Nobody likes uncertainty; no one likes to not be in control of what tomorrow will hold for them. And this is the number one reason why people become complacent and unwelcoming of change. But whether you like it or not, that is the only constant in your life. Life will remain uncertain because it is forever evolving; so the best way to deal with it is to evolve with it.
Living in the Digital Age has its perks, but it also means life has become a lot more fast paced, or at least so it seems. It looks like there is always newer technology being introduced to the world, new information pouring in from left, right and centre, and newer trends being introduced through your social media feeds.
Slow Down
But is everything really that fast paced? Or is it just that you have been made to believe that it is? Is your new phone really different from the one you had switched to only a few months back? It may have a sleeker look and a finer finger print sensor but does it really add value to your time or the quality of services that it provides? Probably not! Same is the case with most gadgets available which claim to take your business to higher levels! They may seem like necessary changes you need to make in order to stay relevant in your business, but those are generally just passing fads and great marketing gimmicks that make you believe that. So before you jump on the bandwagon and make big investments to embrace technological ‘changes’ be sure to ask yourself if those changes would add value to your patients or your business for that matter.
Your Lifestyle Vision
What is your lifestyle vision? Sure you want to earn more money, do better business, have a successful practice but for what? What is you why? What are your short term and long term goals? Before you can even be comfortable about change, you need to know what it is that you are heading towards and how it contributes to the big picture. Ideally, you should have a pretty clear vision of where you want to be two years ahead, and what current practices, habits and more importantly required changes would get you there? You will only be welcoming of change when you know where it will lead you.
Survive, Thrive and Succeed
As business owners, our ultimate goal is to succeed, and in order to do that, we make it our mantra to stay away from failure. And this sometimes results in disaster management and efforts to put out fires rather than work towards personal and professional development. What if you changed your approach towards it just for a second? What if you rather focused on surviving and not succeeding? Since your focus would be to move from one day to the next with your integrity and business intact, you’d be more conscious and cautious of the external factors and upcoming changes that can come in the way. This will take away the risk of failure by a large margin. This approach allows you to withstand a lot more uncertainty, risk and challenge, which inevitably leads to thriving and succeeding.
Road to Self-Mastery
Any control over change or any other external or internal factor affecting your personal or professional life begins with the art of mastering your own needs, desires and wants; to be able to determine a path that leads to the fulfilment of your goals and then to take the desired steps, and make the required changes to get there. The best way to get better control of yourself is to assess your time, your choices and your experiences in one category.
So you choose the way you are spending your time and the experience you are getting out of it. It is basically an equation. If you actually look at your time and look at your choices, you can see what kind of experiences you will be getting. All you have to do then is change the choices that you are making and change the amount of time that you are using for the choices that you are making and you will get a different experience. It is a simple equation that can do wonders to help you get where you want to be.
New Beginnings, Transition and Transformation
Generally, we use the terms change, new beginnings, transitions and transformations interchangeably- but they do not mean the same thing by a far margin. While a change can be something as simple as a new office chair, a new beginning is something a bit more complex.
While all these processes mean change, they are all at different levels. And each change is more difficult than the previous one, but equally rewarding and a stepping stone towards your ideas of happiness and success.
Do You Want to Change or Does the World Want You to Change?
So what IS your idea of happiness and success? Is the incorporation of new technology in your dental practice making you unhappy? Then there is no reason for you to opt for it! A digital workflow can be really helpful and an amazing opportunity to learn new techniques, but don’t adopt it only because that is the general idea of a successful dental practice. As long as you provide quality care, your patients will keep coming back to you! Define your own success, and only opt for changes that help you work towards it.
Change can mean whatever you want it to mean. There will be times when you’d have no other option but to accept the changes. The key is to get more in control of you, so as to be able to deal with all kinds of situations more objectively.
P.S. Whenever you’re ready …. here are 4 ways I can help you grow your dental practice:
- Grab a free chapter from my book “Retention – How to Plug the #1 Profit Leak in Your Dental Practice”
The book is the definitive guide to patient retention and how to use internal marketing to grow your practice – Click Here
2. Join the Savvy Dentist community and connect with dentists who are scaling their practice too
It’s our Facebook group where clever dentists learn to become commercially smart so that they have more patients, more profit and less stress. – Click Here
3. Attend a Practice Max Intensive live event
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4. Work with me and my team privately
If you’d like to work directly with me and my team to take your profit from 6 figures to 7 figures …. just send me a message with the word “Private”… tell me a little about your practice and what you would like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details! – Click here