Friday 14 January 2011

Goal setting - The habit of successful people



Many dentists, practice managers and team members for that matter, often report to me that there is too much to do and not enough time to do it.

From my perspective I do recognise that the vast majority of dental practice owners and their management team (if they have one) are in a state of chronic or acute overwhelm.

It could be the changes that are bestowed upon us like HTM-01-05, CQC or anything else from the multitude of legislation with which we have to comply. Added to this there is always the day to day crises we have to contend with, staff absences, equipment failures, patient demands etc, etc.

Consequently practice owners seldom have the time or energy to take a step back take a deep breath and consider what do I really want?

  • Your associate may have just left and you know you have lots of patients to be seen so you think you want an new associate, what does that really mean?
  • ·Your appointment book may be gappy, and you want it filled so you ask your receptionist to fill the while spaces, and is that really what you want?
  • ·Your finances may be sick and looking very bleak, so what do you really want?

In my last blog post we looked and why it is really important that you state your outcome in the positive.

For example instead of saying” I want to have cleared my debt” it is better to say, ”I want to be financially free.”

Today I want you to start to get very specific about how you will know you have achieved your outcome, and to use sensory specific language. This involves defining your goal using words that describe it in terms of sight, sound, touch and if appropriate taste and smell.

So I would like you to consider for a moment what is a problem or challenge that you have at the moment either at home or work?

If tonight a miracle occurred and tomorrow you problem /challenge had been solved in the most perfect way, how would you know?

· How will you know you have got your outcome?

  • What will you see when you have achieved it?
  • What will you hear when you have achieved it?
  • What will you feel when you have achieved it?

  • What will others see when you have achieved it?
  • What will others hear when you have achieved it?
  • What will others feel when you have achieved it?

Take some time over the next few days to consider the answers carefully.

A great way to hone the clarity is to imagine that you are Steven Spielberg directing a film, share your outcomes with someone else and if you haven’t given them enough details so that they could turn your goal into a film, you haven’t given them enough sensory specific detail.

In my next blog we will be looking at what you must do to not only start the journey to achieving your goal and what you must do to stay on track.

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