I want to be profoundly clear about this… There is nothing more important to your sanity, productivity, efficiency and the whole “work smarter not harder” concept than to have your life and practice “balanced” in a way that WORKS FOR YOU.
If you take the “greats” in any industry, sport, or profession, you will find many commonalities and yet if you stacked them up against each other and looked at their daily routines, idiosyncrasies, physicality, means of preparation and managing their time, you would find distinct differences.
I can tell you in every case the more ‘abnormal’ a person is thinking, behavior, ideas and what they are willing to do to win – the more chance they have at winning and doing it consistently. This is because the NORM, by definition, is AVERAGE and that equals mediocre.
Every individual has strengths and personality traits that should not be suppressed but embraced. While there are always disciplines that are required to do well, there are other oddities of success that MOST will NEVER DO that are really the difference makers.
In several places I have shared key traits and skills that are common in every elite and ultra-successful doctor…
Work Ethic
Appreciation of Opportunities
Ownership of Responsibility
Gratitude of Team
Big Picture Vision
Belief
And there are clinical ones too…
Diagnostic Mastery
Procedural Efficiency
Patient Verbiage
But all of these do not make the magic happen OR allow you to be in balance with your life as a whole and your practice as a business without the actual mental and behavioral systems that support you to operate at your peak performance and ability.
The reality of most business people is that they are never where they are supposed to be – when they are at the office they are really wishing they were at home and when they are at home (or on vacation) they are really feeling guilty about not being at the office…
This is because they don’t have an effective OPERATING SYSTEM for their own BALANCE in their lives and practices in order to have harmony between the two.
And just like the Greats – Authors, Artists, Athletes, Educators, Doctors, Business Leaders and all significant people throughout our history – you must find your own approach to how you are going to MANAGE YOURSELF and YOUR OWN PERFORMANCE which is by far the hardest thing to do (even though it should be the easiest).
That is because there are principles for success and then there are the formulas for making success happen but they are only effective when built around and applied to the variables of the individual. Reality is quite different from theory, as you well know.
All the plays work perfectly on paper; it’s on the field that adds the complexity of success. It’s more about management of the situation and execution of your highest priorities regardless of the picture-perfect scenarios that have been outlined.
Still this type of preparation and planning is key in order for you to have the focus and confidence to pull it off and make worth the effort that will be required to not just play but win the life you desire to have.
That’s why last week’s Report and “Part 1” of the Balance without Compromise activity is so important because you don’t even know what it will take or how to achieve your goals without first defining THE WAY in which you want to work in the first place.
Now, I promised some tools to begin building your own approach to ‘balance’ and the modus operandi that you will follow in order to put structure in place and have some control over the variables in your life and your practice.
Here are 4 Simple “Systems” to make certain you have in your Success Arsenal for creating Balance in your Life and Practice without compromising on your goals, interests, financial objectives and overall desires. This will get you started.
Learning to Compartmentalize
You’ve heard it before I’m sure but are you doing it. This is about putting thoughts and effort into compartments so that they are organized and efficient when you are working on them, thinking about them, making decisions about them.
Obvious examples are when you are with your spouse you need to put your practice in a box or at least contain it to whatever degree you both agree to have it part of the conversation. When you are with your kids you shouldn’t be on your phone. When you are with your patients your mind should be in that space with that person.
This also goes for reading, writing, chart notes, treatment planning even though most of it is done in real time, if you were to work on something for a chunk of time it will always be more effective and productive than working on things in little tiny small fractions of time that you can’t ever really hit your stride.
Having Built-In Disciplined Check-In’s
This is for ALL THINGS: your time, your health, your focus, your practice profitability, your money, your investments, your team members, etc.
You know the saying ‘you have to inspect what you expect.’ And that goes for yourself. All too often Doctors just run full throttle every day go home eat hit the couch or bed and rinse and repeat tomorrow on into the weekend then back again the cycle starts all over.
That’s ZERO Balance. Because it’s not really owning a business or being an effective leader or anything else. It’s void of any operating system or structure.
This is why I focus so much on the huddle, end of day debrief, weekly check in and monthly training and progress meeting. Because it’s the only way to make sure it happens and to keep things in a positive motion.
Master Your Ability to Plan and “Play Out”
If you don’t plan it, schedule it, put it on the calendar it’s not going to happen. Still, it’s even more important than that. If you don’t have it on a list “to do” somewhere then you aren’t ever going to get to your greatest priorities. If you are working on only what happens versus initiating and being in control over what you want to happen you will be stuck in a rut maybe without even knowing it.
For the best and the most serious, planning isn’t enough, you must practice visualization and play out your schedule, your time, your actions – and no matter how much you love spontaneity if you want to look back on a weekend and actually feel refreshed, recharged, fulfilled and productive, it’s only going to happen if you looked ahead and thought through everything aspect of it.
Finally, and my favorite for now…
Reverse Engineering All of Your Priorities
This is about having laser focused leverage, maximizing every single opportunity and making the most of every day, patient, team member, investment, etc.
You should be incredibly familiar with my concept of Reverse Engineering which can be discovered in depth when it comes to your Lifestyle Practice Blueprint...
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Still, most doctors just don’t take it literal or far enough. This is about more than just reverse engineering your calendar, more than your dollars per day goal to get to your Magic Number, more than your clinical day and value based schedule.
Even your team and their responsibilities should be reverse engineered. Even your patient experience. So many doctors miss the patient experience because they say they want more of “x” type of dentistry but they are doing nothing to create, cultivate, nurture, educate that with their patient experience.
When it comes to overall balance, reverse engineering is what really brings it to life. It is what makes it go from theory to reality, from talking about it to living it out, from dreaming to achieving.
When you really understand that every goal, objective, priority, action and thought (everything that leads to and makes your “balance” possible), should originate from this.
You control your own destiny when you begin putting each of these (in ‘reverse’ order) into place. They are the four cornerstones of Balance without Compromise by putting you in control of every aspect of YOUR Life and Practice.
This is after all exactly what I do for my Doctors. And we do not accept settling for less than you deserve, we do not believe in compromise, we don’t allow anything to get in the way of your state of ideal.
Those Doctors who don’t believe they can have it all just give in to the excuse so they don’t feel so bad about not achieving their goals. For most it is easier to just lower expectations than it is to work up to potential. It all depends on what you really want… for yourself.
