Well, how did you do? Did you go to work on your own mentality and fight the good fight? Did you search the inside of yourself to see if you can find those ideas, thoughts, actions where you are working against yourself and sabotaging your own efforts?
I sure hope so. Because nothing is more valuable to Peak Performers than their own honest assessment of their thinking, attitude and behavior.
Let’s review quickly:
There were two key points over and above the ‘make room for growth’ mindset and shifting your paradigm about what’s possible.
This was made extremely evident – as it always is – in our Champions Event this week where a wonderful doctor said very poignantly to his team that the best thing we can get out of all of this is to remove some of the limiting beliefs we have had. “This begins with me,” he said.
Our beliefs limit us. In two ways…
The first way is because it keeps us from seeing greater possibilities. Literally, you can’t see them. You see only what you believe. You see only what you are looking for. You see only what you are used to.
The second way though is actually even more detrimental to you… it is one thing to not see things because you haven’t opened your mind and expanded your beliefs; it is an entirely different thing to become trapped into a cycle where you are stuck solving your problems with more of created the problems.
Human nature is to reinforce our own beliefs. Now, there is a much bigger psychological conversation for another time. It is also why I created our exclusive Wealth Groups… giving doctors the same principles and mindsets to confidently immerse themselves in an environment that reinforces all that is possible.
If you recall out two overarching concepts from last week.
First, run through the finish line. Every minute, every day, every patient… this is the time to run up the score. Not to mention, how you finish will provide you a mirror image to how you start January. Where your focus, effort, time, belief goes so goes everything else.
The second part though that I didn’t bring to the front and center is don’t delay because it’s nearly the year’s end – be more aggressive because it’s nearly year’s end.
Don’t even begin to think “in the new year” stuff. I am still pushing everyone to consider their “by January” not IN JANUARY. December 31st is a real deadline. This is your chance to maximize the rest of the year.
All of this will ensure you make the rest of the year the best finish to a calendar you’ve ever had.
From there the second phase of our “make room for growth” mentality (aside from shedding old preconceived ideas and removing limiting beliefs), is going to work on the tactics and structure to prepare your practice to evolve, expand, improve, grow next year.
You can’t start working on that in 2024. No one stretches and warms up after the race has begun. Be prepared and dialed in – before it starts.
My best teams are doing 2024 Vision Days, 12-month planning, goal setting and prioritization RIGHT NOW.
Certainly, between now and Christmas, you’d best be well in motion on 2024. In fact, my Wealth Groups’ theme for our “final” meeting of 2023 is our “first” meeting of 2024. It is our Year-End, Year-Beginning Experience. Because they are one in the same.
When one thing stops another starts; there is no pause or in between. Life is a continuum, just as your goals, your time, your health, your practice are as well.
Here’s how I encourage you to do this:
“1 Year From Today…”
What would you consider a victory? What does 2024 have to show for itself in your life? What is on your list of experiences, achievements, wealth building, practice, lifestyle, etc?
Another great thing to consider is your “less of, more of” list. Which is my favorite way to do New Year’s Resolutions. No matter how great your year was or how satisfied you are with your life, there are always chosen points of challenge or areas to re-imagine and evolve.
Once you have a vision list for the future then you can automatically say, by default, what must happen, change, be different, what must I do and/or who must I become in order to realize my objectives.
During my “Best Year Ever” Whiteboard Session coming up, I will unveil my Proprietary Formula to putting your life in total harmony and having your practice deliver it on your own terms.
Consider it about as paint-by-number as you can get; though uniquely customized for your own masterpiece.
With that in mind, let’s lay some groundwork for you to take this conversation inside of your practice.
One of my favorite quotes says if you want to avoid criticism, “Say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.” And the point of that is you can’t and shouldn’t attempt to please everybody or you will be reduced to nothing – certainly nothing of meaning or significance.
The most vital part of any practice success is their Clinical Identity or what I call Clinical Philosophy. Who are we, who are we for, what are we about, what do we do and then of course the why we do all of this.
Remember this: to achieve something you must remove everything else that takes away from it. Your time, focus, energy, mind space are all limited resources. If any get used up one place, it’s not available somewhere else.
