In keeping our theme and starting first where it all begins, with yourself. I feel there is nothing more powerful than personal awareness on many fronts. Certainly, there are countless books written about this very thing and we could have a dedicated weekly article just discussing the psychology of people – you being one of them and the only one in which you control what you are aware of.
The most powerful book (even though it was not intended as psychological), is written as a more spiritual and personal development base is The Four Agreements. I have gifted this book to more people than any other book.
Today, I’m not going to write to you about a book you could read yourself but I will talk about the areas of awareness that I believe serve you best.
We have already laid the groundwork and discussed the significance of moving from a state of oblivious wanderer (not that you are) to conscious awareness with purpose and intention.
So what is there to be aware about…
First, we’ll take you as your own individual.
I believe you should be aware of your health in all aspects… mental, emotional, spiritual, physical.
You help patients every day be aware of their oral health and then, depending on your studies and clinical philosophies, you move that into systemic and overall health regarding the implications and correlations back and forth.
Well, this is no different than your awareness of your own health.
If you are not physically sound, you often aren’t rock solid in any of the other ways either. If you are not emotionally sound it’s hard to have the motivation to do much of anything proactively.
Only you can determine if you are taking care of yourself in these ways and being aware. I would add this goes to not just being aware but then doing something about it; that’s the point.
Next, we move to staying in balance with yourself.
That can be routine, reading, exercise, prayer, meditation, leisure or other activities. Obviously, you are a product of what you put in your body and your mind, we all know that.
Then awareness also has to be about your relationships.
This includes your work relationships with your team and patients. Of course, it also includes the ones that matter most: spouses, kids, parents, family and friends.
The reality is people have a hierarchy of relationships in their lives. It’s just a matter of whether they set it up on purpose or it just happens. In order to have healthy relationships they take time, effort, and attention; which begins first with the awareness of such.
If these aren’t prioritized properly you will soon find yourself out of balance. You want to make sure the people most deserving of you, by your own determination and life plan, are getting the most and best of you.
As a personal aside, I have long lived by the mantra that the fewer the people the better the relationships. Relationships are about quality over quantity because you only have one life with fleeting time. You can’t outsource or delegate or even find an app to manage REAL relationships without your direct involvement.
For a little backstory, this is exactly why we organized Dental Success Today the way we do – serving quality over quantity with a few not many, because of my principle that I want to have real relationships, know my doctors, my team knowing their teams and that we are actually making an impact on each others’ lives because we aren’t trying to serve the masses.
You get this with your patients also – the more you see in a day, the less that is achieved with each individual patient.
And then, as we move beyond relationships, we go to the next level of awareness, which is often not thought about enough.
Your environment.
…where you put yourself and what you let around you.
Just another shout out to how smart you are to be here in this practice. Give your doctor some credit because very few care enough about the actual personal development and well-being of their teams by creating a culture that is about more than dentistry but about people.
In your life though, you really must be consciously aware about what’s on TV, radio, internet, social media, and every place you frequent. I’m not saying don’t live, have fun, or enjoy things. I’m just saying be aware. Don’t hang out with people that lessen the value of your life and that take away from your balance.
And always be a person who makes others’ environments better. Be an enhancement to others just as you would want them to be for you.
Lastly, I would just point out that awareness over your own attitude, language, energy and overall demeanor is very important. We talk about that often, just know that all of these things (yourself, your relationships, your environment) will be a reflection of how you are treating yourself and others. The greatest awareness you can have is of how you take your feelings on the inside and express them on the outside.
This is what, in other people’s minds (not that we overly care what they think necessarily), exhibits how much you care about yourself by – how you treat other people.
Awareness, it’s just so deep. And for me it’s the difference from just going through life to you being alive. That’s extra special and a great gift you can give to yourself.
We’ll get back to “business” next week and talk about In-Office Awareness. We’ll see just how many revelations you have that can help you help yourself, your team and your patients succeed.
