s what breakthroughs are all about.
This should have given you significant things to go to work on and think through. Coupled from last week to this week and these three points.
Now, we turn our focus to achieving a peak state within your practice both clinically and financially as we take leverage to a pinnacle of performance by going to the greatest determining factor of internal breakthroughs you can possibly have.
Get your homework done and get in motion, because it’s about to get real!
Next week, I’m going to be bringing you the end-all be-all single greatest asset and SHORTCUT to achieving giant and immediate financial impacts to your positive cash flow and profit every month in your practice.
This is a Weekly Report that should not be missed (none should, but miss next week and you’ll never know what could have been) because the key thing you need that makes all of your sacrifice, investment and grueling work in your practice WORTH MORE TO YOU is setting yourself up for attracting and creating more HIGH VALUE PATIENTS.
