ARE WE THERE YET? – DECEMBER 2021
This year, while very successful for all of our coaching clients, has still been a source of stress for many. Rebuilding teams, welcoming back patients, and acclimating to a “new” normal has made successes the product of greater emotional toll. Our vision for 2022 will be to help offices continue to grow while making processes more predictable and less stressful through improved adherence to systems.
We want to wish all of you, our clients and friends, and all of your families, a wonderful holiday season. We hope that 2022 will be a year of consistently good health, unprecedented success, great prosperity, limitless happiness and new opportunities.
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Howard Hill is considered the greatest archer of all time. He won 196 consecutive matches and he never lost in international competition. With that being said, I can boldly say that even with minimal training and practice, most of you could beat Howard Hill, on his very best day. The minor caveat here is that Howard Hill would need to be blindfolded and spun around a dozen times to destroy his sense of orientation. Many of you will laugh and say “That’s ridiculous! How can you hit a target you can’t see?” Exactly! Many of you are, day in and day out, trying to hit goals that you don’t have. You must have goals! Clearly constructed and defined goals!
For a goal to be effective it must effect change. Here are the steps in establishing goals for you and your practice:
1. Write your goals down.
2. Set a date.
3. Identify the obstacles.
4. Identify what you need to know.
5. Identify the people you need to work with
6. Establish a plan
7. Identify “What’s in it for me?”
Figuratively, set long range goals as far as you can see, and when you get there you will be able to see further. In 2007 when Peyton Manning won his first Super Bowl he was asked if it was the most thrilling achievement of his career. Without hesitating, he responded, “So far!” Do not let your accomplishments be limited by past achievement or by underestimating your capabilities. Use the steps outlined above and take aim on your target.
Frequently when we work with a doctor, the doctor will, within only a couple of months, ask, “Are we there yet?”. It is easy to understand the lack of patience in wanting to achieve one’s goals, but it is almost always the wrong question. It demonstrates a failure to recognize the process of change and not trusting the concept of a vision. Change doesn’t just happen. Change requires a dedication to the processes that create change. This means that introduced systems need to be understood and implemented. Skills need to be practiced and executed. Scripts need to be rehearsed, role-played and utilized. There needs to be consistency in repetition of the implementation and a degree of confidence that the repetition will create success in due time, if executed effectively. When this is understood, you should not need to ask if “you are there yet?”. The results become the automatic source of your answer.
As a passionate golfer, I am constantly pursuing the quest to improve my score. Each month I read the various golf magazines and I see that the ways that I can improve my score include hitting my drives in the fairway, hitting the greens in regulation and limiting myself to no more than 2 putts per hole. This is the formula for playing par golf. Executing it is an entirely different challenge, but asking if my game is better is unfair if I have not been coached on how to accomplish each of these building blocks for lowering my score.
Coaching is a process to implement skills and strategies to grow your practice, lower your stress, and profit from your efforts to a greater extent. Don’t lose sight of the process. Apply your attention to all of the lessons and their implementation. Recalculate your route as challenges arise. Appreciate incremental progress. Celebrate measurable improvements, and when you arrive, it will not happen by chance, but it will be because you never lost sight of your bull’s eye. You’ll know when you “have arrived”.
