One of the greatest breakthroughs on your path to achieving success is when you come to the realization that your current results are entirely tied to your practice structure, the decisions you’ve made in the past and the actions you are taking (or not taking).
They say with success there are no accidents and really with results there are no coincidences. There may be things that happen to you that you didn’t have control over but the concept of cause and effect is 100% real; but it doesn’t mean it’s fair.
So once in a while, nearing the end of one of my Blueprint Days with a new Doctor, he or she will ask in so many words, “From your experience what do doctors do to sabotage themselves and how can I NOT do those things?”
It’s a great question because that is exactly what it is: self sabotage. Getting yourself out of your own way to let things happen and achieve your potential is one of the most foundational principles you must master. It is a daily fight and it’s one you have to win.
This is because you are getting what you are getting by doing what you are doing and being who you are as a leader, owner, and doctor.
If we want to change the result on the right (output) side of the equation, we have to change something on the left (formula) side first.
You can’t just wish it, think it, dream it into reality. There must be change and that begins at the very least with your decisions and your attitude about success and what’s possible.
That right there is probably one of the biggest challenges I face daily…
Doctors’ Attitudes
Attitude about team
Attitude about patients
Attitude about money
Attitude about what’s possible
Attitude about work in general
I could go on and on and on.
If by now, as smart, successful, educated and experienced as you are, you don’t understand and realize that…
A. You control your own attitude; no one else does. If you think they do, you are letting them control you and you’ve given them permission in your mind which is often just an excuse to displace responsibility and place blame on someone else.
B. Your attitude is the cause, not the effect on so many things including and especially patients’ attitudes towards dentistry and teams’ attitudes to work.
… then, you gotta have some problems.
This is the truth that leads to a breakthrough in success.
You would be amazed (or maybe not), at how some doctors spend all their time trying to find ways to make something NOT WORK, even when they are even asking for advice. They stay stuck, yet they know others are more successful than they are and still they question everything.
They won’t succeed because they have already made up their minds to fail. All because of their attitudes.
For some, it’s always because of something else. They never realize that they are in their own way and can’t get out of their own head to see what is really possible. Quite frankly, it’s actually NOT very difficult once you understand that the effort to achieve greater results is actually NOT more effort. Instead, it’s just smarter application as you replace certain habits, systems, approaches, sometimes people and especially thinking with ones that are elevated to the level of success you want to have.
You see, I’m known for “making room for growth” and my approach to exactly that isn’t more chairs, more patients, more team members, more hours, more days, more doctors and certainly not more effort. It can include any of those, but most Doctors I know prefer making more while working less. That means doing more meaningful dentistry and having more to show for it at the end. They prefer life less complicated.
My point is this – MAKING ROOM FOR GROWTH is about clearing out things that aren’t working or are working BENEATH the level of success you desire and replacing these variables and components with things that match what you want.
I call this concept “reverse engineering” and it leads us to discovering the exact ways we need to make room for growth.
In every practice there are places we can uncover lost opportunity and missing treatment, patients and money without causing you more stress (actually reducing it) and without more work (actually reducing it). All because we elevate the level of performance of each component and person in the practice.
But, before any of that can be done, we first have to make room for growth in your mind, in your belief of what’s possible. That absolutely begins by you taking back control over your attitude.
This doesn’t have to mean you are a grumpy or pessimistic person – attitude is a very personal thing. We all know our own and often choose to deflect, ignore or displace instead of owning it and using it to our advantage.
We can grow your practice the hard way. It will feel like banging your head into the wall as we only go to work on what’s inside the practice. The real magic that makes everything else possible is going to work first on what’s inside the doctor.
And to the right Doctors (the most ambitious, the smartest, the already successful or those with a whole lot more potential still to realize), you will accept this message. You will think deeply about it and really assess yourself.
It doesn’t matter how big your practice is in physical size or what your current production is, the next biggest breakthrough to growth and profit in your practice is going to come by expanding your vision and making room for growth inside your mind first. All changes and possibility begins there… with you.
When you welcome that adventure you’ll be amazed at what you discover.
Now you’re ready to move on to making room for growth on the other “inside” next week.
