Here we are again. It comes around once a year. The beginning of a new one. The biggest question of them all is: What Will YOU Do With Yours?!
I wish we would celebrate yesterday so today could be all about hitting the ground running into the New Year and making the most of it on DAY 1.
Know this… reflection time is over, the past year is history, the future is ahead of you and it’s time to set new goals and have a plan to achieve them.
When you wake up one year from today, the difference between feeling great and regretting the past 12 months is whether you accomplished your goals or fell short. If you want certainty of a New Year celebration, it only requires two things…
Daily Focus.
Structured Discipline.
It requires both words in combination for each of these success pillars.
Focus in general is not enough. It must be consistent.
Discipline is not enough. It must be complementary actions.
I believe setting yourself (and your team and your patients) up for success stems from controlled, intentional actions on a daily, patient by patient basis.
The most powerful thing you can do right now, starting off your year (in addition to the reverse engineering your goals which your Doctors know how to do if they are paying attention to me at all and if you read my new book The Dental Success Secret), is ask each other what do you need to do every day to ensure your success in helping your patients get healthy, in achieving your goals.
I gave you the general concept of Offense and Defense recently. We will talk more about Defense next week in terms of actual treatment acceptance, time management, scheduling and of course the most important topic of Retention.
However, we must go deeper than just these dental tactics and decide and commit to personal behaviors.
Your success is about more than your performance in the practice. In fact, your ability to be an effective team member goes way beyond just showing up on time, seeing the patients, even being an attentive team member and taking care of your responsibilities.
It begins with a positive attitude every day. It has to do with your mental organization which is only possible with real organization in your life. It has to do with your decision to keep your life in order and not let your team members down.
The teams that are most successful are the ones that really care about each other; not just about the patients. These teams see and feel the goals as their own, because they are. I often joke, although not really, that if you wanted to do the business the right way – at the end of the month everyone would be paid based on the percentage of the goal they achieved. If you fall short you get less, if you win big you get more.
It’s not just about “showing up” it’s about achieving something while you’re there.
This year, I challenge you, not only for practice but for YOURSELF, to DO MORE than just SHOW UP.
You deserve better. You deserve it all. At least to the degree of your daily focus and willingness to have structured discipline all to further your own ambitious objectives. Whatever those are, I know this, at the end of this year you will look back and be better for what you made happen, how much you contributed to others and for how you were always becoming a better you.
Today is simple. It’s easy to START your year, and as we saw last month, it’s easy to FINISH your year – those things happen regardless of anything you are going to do…
The big challenge is what happens in between the start and the finish.
That is your challenge. Live into the future. Commit to daily habits and behaviors that will lead you to success. Set yourself up to win and help each other be your best.
Let’s Make It A Happy New Year!
