Most doctors walk into their office at the start of a new year expecting more of the same…the same patients, the same team, the same problems, the same schedule, the same procedures, the same profits.
They expect this because they do nothing to make it any different. Often feeling more like a slave to circumstance than a creator of their own destiny, at the mercy of their environment instead of exerting control over outcomes.
You being here automatically places you above the fray. You are different…you don’t accept the status quo. If you watched my 2024 New Year Kick-Off Video then you understand the only way to get MORE out of the next 12 months (and more importantly your life and practice as a whole) is to go all in on your goals, your philosophy, your principles, your decisions.
Last week, I laid out for you a strategic battle plan of decisions—specifically the most important decision—that you can make.
Today, I’m going to take you deep in the trenches of these decisions so that you can begin a dramatic acceleration and elevation of your success in 2024.
That’s the key, by the way, you must elevate your thinking, your leadership, your diagnosis, your time value – which all begins by elevating your attitude and your vision.
THINKING BIGGER doesn’t actually require that much “bigger” of anything else. It certainly doesn’t mean bigger space, bigger team, or bigger effort. Actually, it’s more likely working smarter, finding leverage, doing more with what you’ve got, and doing less of what doesn’t matter.
I had two challenges this year I placed on all my best doctors. I’ll get to those in a moment.
First, there are two points of emphasis early in 2024…
1. Tolerate Less
2. Expand More
Make that list, commit to those decisions, and embrace those actions that allow you to tolerate less of what you don’t want and expand more of what you do.
To tolerate less of anything that isn’t filling you up, anything that isn’t moving you towards your goals, anything that doesn’t align with your life philosophy. It’s a non-negotiable, there simply isn’t enough time, energy, or space for it in your life. You’ve got too many other meaningful things to do.
That means you eliminate clutter, distraction, negativity, low value tasks, toxic ideas, and time wasters.
Then you fill in the void that’s been created by expanding the positive, the profitable, the meaningful, and the productive.
It’s really quite simple: figure out the bottom 20% and eliminate it. Simply don’t tolerate it by leaving no space for it in your life.
Figure out the top 20% and focus on it, multiply it, increase it, and be obsessed about it.
And you’ll have the greatest transformational year of your life – period!
Let’s get to some specifics…
You can change, eliminate, get rid of, get more of whatever you decide to. These 4 simple categories of things that are inside of every practice are controllable with a little diligence and focus on them.
For every person, the ‘New Year’ (or life for that matter), either happens to you or you happen to it.
I always remember the saying: In the world there are only 3 kinds of people..
1. Those that make things happen
2. Those that talk about things that happen
3. and those that stand around saying ‘what happened?’
You get to decide which you are going to be.
What’s even better…and read this carefully because I’m about to give one of the single most valuable pieces of advice and tools to use to realize dramatic grow in your practice…
You can teach this principle to the people in your life (your team and your patients), to multiply the impact and influence you have.
Imagine, explaining to your team about what it looks like in their role when they choose to either make things happen, talk about things that happen, or watch things happen.
This is the difference between reactive and proactive. This is the difference between getting what comes and getting what you want. This is the difference between accidental success and deliberately controlled success.
For your team, they should know position by position what to do to ‘make things happen’ by responsibility, by action, by circumstance, by their daily engagement with patients.
It gets even better.
Imagine explaining to your patients about what it looks like to watch their mouth and health fall apart; to talk or complain about the way they look, feel, sleep, eat, chew, smile; or their opportunity to take control, make positive decisions, and they do something about their health, their mouth, their smile, their dentistry.
Often times we don’t take the lead to guide patients to a good decision and that means you are just standing around watching right along with your patients and team members.
At the end of the day, it is your responsibility to have a culture where you lead by example and where you settle for nothing less than a take-action attitude.
If the doctor loses focus on this intention or becomes complacent with this philosophy, then you can just about guarantee the team and patients will follow closely behind.
Here’s the good news…
It’s a New Year and it doesn’t have to be the same as the last one. Of course, you can keep the good stuff, but who doesn’t want to one-up your best and achieve even more than last year.
I’ve decided to kick the new year off in a very big way by doing this ‘make things happen’ thing for you by giving you a big advantage as you start 2024 off on the right foot.
Over the years I have learned to master practice growth not by increasing work, hours, or even patients.
Anyone can make more money by working more, doing more, seeing more. Did you really ever say, “In 2024, my New Year’s resolution is to work more hours.”
The most common request I get is, “How can I work less and make more?” Seems like a good idea. Any smart dentist would want that versus any and all of these other options.
There is a different and better way to accomplish working less and making more in 2024.
And the way to do it is by capturing the lost opportunity in patients, treatment, and money in your practice.
Without this you are having to fight the volume battle, even if you don’t realize it, because you are only getting, keeping, earning, profiting from a fraction of the potential that exists inside of your practice.
This has to change in 2024. At least if you want to keep your sanity while setting the pace to have the best year of your career.
During my first and very advanced training for 2024, I’m going to pull back the curtain and open my secret, mysterious box of strategies to show you exactly how I (without having my doctors change anything in the core of their practice or increase their overhead), explode their profitability and grow their production in a matter of a few months…all by capturing hidden and lost opportunity in their practice.
Stay tuned because any one of these lost opportunity practice growth triggers, once pulled, will give you immediate overnight gains and ensure that your 2024 is anything but more of the same.
Go back through this Weekly Report and take to heart, seriously assess, and do the activity I have outlined about the 3 kinds of people…for yourself, for your team, and certainly for your patients.
Next week, I’ll step back in and show you exactly how we are going to make things happen in 2024 bigger, better, and more profitable than ever before.
Oh, and those two challenges in case you didn’t catch the video (it’s worth multiple reviews to fully comprehend the big picture, complete life enhancement, and reverse engineering for your year)…
First, discover, get and do the uncomfortable. Where there is discomfort there are breakthroughs.
You’ve been holding back. Instead you must conquer in order to grow. But if you are waiting around for everything else to get better until you go all in, you’re leaving your life up to the whims of others and we all know how that goes.
Second, settle for nothing less than extraordinary in your life and practice. Of course, value is in the eye of the beholder so this warrants a philosophical deep dive discussion we’ll have in the coming weeks.
Simply put: go above and beyond in every way…with your spouse, your kids, your community, your neighbors, your team, your patients, your treatment planning, your fees, your service, your vision, your goals.
When you create your strategic vision from this Weekly Report, promise me you’ll hold nothing back. Then look at that list, feel it, and see it. It should excite you, make you proud, and give you a sense of power. But it should also make you incredibly uncomfortable and maybe even a little daunted, nervous, doubtful—that’s how you’ll know you are aiming for bigger, that’s how you’ll know you nailed it.
Challenge and change, growth and gain, progress and prosperity isn’t supposed to be easy. It will be uncomfortable but through that discomfort you’ll find your next breakthroughs and you’ll discover your potential. That, my friend, is worth it because you are worthy of the next evolution of yourself, your life, and your practice.
