There is nothing more important than the feeling of fulfillment in your life and practice because that is what drives everything else. As you will see unfold over the next several weeks, as we talk about having the Ideal Lifestyle Practice, there are specific pillars and components that make it possible.
Today, we talk first and foremost about you. This fulfillment is not just about the dentistry, the life changing benefits you provide to patients and the satisfaction of your work. Of course, that is all part of it. That part we’ll deal with next week and it is significant but in order to achieve even that – it begins first with you.
Think about your career, ponder, reflect… deeply.
What’s your reason for choosing dentistry or how did dentistry chose you. Every Doctor has a story and all that matters is that it’s yours. When it all started, what did you envision your life as, your schedule as, your wealth as, your retirement as?
All of these things change overtime. The more you progress, achieve, experience and wisdom you gain, the more you see things differently in an evolved sort of way. At least that’s what should happen.
Next, even more important than thinking back to the beginning, is to really think from the end.
When it’s all said and done (whether you are done by force or by choice, whether its sooner or later), what do you want to look back on and have as your pride, your memory, your legacy, your trophy? What do you want to have to show for it.
Finally, even more important than the end of your career, we are going to talk about THE DURING. This is the DASH, between two dates (often birth and death), where life is truly lived. For us, it’s in between now and the end of your career (since we can’t go back in time, we can only move forward).
Ask yourself this powerful and necessary question: How do you define fulfillment?
What do you want the dash to be like for you, your family, your health, your wealth, your passions, your interests and your ambitions? Because this is all you’ve got.
What lies ahead will only be done in one of two ways…
On Purpose – or – by Accident.
You can flip a coin or you can decide. What does fulfillment look like, feel like, earn like, vacation like, recharge like, aspire like, give like.
I have to say (and there are Doctors who will be offended by this), whenever someone tells me they don’t care about having a lot of vacations, I immediately think what a shame. Because life isn’t just about you. Did you ever ask the others around you? Often times, when you aren’t working, is the only time you are totally and complete present with your family.
You have to have vacations. Now they can be long weekends or weeks at a time; staying at home or going somewhere. Memories can be made anywhere at anytime doing anything. But they don’t happen unless they are allowed to, that means facilitated and scheduled. This is just one example.
You have to give yourself permission to be fulfilled.
Doctors show up to see me with little on their bucket lists. I don’t care what you call the list but there has to be something bigger than going into the office everyday that you want to be, do, have, accomplish, acquire, experience, conquer, enjoy.
You won’t find anyone who is truly successful AND fulfilled who lacks for imagination, desires or interests whether they are directed inward or outward.
What I want you to do is to play patient and ask yourself “what do you want?”
Fulfillment is one of those things that will forever be elusive. It’s only a matter of how much you will savor, feel enriched and invigorated by your journey. What you made of the Dash along the way.
You may not be able to go back or even want to change anything about the beginning of your career until today. You may feel completely satisfied, or you may not.
What you do have control over is what happens next, where do you go from here, what do you want and what all will you put between now and the end.
That answer drives the parameters, decisions, principles, even the actual business economic formula we would use to create and fully design your Lifestyle Practice.
Anything decided, acted on, done before you solidify this is all just for the sake of it, with no meaning, no direction, no real purpose and inevitably no real lasting intrinsic fulfillment will be felt.
You deserve more and a much different experience and feeling than that.
Let this, Part 1, the first pillar of your manifesto be the compass for all the others.
