Did you get started on my 12-day challenge? If you desire to finish 2020 strong and start off 2021 even stronger, then there wasn’t a more important Weekly Report than last week.
If you are serious about making the most of this year and turning 2020 into a positively pivotal year despite everything you’ve been dealt and overcame, you just have to be there. The next 12 months of your practice depend on what you do in the next 90 days…
Look, the uncertainty is not yet over and I suppose you could say it never will be. Even still, from pandemic to election to market volatility to protests to so many other things – you’ve got to hang on to, take action, and decide that you are going to control your own outcomes. There is still time to ensure your practice is set up for success but you can’t just get through the rest of 2020.
You still have 5 days until the end of September when the 90 Day Sprint kicks off. Right now, every ambitious doctor will rally their teams for a powerful fourth quarter blitz (which must include more than just maximizing insurance benefits of your patients that have delayed their health or even their appointments). I know you are thinking far bigger than that because your expectations set the tone for your achievements.
These are the most crucial days of the year and they simply cannot be wasted. Take a minute and think about what resources and opportunities you have left to maximize yet this year.
What reactivation hasn’t been done?
What treatment plans haven’t been followed-up on?
What patients have yet to come back?
Where have you been lacking in referral efforts?
Where are new patients getting stuck on their pathways to health?
Where is the focus of each and every team member right now?
For most doctors, this next quarter will be a difference maker and (potentially) a huge profit creator.
At this point, with or without government loans and gimmies, you are working for you for the rest of this year… overhead is covered, baselines are met, the next 90 days are for all the marbles.
It will decide whether 2020 is a breakeven year or a year of great prosperity. The only real determinant is how you approach these next 3 months. Do you take precise steps to extract as much income as possible out of your practice or do you coast through the final laps?
What I’m talking about here is making sure your practice is responsible to you. Think about it… when the dust settles and the calendar turns, aside from survival, what will you actually have to show for the past 12 months of your life?
Just a couple weeks ago, in my Private Doctor Memo, I gave the top 7 questions to consider and contemplate so that they weren’t waiting until December 31st to be doing their year-end soul searching and instead began their reassessment over the direction of their practice and its role in their life now while there is still time to make a difference before January.
Here’s the short list that of deciding factors…
What re-open adjustments did you make that aren’t necessary anymore?
Where have you been cutting corners on your patient experience that need to be expanded and enhanced (whether in timing or diagnostically or otherwise)?
Are there any places where your team has fallen back into old habits?
Is there any place in your life or practice where a decision is being made out of desperation, lack of confidence, or clouded clarity that you need to reconsider?
These are deep questions.
They piggyback on our 3 things to culminate your third quarter and ensure you go into October with a laser focus and uncluttered mind fully committed to maximizing the opportunities that you have available to you right now.
All of this is summed up perfectly in a famous quote (which I shared with our elite doctors at our in person Retreat and Mastermind Experience this month), by James Bymes…
“Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem more afraid of life than death.”
That’s why this month, in this final Weekly Report of September, I say to you:
What have you delayed, put off, forgotten, or neglected because of the state of things? With all you’ve experienced this year, have you been too focused on security and playing it safe, instead of playing to win?
The initial reaction is understandable. Residing in a survival mode during a crisis is human nature. Still, how long until you shed the fear to find the fight within?
Will you quietly meander through the end of this year or will you choose to live it out on your terms and take control over your own fate for 2020?
Here’s the thing: it doesn’t matter how this year started – it only matters how it finishes. There is still time to not only seek out but create opportunity to truly make the most of this year.
Your attitude and commitment, your decisions and actions, your expectations and vision will determine how you finish this final 90 day sprint.