To pursue one thing, it means you must not pursue another. This requires discipline and discernment.
The broader you try to be, the fewer people and less impact you will actually have. Be steadfast in your mission and never compromise.
If you want to be successful in the BUSINESS of Dentistry (and you wouldn’t be here reading this if you didn’t), then you must come to terms with the fact that business isn’t about pleasing all the people and it’s not about being liked by everyone (not your patients, not your team, and certainly not your peers).
Leaders LEAD going in the direction that they chose in pursuit of the mission they determined worthy. As you journey forward on this path you will find that you (as a leader, owner, doctor) must evolve and so must your practice as a business.
And that is what I mean by ‘making room for growth.’
Very few doctors or team members would say that they are “not busy.” All the time gets used up every single day even if you don’t have as many patients as you’d like.
If you want something to change – more money, more dentistry, less time, less effort, less stress – then something inside of your practice (and usually multiple things) must change, adjust, adapt, and evolve for growth.
So, ask yourself right now: what must change to allow for growth?
The answers, of course, vary on a multitude of things. That is because of all the variables that exist in one’s life and those variables are multiplied by a business and all the other people’s lives that are inside of it.
This is why I tell you all the time: if someone says they have a one-size-fits-all cookie-cutter answer to your problems, you gotta run the other way as fast as possible, cover your tracks, burn the bridge and lose ‘em because it just isn’t so.
Therefore, we have to look at each component within your practice and assess what needs to be improved, changed, done differently in order to accomplish and achieve the results you want.
Making room for growth IN your practice is as unique as is the diagnosis for each individual patient’s mouth (not to mention their goals, objectives and values).
Let’s take a surface level look at each of the components that do exist in every practice and talk about why and how they are so completely different…
No two schedules are the same.
No two patient experiences are the same.
No two treatment presentation methods are the same.
No two team leadership and communication structures are the same.
No two growth, profitability and future business development plans are the same.
And they shouldn’t be because they are based for and around YOU.
But some ask, “How can this be? Just give me the template, the shortcut, the easy button that makes everything work consistently.” As if your practice can operate like a McDonald’s where you plug it in and identical cheeseburgers pop out.
This ignores the reality that your business is dependent on ONE person to be the key producer of the majority of the revenue… YOU. Imagine if Ronald McDonald himself had to make every burger, it wouldn’t be so easy, would it.
This is ALL good news if it’s done right because there are very few businesses of ANY TYPE that can provide the autonomy, the fulfillment, and the complete lifestyle control where you can be a seven figure earner.
The problem is when you fall out of alignment with your purpose, you experience underwhelms, you have modest or gradual growth, you lose focus of the top priorities, your passion fades, or you are working too many hours being paid beneath what you know you are worth.
Truth is, you are making what your business is worth right now because if it were worth more you’d be making more. Assuming you are deserving of the goals you want, there is only one way to make them reality…
We must build a better business and make room for growth in your practice so that it becomes more valuable to you and to everyone it serves.
That’s where we’ll be focusing over the next several weeks culminating with my Practice Profit and Lifestyle Master Plan for 2024.
Right now do this…
Take that same crystal ball and begin with the end in mind mentality. Take that same ‘more of less of’ approach.
All the things I challenged you on for your own personal vision for the future and apply those to your practice. Then build a list of things to stop doing, things to level up on, things that put you in alignment with your answers to this.
Say “no” more than “yes.” Say “yes” to the most important and valuable things and then expand the time, energy, effort, investment, patients that fit into that yes.
In other words… make fewer exceptions, stop tolerating less than ideal, and build a business that matches your dreams not just settles for your reality.
Making room for growth is equally about what you nurture to grow as well as what you let go of. The thing that doesn’t grow so that something else can.
This is an abundance, demand, prosperous mentality. It should be the most worthy mission of every private practice, independent doctor… the creative journey of the entrepreneurial doctor is one of reinvention by keeping the core but becoming who you want to be.
Enjoy this. This is what it’s all about. Not just about relationships with others, about the relationship with yourself. Prepare for that one too above all others and you will be a rising tide for everyone and everything around you. Get excited about who you are becoming and looking forward to the future you are creating. More next week.
